Nothing like an overtime loss to kick off the road trip.
The Vancouver Canucks dropped a 5-4 decision in overtime to the Montreal Canadiens to kick off their eastern road trip. It was a pretty exciting affair with plenty of goals, but one that highlighted issues within this squad. The attention to detail wasn’t the best here and once more, saw the Canucks blow a third-period lead. The Habs aren’t a terrible team anymore, but Vancouver should be taking advantage of the opportunities they get.
Here’s the loss, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Game Flow

Despite Caufield’s opening goal, the Canucks didn’t come out of the first period too worse for wear. Yes, they only posted a 33.33 CF%, but for the first road period, the Canucks were able to get a decent 48.85 xGF% share in the frame. Vancouver was able to carry that momentum into the second period, jumping out to a 3-1 lead. And then… they kind of just stopped playing. For the rest of the game, they would not finish a period above 42 xGF% and 41 CF%. This was as the Habs were pushing hard, equalizing and finding a third-period lead before the Canucks were able to even it up on a powerplay. Simply put, Montreal was controlling the game a lot more than Vancouver did.

Heat Map

How many times have we seen this story? The Canucks didn’t get enough chances, and not enough chances were good enough. Overall, Montreal out-chanced the Canucks 23-13 at 5v5, with the Habs also having an 8-6 high-danger chance edge. Given how little high-danger action there was, it made sense to see the hot spots being as faint as they are, with the Habs having just that little bit thicker of a patch. Things don’t get better when accounting for all situations, as the Canadiens would finish with an overall 33-18 lead in scoring chances and a 12-6 high-danger chance advantage. On special teams, Vancouver didn’t get a single high-danger chance.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Nils Höglander might remember this game for taking the penalty that eventually led to the Montreal overtime winner, but overall the Swede was pretty darn engaged positively. Leading the team with a 68.75 CF%, Höglander would post a respectable 64.03 xGF% while playing on thee fourth line with Max Sasson and Danton Heinen. None of them would be on ice for a high-danger chance for or against, but they weren’t bleeding momentum and ate up their bottom 6 matchups.
Corsi Chump: This one might sound a little odd. Jake DeBrusk finished the game as the team’s worst Corsi man with a 9.09 CF%. That was enough to give the winger a -37.68 CF% rel to team average which was definitely not a good figure at all. DeBrusk would also post a team-worst 14.08 xGF% while being on ice for a 1-11 hole in scoring chances. Only 4 of them were considered high-danger, but also consider that was half of the high-danger chances that Montreal managed to generate at 5v5. DeBrusk was iced with Pius Suter and Conor Garland last night, which should’ve been a decent line. Unfortunately, the numbers weren’t on their side.
xGF: It’s always nice to see Jonathan Lekkerimäki in the lineup, and against the Habs, the young Swede was able to put up a team-high 79.18 xGF%, a huge 53.80 xGF% rel to team average. His raw 0.79 xGF was the second-best tally on the team, while the 0.21 xGA Lekkerimäki faced also happened to be the second-best on the team as well. He wasn’t on ice for a single high-danger chance against while managing to see 4 high-danger chances directed toward Sam Montembault. Not a bad outing at all for Lekkerimäki, to say the least. Leading the way in raw xGF was Tyler Myers, who racked up 0.88 on the night.
GSAx: Kevin Lankinen wasn’t at his finest in this game either. The Habs did manage to generate a fair amount of expected goals, totaling 3.13 in the game. However, with 5 goals against, Lankinen would finish with a -1.87 GSAx, which definitely isn’t great considering that the Canucks got him plenty of run support in this one. Of the goals against, only one of them came from high-danger chance, with the remaining 4 split between middle and low-danger chances. He did make some big stops, but Lankinen definitely didn’t ball out like he usually does.

Statistical Musings

Quinn Hughes’ return: It was nice to see the Canucks’ captain back in the lineup in this one, but Quinn Hughes clearly wasn’t his usual self. In his return against the Habs, Hughes was the Canucks’ best Corsi man amongst defencemen and second-best in xGF%, but found himself behind Vincent Desharnais in raw xGF. Given that he was just coming back from injury though, it’s reasonable to cut Hughes some slack – plus, he was given plenty of matchup duties against Montreal’s top line and performed generally well, limiting them much of the night.
Where the first line played like the first line: This just finally happened to be the game that JT Miller would start producing at 5v5 again. A welcome boon to the Canucks, the Lekkerimäki-Miller-Boeser line ran rampant against Montreal. Totalling 7 points combined, this unit by far had the best xGF% of any Canucks forward line (76.33), with their 0.67 xGF miles better than second place’s 0.19 xGF. It was a performance that Vancouver had been hoping to get out of Miller for a while now, but unfortunately, they couldn’t manage to parlay that into a victory.
On the other hand: As mentioned before, DeBrusk-Suter-Garland simply was not good last night. What extent? Well, they actually posted a 0.00 CF% and xGF% while playing not-so-insignificant minutes, totaling the third-most 5v5 minutes of any forward combination. They were on ice for an 0-8 hole in scoring chances, resulting in a team-worst 0.48 xGA. Again, small sample size, but it was a rough game against the likes of Alex Newhook and Kirby Dach.

As a team

CF% – 39.05% HDCF% – 33.33% xGF% – 38.66%
The Canucks had a chance to steal this game on the road and get the eastern swing started off on the right note. But just like in so many games this season and so many games as of late, they let it slip through their fingers. Fine, the numbers say they probably didn’t deserve to win, and Montreal did play well to earn themselves the extra point at home. But there was an opportunity to come out of the Centre Bell with 2 points for the Canucks, and they simply didn’t close the deal again. At least they picked up a loser point, but that can only go on for so long.
Vancouver heads into the capital of the United States tomorrow, taking on Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.
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