There’s getting goalied, and then whatever that was last night.
The Vancouver Canucks topped the Minnesota Wild 3-1 last night at home, in what could only be described as a truly Wild affair. Minnesota was all over Vancouver in every sense and regard, dominating the game in every measurable statistical category. And yet, it was the Canucks who prevailed, thanks to the sheer brilliance by Kevin Lankinen between the pipes to hold the Wild at bay. Seriously — the numbers are not good, but a win is a win, right?
Here’s the win, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Game Flow

The game flow paints a pretty accurate picture of how last night went. Vancouver posted a 44.74 CF% in both the first and second periods, while their xGF% of 35.49 jumped to 48.23 between the two frames. However, come the third period, the Wild really pushed their weight around and left the Canucks almost entirely on the back foot. Both goals were wildly against the flow of play as Vancouver was reeling, recording a 21.43 CF% and 11.50 xGF%. In total, their xGF in the third stood at 0.19 – compare that to Minnesota, who tallied 1.5 xGF in the final frame alone to try and even this game up.

Heat Map

Going along with the game flow, the heat map does not paint a complimentary picture for the Canucks either. While the Wild’s 27-18 scoring chance lead at 5v5 doesn’t sound awful right off the bat, consider that the high-danger chances were at 16-4 in favour of the visitors. Yes, that’s right, Minnesota managed to create four times the amount of high-danger chances than Vancouver, nearly equaling the Canucks’ entire scoring chance output at 5v5 play. Again, it’s characteristic of the Canucks team and shows just how much they rely on some brilliant goaltending to carry them to victories – because seriously, there is no way that this sustainable, nor a good way to be getting wins.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Pius Suter was tossed out primarily against the Matt Boldy line, but somehow resulted in him posting the team’s best CF% last night with a 55.00. While Suter’s 26.01 xGF% doesn’t look good on paper, consider that number was merely -5.67 xGF% rel to team average, a byproduct of just how badly the Canucks were outplayed in that statistical category. The most impressive part about the numbers from last night was that Suter was only on ice for one high-danger chance against.
Corsi Chump: Elias Pettersson the forward finds himself trailing the team in CF%, tacking on 26.47 while splitting his offensive zone shift and faceoff starts evenly at 50%. Now granted, he’s playing top 6 minutes, meaning that Pettersson was thrown out against a Wild team that was definitely outplaying the Canucks overall. The Swede finished with a 30.05 xGF%, just barely below team average, while posting the team’s 4th-best xGF of 0.52. It was that kind of night for everyone, but at the very least, we got to see Pettersson one-time a goal home on the powerplay. How long has it been since he did that?
xGF: These ones aren’t going to be looking very pretty. The man to lead the way in xGF% was Conor Garland’s 50.36, splitting evenly at 0.39 in both xGF and xGA. That genuinely was as good as it got, with Garland not even being on ice for a single high-danger chance against, 3 high-danger chances coming against the Canucks during that same span. Raw xGF saw Filip Hronek lead the team with a 1.07, but also recording a 2-10 differential in high-danger chances to finish with a team-worst 1.79 xGA. It was just how the numbers shaped up last night.
GSAx: My goodness Kevin Lankinen. The Finn was on another level last night to help the Canucks secure the win, because there was nothing in front of him that suggested the team earned this victory. Facing down a massive 4.13 xGF across all situations, Lankinen only gave up a single middle-danger goal against to finish with a 3.13 GSAx. Guess what – he saved more expected goals than the Canucks scored as run support for him last night. There’s no telling how badly Vancouver would’ve gotten buried had Lankinen not turned in this kind of performance.

Statistical Musings

Giving up possession for offence: Getting back a little to Pettersson last night, he once again found himself between Dakota Joshua and Conor Garland for the game. While their CF% of 38.89 was not the most impressive, sitting at second-last amongst all forward lines, they were the only forward line to crack 50.00 xGF%. In fact, Joshua-Pettersson-Garland were sitting at 70.77 xGF%, recording a team-best 0.16 despite giving up 3 high-danger chances against. While the DOC-Chytil-Lekkerimaki unit were producing the best xGF of 0.42, the Joshua-Pettersson-Garland line came in a close second at 0.38 xGF with better defensive numbers.
Interesting numbers: Victor Mancini probably has gone under the radar for many Canuck fans in the lineup, but his numbers alongside Derek Forbort are interesting. While their CF% of 21.74 and xGF% of 25.42 don’t leap off the page, surprisingly the duo were on ice for a 2-3 high-danger chance split. If you’re keeping track, that means that Forbort-Mancini were on ice for half of the high-danger chances that the Canucks got all night. While that obviously didn’t translate to anything tangible, it seems at odds with how their numbers were running all of last night.
Why the Canucks were okay with giving up Carson Soucy: The trade that sent Soucy to the New York Rangers was partly due to the fact that Elias Pettersson the defenceman played so darn well in his time with the big club. Last night, partnering Filip Hronek, the young Swede defenceman was clipping comfortably as the Canucks’ second-best defenceman by the numbers, with an xGF of 0.80 as the second-best player on the entire roster. For a rookie, it’s really good stuff, and it seems that he could be a really solid part of this back line for the future.

As a team

CF% – 40.63% HDCF% – 29.17% xGF% – 39.90%
The Canucks had Lankinen’s performance to thank for this win. They didn’t manage to figure out how to respond to the Wild turning it up a notch, which is REALLY concerning if one considers that they realistically could be an opponent if Vancouver somehow claws into the first round of the playoffs. This team still needs to figure out how to generate chances consistently and win games in a sustainable manner. But, a win is a win, and there were definite bright spots to take away from a game where they got shelled.
Vancouver hosts Tom Gaglardi’s Dallas Stars and their new shiny Mikko Rantanen tomorrow.
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