Hard to watch #Canucks games these days without thinking about the long-term direction of this team and how far away they really are from competing again when they’re getting crushed by teams like Montreal, and to a lesser extent Ottawa, who properly rebuilt.
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The Statsies: Kevin Lankinen saves almost two goals above expected in Canucks loss to Senators
Photo credit: © Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images
By Michael Liu
Jan 14, 2026, 11:30 ESTUpdated: Jan 14, 2026, 11:32 EST
Given how this game started, it could’ve been a lot worse.
The Vancouver Canucks dropped a 2-1 decision to the Ottawa Senators last night. They didn’t do horribly overall, and it was certainly a better performance than the outing against Montreal. However, it also showed the gap between the Canucks and the Sens, yet another team that sucked for a good while and managed to accumulate talent, and somewhat build around them. Is Ottawa a model example of a rebuild? Absolutely not. But they’re further along than the Canucks, and it was clear to see last night.
Here’s the loss, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.
Game Flow
The first period started out pretty heavily in favour of the Sens, with Ottawa scoring twice in quick succession after a stretch of good play. However, that seemed to be the wakeup call the Canucks needed, as they picked up the pace in a big way. By the end of the period, Vancouver held a 1.2 xGF for a 58.14 xGF%, looking like they would make a good push through the rest of the game to get themselves back into it.
Unfortunately, that momentum fizzled out after the first intermission. Vancouver never recorded an xGF% above 47.00 for the rest of the game, actually giving up a 33.47 xGF% in the middle frame and unable to move the needle back into their favour. Sure, they struck once in the third period, but there weren’t too many moments where the Canucks were truly threatening to even this contest up.
Heat Map
The heat map was a little better than last time out. Ottawa had a 33-24 lead in scoring chances and a 15-12 high-danger chance edge, evidenced and illustrated by their bigger hot spot in the low slot area. At the same time though, the Canucks had a similar density of chances, even if theirs was a little smaller. Putting up more raw numbers is always nice as well, especially in light of the Canucks struggling to create chances in the first place.
Individual Advanced Stats
Corsi Champ: Tyler Myers led all Canucks in CF% last night, racking up 68.42 while pairing up with Zeev Buium. While Myers was on ice for a goal against, he still managed to record Vancouver’s third-best raw xGF of 1.1, holding a 14-6 scoring chance lead and 6-3 high-danger chance edge. That’s not a bad contribution at all, and a better performance than the last couple of outings that he had put forth. Myers should be relied upon as a sturdier veteran presence for the younger defencemen to lean on, and thankfully, he provided that against the Sens.
Corsi Chump: Talk about two different performances. After posting a team-best xGF% against the Habs, Victor Mancini got buried against the Senators. His 27.27 CF% was a team-low, which went along with the team’s second-worst xGF% of 19.17. There wasn’t a whole lot of redeeming qualities in Mancini’s performance as he was sitting on ice for a 2-14 deficit in scoring chances and 1-4 high-danger chance hole. Granted, at least it was only 4 high-danger chances that he was on ice for against.
xGF: Linus Karlsson continues to cook in his breakout season for the Canucks. Leading the team with a 69.44 xGF%, the Swede was once again reunited with Elias Pettersson and helped combine for the only goal of the game that the Canucks managed to produce. Karlsson managed to be on ice for a 0.92 xGF, good enough for 5th-best on the team behind Marcus Pettersson’s 1.33 xGF.
Pettersson and Karlsson have some decent chemistry together. Keep them together for the time being, as Boeser and EP40 don't mesh well. Karlsson can be the net-front finisher Petey needs. #Canucks
Karlsson intercepts the pass, Pettersson finishes it off! That’s Pettersson’s 5th goal in 9 games and his 23rd point in 16 career games vs. Ottawa! #Canucks ✔️ 1+ Goal (+185) 19+ | 🎥: @TSN_Sports
GSAx: Kevin Lankinen played his heart out for the Canucks last night. While the two quick goals did damage, the Finn more than made up for it by facing down a 3.91 xGF for a 1.91 GSAx. The two goals were middle and low danger chances respectively, which doesn’t look the best, but even with that considered, Lankinen still turned away all 12 high-danger chances that he faced. It was certainly impressive, and probably is his best performance in a good while between the pipes. At the very least, Lankinen gave the Canucks a shot at winning this game.
Kevin Lankinen gets juuuuuuuuuusst enough of the puck to stop it from crossing the line! 😳
Statistical Musings
First line putting up first line numbers: It is a surprise that this line was ever split up, in all honesty. Jake DeBrusk – Elias Pettersson – Linus Karlsson continue to rack up impressive numbers, leading all Canuck forward lines with a 56.62 CF%, 0.63 xGF, and 75.17 xGF%. Their 0.21 xGA was also the lowest amongst all forward lines with more than 1:28 TOI together, showing that they weren’t just a one-dimensional unit. This line also doubled up on overall scoring chances compared to their next closest competitors, recording 8 scoring chances total.
EP40 and Karlsson continue to have chemistry.. nice pressure from DeBrusk makes it happen.. weird time for Pettersson to ramp things up but 5 goals in 9 games is something
Buium-Myers: The numbers behind this pairing are worth a look. Together, Zeev Buium and Tyler Myers tacked on 73.33 CF%, 1.01 xGF, and 63.88 xGF% against the Sens, playing pretty extensively against the top 9 of the opposition. They also held an 11-5 lead in scoring chances and 6-2 high-danger chance edge, which is pretty darn nice to see. Especially for Buium, who has looked like the losing was getting to him already.
As a team
CF% – 42.31% HDCF% – 40.63% xGF% – 45.62%
The Canucks definitely didn’t play to win this game. It’s pretty clear that they aren’t actively trying to tank, but this team is just simply not good. The losses are piling up, and remain a clearer and clearer indictment on the state of the group, and just how extensive the changes need to be in order for this Canucks team to be actually competitive. At the very least, they didn’t get completely blown out of the water after the two goals, and it was relatively better than the outing in Montreal.
Vancouver closes out their road trip tomorrow, taking on the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com
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