It’s not about how you do it sometimes.
The Vancouver Canucks absolutely stole a result from the Boston Bruins last night, managing to get a 2-0 win off the back of an incredible performance by Kevin Lankinen. By nearly all metrics the Canucks deserved to lose in this one. There was genuinely no redeeming quality to this contest besides the effort from the man between the pipes. That’s crazy to think about, and perhaps speaks more to Boston’s ineptitude than Vancouver trying to eke one out.
Here’s the win, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Game Flow

It is genuinely funny how one-sided this game was on the stat sheet. There was not a single period where the Bruins finished below 67.00 CF% and at their worst, their xGF% stood at 73.74 in the third period. The game flow heavily favoured Boston as a result, and it’s almost comical to see how both trendlines never even came close to dipping into Vancouver’s favour. And yet, somehow with all of this, the Bruins still couldn’t manage to convert.

Heat Map

It shouldn’t be a surprise to know that the Bruins heavily out-chanced the Canucks. At 5v5, the total chances stood at 27-8 for Boston, with a hefty 13-1 lead in high-danger chances. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, given just how much of the puck that the Bruins had throughout the night, managing to rack up chance after chance without converting. That much is a decent sign for the Canucks’ defence, who bent but didn’t break. It should also come as no surprise that the Canucks only managed to generate a 0.36 xGF throughout the entire contest, which is likely going to be a season-low from this point on.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: This isn’t going to be the most dazzling number ever, but considering the team’s averages, it could be worse. Quinn Hughes finished with a 45.16 CF% to lead the Canucks in this one, posting a 26.79 CF% rel to team average. The defenceman also recorded the second-best xGF of 0.19 but only managed a total of 20.99 xGF%, showing just how much of the tide that he had to fend off through the night. At least Hughes was only on ice for 2 high-danger chances against.
Corsi Chump: Alright, this is going to look bad, it but it also makes sense given the deployment. Elias Pettersson finished with a team-worst 14.81 CF%, but that was coming up against Boston throwing everything to stop the only high-end talent that the Canucks had to sport on the front end. Pettersson spent the majority of the night against noted two-way centerman Elias Lindholm, with Boston deploying their defacto first line against him to shut down Vancouver’s offence. It worked to an extent – Pettersson only managed a team-worst 5.52 xGF% while being on ice for a 1-10 scoring chance deficit, of which 4 high-danger chances came against. Again, considering the overall context of this matchup, and all the numbers become more than reasonable.
xGF: Not much to pick from here as well. Arshdeep Bains finished with the best xGF% of 37.63 by the proxy of not being on ice for that much, meaning that his xGA was a team-low 0.05. Coming with an 0.03 xGF, and that meant compared to the rest of the team, the Bruins didn’t trample over him during the limited deployment Bains got. As for raw xGF, Pius Suter led the way with a… 0.2. Yeah, it wasn’t exactly a great day offensively for Vancouver.
GSAx: Thank you Kevin Lankinen. This was an all-time performance from the Finn to help secure the Vancouver win as the Bruins fired off a total of 3.44 xGF on the night. Blanking them meant that Lankinen finished with a 3.44 GSAx, more than stealing the game for the Canucks considering that they only managed to get 2 goals of run support for him to work with. Standing out amongst all of this is Lankinen stopping all 12 of Boston’s high-danger shots, denying them of all their high-quality looks.

Statistical Musings

Where the DPS didn’t fire: Looking up and down at the stats in this one, one thing sticks out – Vancouver’s first line was stifled in this one during 5v5 play. Again, knowing that the Bruins threw everything that they had to stop this line, it makes sense, but the numbers were not kind to them. As a line, Jake DeBrusk-Elias Pettersson-Kiefer Sherwood finished with a team-low 18.18 CF%, 0.03 xGF, 0.53 xGA, and 4.63 xGF% to go with being on ice for a team-worst 9 scoring chances against. It wasn’t kind to them at all, but it was part of the game plan that the Bruins had, and they executed it well.
A test in the top 4: Erik Brännström has been found money for the Canucks on the back end. However, with the elevated deployment that he saw against the Bruins, it was clear that the team was trying to stress-test to see if he could play up in the lineup. Brännström finished with the worst CF% (14.81) amongst defencemen, on ice for 4 high-danger chances against while having to scramble around in his own end for a while. But, by the same token, despite giving up the worst CF% on the back end, Brännström recorded the third-best xGF% amongst defencemen, including some very well timed blocks to save goals. All that, with the lowest ice time among defencemen.

As a team

CF% – 30.10% HDCF% – 10.00% xGF% – 18.46%
There’s honestly not a lot to talk about in this one besides Kevin Lankinen. The Canucks were hanging on by the skin of their teeth, saved by the Bruins complete incompetence to bury on the many chances that they had last night. Defensively, there’s some things to like, how they were able to bend under the pressure but didn’t break. But, offensively, it was pretty much a black hole, and with just how the numbers panned out in this one – the Canucks shouldn’t be trying to win games like this very frequently.
Vancouver is right back in action tonight, heading into Pittsburgh to face off against the floundering Penguins.
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