Stuck around and made things interesting, at least.

The Vancouver Canucks fell 3-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday night, going up against one of the best teams in the Pacific Division and coming up just short. It wasn’t the prettiest of games statistically, with the Canucks showing the skill and talent gap between the two sides. However, the team managed to go toe-to-toe for as long as they could, making it a close game in the end.

Here’s the loss, by the numbers.

As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Vegas never really lost control of this game. Sure, the Canucks struck first in the first period, but even that went against the flow of the game. Vancouver only broke 50.00 CF% in the third, and their xGF% share never went above 45% in a single period. This was as the Golden Knights were pouring on the chances, capitalizing mostly in that second period on the momentum that they were generating. Score effects saw the Canucks surge a little in the third, a bounce away from tying it, but make no mistake, the better team statistically won this contest.

The heat map is also a reflection of the Golden Knights dictating the pace of the game. Overall scoring chances were 22-10 for the visitors, with a 12-2 lead in high-danger chances. That’s clear from the fact that Vegas had a large, deep hot spot in the crease/low-slot area, while the Canucks didn’t have much going on there. The bulk of the HDCF came in the second, where Vegas had a 7-0 lead in that category at 5v5 play. Some solace can be taken in that the Canucks split a 1-1 high-danger chance battle in the third.

Corsi Champ: Max Sasson continues a strong start to his 2026-27 season, leading the team last night with a 60.00 CF%. One of 5 players to have broken the 50.00 CF% mark, things were relatively low-event for him, which is never a bad thing considering that Sasson saw the majority of his deployment away from the offensive zone. His 49.67 xGF% might not sound great at first glance, but considering that it was still a 34.72 xGF% relative to team average and the 4th-best tally on the team, things could’ve been a lot worse.

Corsi Chump: Liam Öhgren brought up the rear of the Corsi department, getting shelled to the tune of 14.29 CF% last night. Most of his action came against Mitch Marner’s line, but even then, the rest of the numbers weren’t all that pretty. Vancouver was outshot 2-10 during his TOI, with Öhgren recording the third-worst xGF% of 4.43 to boot. That’s right, with him on the ice, Vegas was clipping in at 95.57 xGF%. Scoring chances stood at a 1-10 hole, with a 0-6 deficit in high-danger chances as the cherry on top. Not a great statistical night for Öhgren or his linemates.

xGF: Jonathan Lekkerimäki continues to make a case for himself as a full-time NHLer in a critical year for his development. Leading the Canucks with a 71.31 xGF%, the young Swede tallied a goal off of a 5-4 scoring chance lead and a 1-1 high-danger chance split. Lekkerimäki’s xGF% was a staggering 58.71% relative to the team average, and he did a lot with his limited minutes, with a 0.41 raw xGF that was the second-best tally on the team. The only person to record a better xGF was Tom Willander, who marginally edged out Lekkerimäki at 0.46 xGF.

GSAx: This was a mighty fine bounce-back performance from Kevin Lankinen after being shelled against the Oilers. The Finn was a big reason why the Canucks were able to hang around for as long as they did, facing down 4.53 xGF and turning away all but three goals for a 1.53 GSAx. Lankinen gave up no low-danger goals, with two high-danger goals and one middle-danger goal getting past him. It was very needed between the pipes for the Canucks, especially with how much pressure Vegas was applying to them all night.

Tom Willander’s night: One of the more interesting things to emerge from the game was Tom Willander’s deployment against the Golden Knights. The defenceman saw a fairly even split between pairing up with Jamie Oleksiak and Zeev Buium, finishing the night with the most TOI of any skater at 5v5 play (despite being out for a bit after taking an elbow to the head). The numbers between the two pairings were pretty starkly different. With Oleksiak, Willander did not see a single offensive zone start both off faceoffs or on-the-fly changes, resulting in some heavily skewed numbers.

Their CF% stood at 9.09 with a 3.24 xGF% together, giving up 3 high-danger chances with a 1.11 xGA. However, they didn’t give up a goal, while the Buium-Willander pairing did, despite better numbers. That pairing saw all of their zone and faceoff starts in the offensive zone, producing 63.64 CF%, 46.04 xGF%, and actually managing a 4-2 lead in scoring chances with a 1-1 high-danger chance split. It’s definitely something to keep an eye on to see where Willander plays and how he is deployed going forward.

The Canucks were statistically outmatched for most of the night, but they still kept it close on the scoreboard. That is a testament to the fight that they showed in the second half of a back-to-back, and being a single bounce away from sending this game to overtime is a credit to their performance. There are definitely things that didn’t go so well, but such is the case for a rebuilding team. At the very least, it’s not a bad hockey game to watch, and they’re laying the foundation for a new culture and group to build on.

Vancouver gets a bit of a break before heading on the road, taking on the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.