And they’re on the board!
The Vancouver Canucks took a 3-2 overtime win against the Florida Panthers in a game that saw wild swings. At times, the visitors were just hanging on, and at other moments, they were throwing their weight around at will. It was definitely a better game than the previous couple of matchups, though the sloppiness will need to be cleaned up as time goes on. Still – the first win is in the books, and now, the Canucks will be looking to build off of this result.
Here’s the win, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Game Flow

The first period was the two teams feeling each other out. Though Florida had a 60.61 CF% edge, the xGF% tilt stood at 50.73-49.27 in favour of the Panthers, despite having a 3-0 advantage in high-danger chances. That was reflected in a 1-1 tie, as deserved from both sides of the contest. However, the second period was all Florida – the Panthers went on the hunt and racked up a full 2.27 xGF in the frame, good enough for a 71.98 xGF% share. Vancouver was fortunate not to give up more than one goal in that period, and unlike against the Bolts, they took advantage of that fact in the third. The Canucks turned the flow of the game around in their favour with a 70.69 xGF% share to close out regulation. That momentum carried into the overtime period, allowing them to finish the game off in the extra frame.

Heat Map

This wasn’t a game full of high-danger chances. In total across all situations, Florida had a narrow 24-23 scoring chance lead, while Vancouver had an 11-8 high-danger chance advantage. It’s some of the lowest totals for the Canucks thus far into the season, but it could be a positive as well. Giving up only 8 high-danger chances is pretty darn good, and to limit the defending Stanley Cup champions to just that? Not bad business at all. The Canucks were able to make the margins count just that bit more against the Panthers as the defensive effort they turned in this game was a little better than in the last three games previous.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Again, Quinn Hughes is on a mission this season to follow up his Norris Trophy. He finds himself as the team’s leading Corsi man with a 60.38 CF% on the night, the Canucks doubling up on the Panthers in shots (18-9) while he was on the ice at even strength. He was and continues to be built different this season, and hopefully the rest of the team can step up to support their captain before he’s forced into too much milage this early on into the season.
Corsi Chump: On the other side of the defensive spectrum, Carson Soucy finished with the worst Corsi on the Canucks’ roster with a 23.53 CF%. The results weren’t pretty across the board, as he also gave up the most xGA on the team with a 1.52 to post the worst xGF% as well (13.98). The Panthers out-chanced the Canucks 10-3 while Soucy was on the ice, with 4 of those chances being high-danger. That’s half of their total high-danger chances coming against one defenceman. Granted, a big reason for that was Soucy being matched up heavily against Florida’s top line, but perhaps that isn’t a role he should be playing, given how a larger sample size could see these chances being converted into goals.
xGF: It should also be no surprise that Hughes finds himself leading the Canucks in xGF and xGF%. The captain racked up 1.56 xGF and 60.02 xGF% to lead Vancouver in both categories, providing an 8-3 high-danger chance advantage at 5v5 alone. That’s over two-thirds the total number of high-danger chances that the Canucks were able to generate last night across all situations – and that alone should show the kind of impact that Hughes has been having on this team to start off the year.
GSAx: This performance is definitely shifting the conversation between the pipes in Kevin Lankinen’s favour. A big part of the reason why the Canucks were able to ride out the massive second-period push by the Panthers was because of their Finnish netminder. With Florida finishing the game with a 3.30 xGF, Lankinen would post a 1.30 GSAx, with the only two goals getting past him coming from a middle and low danger chance against. That also meant that he shut the door on the 6 high-danger shots that he faced. An excellent performance, which probably is lending more support for the net being Lankinen’s until he loses it.

Statistical Musings

Erik Brannstrom’s debut: With the Canucks looking for a bit of a jolt on the back end, Erik Brannstrom was flown across the continent to make his Vancouver debut after lighting it up with Abbotsford. In his first game in a Canucks uniform and without a morning skate, the results were alright. He wasn’t on ice for a goal against and looked capable of moving the puck, which is as advertised for Brannstrom. However, the advanced stats were not a fan of his game, having him with the second-worst xGA on the roster behind Soucy (1.12) despite only playing 11:49 against primarily the Panther’s bottom 6. To see Brannstrom as high up on the ice for this partial break was not the best testament to his defensive game.
A wrecking ball night: Okay, not an advanced stat, but a 10-hit night from Kiefer Sherwood should not be overlooked. Yes, that’s 10 hits attributed to him individually to go along with a primary assist on the night. The line of Sherwood-Blueger-DeBrusk ended up posting the best CF% amongst all Canuck forward lines at even strength, and with the physicality that they were showing, it was no wonder that they were able to get the puck as often as they did last night against the Panthers.
Åman’s place in the lineup: Realistically, what does Nils Åman bring to this Canucks team that someone like Daniel Sprong doesn’t? The latter winger at least has some offensive pop for all of his defensive issues, while the Swede just seems to be a placeholder. Åman only had 9:25 TOI across all situations last night, a team-low, along with posting the second-worst CF% and xGF% shares on the team at even strength. The fourth line with him, Danton Heinen, and Pius Suter was by far the Canucks’ worst forward unit by every metric.
Maybe the sparkplugs that Pettersson needs: This might just be a personal opinion, but deploying Elias Pettersson between Nils Höglander and Conor Garland is a great decision. Having two energy players who are on their game to start the year might be what Pettersson needs to start shooting the puck more, especially when they’re making the plays that they are on the wings. The trio generated the second-most amount of xGF on the night amongst forward units, though defensively they were a little suspect with a 0.73 xGA coming the other way, the second-worst on the team. It’ll remain to be seen if they can combine into something more permanent, but this line is at least worth another look to try and get Pettersson going.

As a team

CF% – 47.86% HDCF% – 57.89% xGF% – 42.37%
The Canucks looked better. They’ve been experimenting with the personnel that they have to try and iron things out, especially with a slower start. It makes sense, given how much turnover there really has been in the team compared to just the playoffs. While the growing pains are still there, they’re cleaning it up, and a win surely will go a long way in helping steady the ship.
Vancouver heads into the city of brotherly love tomorrow for an away rematch with the Philadelphia Flyers.
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