That was both way too exciting for its own good and way too disappointing.

The Vancouver Canucks blew a 3-0 lead and 5-3 lead en route to a 7-6 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. However, the Canucks also didn’t play well enough to get themselves into those leads in the first place. Columbus handily had a statistical advantage all night, and thanks to some poor goaltending by Kevin Lankinen, converted plenty of opportunities into goals. And, for the Canucks, who couldn’t manage to figure out how to defend a lead, it cost them a very valuable point.

Here’s the loss, by the numbers.

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

The game started off in exciting fashion for the Canucks. Three quick markers while the flow was back and forth between the two teams allowed them to leap right into the lead. However, after that, they let Columbus take over the game to the tune of 62.07 CF% and 76.31 xGF%, with the Blue Jackets racking up five high-danger chances and 1.04 xGF at 5v5 play. It was that momentum the Blue Jackets carried into the second period, knotting the game up before the Canucks found a short-handed tally. The third was similar to the first – Columbs might’ve only had 40.00 CF%, but they managed to tally 65.50 xGF% on 1.16 xGF in the frame. Suffice it to say, it was hard to find a point in the game where the Canucks had absolute control statistically.

Things don’t get much better when looking at the heat map. The Blue Jackets were all over the shop, holding a big 13-4 HDCF edge on just a 20-18 overall scoring chance lead at 5v5 play. Essentially, Columbus was able to get a big chunk of their scoring chances from high-danger areas, with the Canucks unable to prevent that or respond in kind. That led to the graphic displayed above, with a big hot spot right in the slot area for the Blue Jackets, while the Canucks really didn’t amount to anything.

Corsi Champ: Dakota Joshua led all Canucks with a 63.64 CF%, on a line with Kiefer Sherwood and Aatu Räty to make a pretty big contribution to Vancouver’s offensive production all night. The power forward picked up two assists while primarily playing against Zach Werenski on the back end and Columbus’ middle six, which really isn’t bad opposition at all. Joshua’s CF% stood at 22.39 CF% rel above team average, with the only other Canuck to crack 20% being Quinn Hughes.

Corsi Chump: Marcus Pettersson got shelled last night. His 19.35 CF% was a team-low by a -38.39 CF% rel to team average. Hard-matched against the likes of Sean Monahan, Kirill Marchenko, and Dmitri Voronkov, Pettersson was on ice for a 4-16 shot differential, 1-10 scoring chance hole, and 0-6 high-danger chance deficit. That left him with a paltry 4.40 xGF% to his name, with a measly 0.07 xGF and team-worst 1.52 xGA. Now, those aren’t pretty numbers at all, but the tangible results saw Pettersson not on ice for a single 5v5 goal against – and in a game where the Canucks had six scored against them, that’s pretty decent.

xGF: Joshua found himself leading the Canucks in xGF% last night as well, tallying a 74.09 xGF% off of a team-best 0.12 xGA. He was on ice for a 6-1 scoring chance differential, with the only main knock being that only one of those six chances came from a high-danger area. Besides that, he was the only Canuck to finish with a positive split in high-danger chances against. Raw xGF saw none other than Quinn Hughes leading the way, tallying 1.09 last night against Columbus.

GSAx: Vancouver scored plenty against Columbus. The run support shouldn’t be questioned even if the stats weren’t the kindest to the Canucks. What should be questioned was Lankinen between the pipes, who faced down 3.35 xGF and gave up a -2.65 GSAx. Now, the Blue Jackets had plenty of high-danger chances, sure, but only three of the six goals against were from high-danger chances. One goal was from a middle-danger shot, and two were from low-danger. Lankinen wasn’t up to par last night, which was reflected in the GSAx. And fine, the team defence in front of him could’ve been better, but at the same time, you’ve got to do better when your own team scores six to try and outscore their issues.

Derek Forbort’s lowkey solid game: Something that might go under the radar was Derek Forbort continuing to play some good hockey. His CF% of 60.87 ranked him as the second-best Canuck last night, while also managing to post the second-best xGF% of 63.03. Again, given his role and what’s been expected of him, these are really solid metrics, ones that you love to see coming from a third-pairing defenceman. He managed to split evenly at 1-1 HDCF with the Blue Jackets, which is more than the rest of the team could say.

Räty on a mission: Since being called up, Aatu Räty has been dynamite. Yes, it’s a two-game sample size, but centring Kiefer Sherwood and Dakota Joshua, playing higher up in the lineup thanks to injuries, isn’t an easy feat for any young forward. Räty did well for himself too, the trio managing to be the only Canuck forward line above 50.00 CF% while also posting good two-way numbers. The Finn managed to pot two massive goals while also not seeing a single shift or faceoff start in the offensive zone. Talk about being thrown into the deep end.

Where Jake DeBrusk just needs to be better: Yes, he found the scoresheet, but Jake DeBrusk’s 5v5 numbers were uninspiring at best. Specifically, the focus should be on his second-worst xGF% of 17.55, posting the third-worst xGF of 0.23 and facing the second-worst xGA of 1.08. DeBrusk was on ice for six HDCA at 5v5 play while not managing to post a single HDCF. You just expect better from a winger in the Canucks’ top six, especially playing key minutes at 5v5.

The Canucks didn’t play well enough overall to win this game. From blowing leads to never really finding their footing, the stats show that Vancouver was probably a little fortunate to be getting into the positions that they were in. And that’s fine, they scored all the same – the problem was locking things down to ensure that they could get away with the breaks that they got. Unfortunately, the Canucks never locked things down, and combined with Columbus pushing and poor goaltending from Lankinen, the team blew a pretty costly point in this shootout loss.

Vancouver closes out their road trip tomorrow, taking on the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday at noon.