Talk about gutting one out.

The Vancouver Canucks beat the Florida Panthers by a 5-2 scoreline at home. Honestly, they played a better game than the numbers would indicate. In this one, they got the result despite poor advanced stats – and that’s perfectly fine, because it’s not like the Panthers are a terrible team (even if they’re likely to miss the playoffs this year). Getting a win has been hard enough to begin with, so this is something worth celebrating.

Here’s the win, by the numbers.

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

From the game flow, it was clear to see that the majority of the game’s numbers favoured the Panthers. There wasn’t a single period where the Canucks had an advantage when it came to their CF% or xGF% share, finishing below 40.00% in both metrics in each and every period. The biggest factor that fueled the Canucks to a win in this one was the fact that they struck twice on the power play in the first period, getting a two-goal lead early that they managed to turtle over and protect. Otherwise, they probably weren’t the best team at 5v5 action in this contest.

Just from the heat map, it was apparent that Vancouver was heavily outchanced. The Panthers had a 22-17 shot advantage at 5v5, held a 31-17 lead in overall scoring chances and a massive 18-10 edge in high-danger chances. Nine of those 18 came in the first period, which fortunately the Canucks managed to stave off for the most part. The teams were actually on even footing in the second in HDCF, standing at a 3-3 battle, before the Panthers edged the Canucks out 6-4 in the final frame. Still, despite all of these statistical advantages, Florida only managed to strike twice, while the Canucks held out and converted on the couple of chances they got to get the win.

Corsi Champ: Marco Rossi led all Canuck skaters with a 52.63 CF%, continuing a strong run of form lately alongside Liam Öhgren and Brock Boeser. The trio has played a big part in the last three games they have been together (we’ll get to that in a moment), and have backed up their statistical advantages with points on the scoreboard. Rossi found the back of the net and assisted on two goals last night, a very well-earned three-point outing.

Corsi Chump: Aatu Räty might’ve found the back of the net in this game, but the numbers were not on his side whatsoever. Coming in with a team-low 24.00 CF% against middle-six opposition, the Finn had the third-lowest xGF of 0.22, the team’s fourth-worst xGA at 1.87, the second-worst xGF% at 10.68, all the while being on ice for a 4-16 hole in scoring chances and 1-10 deficit in high-danger chances. Suffice it to say, he, along with Nils Höglander and Evander Kane, was the Canucks’ worst forward line by far – but hey, they didn’t give up a goal against, which is a miracle in and of itself.

xGF: Rossi found himself leading the Canucks in xGF% as well, tacking on a 59.96 with a solid 6-6 scoring chance split and 4-3 high-danger chance lead. Considering how tilted both categories were in favour of the Panthers, these numbers aren’t bad at all, and show a pretty darn effective effort at 5v5 action. Leading the way in raw xGF was Drew O’Connor of all players, who managed to also find the back of the net after posting a 0.95 xGF. Talk about an all-around effort from Vancouver’s forward corps.

GSAx: Kevin Lankinen balled out between the pipes last night. The Panthers rained down a barrage of chances against him, and facing down a 4.32 xGF, the Finnish netminder only let two high-danger chances get past him for a 2.32 GSAx. That was probably a huge factor in the Canucks getting this 5-2 victory, with Lankinen definitely spurring this team onwards by stymying the opposition. Without him, the pressure cooker would’ve been on all that much more as Florida wasn’t going down without a fight.

Vintage Petey: One of the biggest things to come out of the game last night was Elias Pettersson finally breaking his goal drought, and looking a little more like the 102-point centre that he was just a few seasons ago. Centring a line with O’Connor and Jake DeBrusk, the trio recorded the highest xGF of any Canuck forward line at 0.63. Petey struck twice on the power play himself, ripping shots like the good old days from that right side. Hopefully, there’s a lot more of that in store as he looks to bounce back to the player that he can be.

BRO line: The numbers have certainly been eye-catching for this unit, as the Öhgren-Rossi-Boeser line continues to lead the charge offensively for the Canucks as of late. The seven combined points that this trio had came off of team-highs in CF% (46.67) and xGF% (54.15), the latter of which made them the only forward line the Canucks had that broke even in xGF% at 5v5 action. It’s certainly nothing to sniff at, especially for a team that’s been so starved of offensive production for the entire season.

Overall, did the Canucks deserve to win this game? The numbers suggest that they probably didn’t. But that’s alright, as they managed to convert the chances that they got, battling hard to see this win to the end. Even if the Florida Panthers aren’t quite as fearsome as they have been for the last little while, they’re still a battle-tested team with plenty of experience – and to claw one out against them is definitely something to be applauded.

Vancouver continues to host a Florida swing, as the Tampa Bay Lightning roll into town on Thursday.