That sucked.
The Vancouver Canucks stunk up the ice against the New York Islanders, dropping a 5-2 game in tepid fashion. That’s being generous with the adjectives too, because Vancouver was doing cardio training for the first two periods of the game. There were feel-good moments with Dakota Joshua’s return and Jonathan Lekkerimäki’s first NHL goal. But other than that, the content sucked. Vancouver showed up for 20 minutes, but that 20 minutes didn’t make up for the howler that they had for the opening 40.
Here’s the loss, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Game Flow 

The game flow really told the entire story here. After getting the opening goal on the night, Vancouver simply just stopped playing. The first period stat line is something that the Canucks should be ashamed of, only managing 28.00 CF% and an astonishing 5.67 xGF%. That’s right, as a team, Vancouver was giving up 94.23 xGF% share to the Isles in the opening period, accumulating 0.05 xGF to 0.77 xGA. The second period wasn’t much better – while their shares improved to 44.83 CF% and 26.01 xGF%, the Canucks also gave up 1.09 xGA in the middle frame. By the time the third rolled around and Vancouver finally got to 71.05 CF% and 74.21 xGF%, they still gave up 3 high-danger chances while only managing to put up 4 high-danger chances of their own. Coincidentally, it was also the only 4 high-danger chances that they managed all game.

Heat Map

It’s honestly sad to see this heat map because once again it demonstrates the Canucks’ complete ineptitude when it comes to generating high-danger chances. At 5v5, the scoring chances stood at just 20-18 for the Isles – but in terms of high-danger chances, New York put up 11 against Vancouver’s 4. Not only were the Canucks unable to get any quality looks, but over half of the chances that they gave up were high-danger to the Islanders. That’s unacceptable at both ends of the ice, and it absolutely demonstrated the tire fire of a game that this all was. On their lone powerplay, Vancouver only managed 1 high-danger chance for, against the league’s second-worst penalty kill. Where have we seen that before?

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Just because his CF% was good does not mean he had a good game. Filip Hronek posted a 62.50 CF% to lead the Canucks but was an absolute liability in the 37.50 CF% that he didn’t have the puck. Hronek was on ice for two goals against, an absolute brainfart while defending as he posted a 49.86 xGF% (which surprisingly enough, was one of the better ones on the team last night). It feels like because Quinn Hughes did not have a good night, Hronek couldn’t pull his weight – and that’s a problem if you’re the Canucks who are leaning on your top pair heavily.
Corsi Chump: While having a bad CF% doesn’t mean you had a bad game, it still doesn’t offer the best probability of having a good one. Tyler Myers finished dead-last on the team with a 33.33 CF%, with him and Carson Soucy being an absolute dumpster fire on the back end. With that team-low CF%, Myers posted a 25.25 xGF%, the 5th worst on the team (though behind Soucy’s third-worst 23.79 xGF%). The defenceman was on ice for 0 high-danger chances for and faced 3 high-danger chances against in yet another rough outing this season. But hey, at least he scored his first goal of the season.
xGF: Aatu Räty is probably going to need some more time in the AHL, but at least his share stats in limited minutes were okay. The Finn led the Canucks with a 76.05 xGF%, benefitting from playing against weaker opposition as the rest of the team melted. He was one of two Canucks to be on ice for more high-danger chances for than against, so that’s a win already, but other than that he had some rough moments. The raw xGF went to Hughes with a 0.82 – but we’ll unpack that performance from the captain in a bit.
GSAx: Kevin Lankinen can’t do it all himself. Getting the kind of support that he has is putting a ton of load on the netminder’s shoulders and he can only stem the tide for so long. Facing down 2.65 xGF, Lankinen finished with a -1.35 GSAx, which all things considered isn’t the worst. Three of the four goals he gave up came off of high-danger chances, with the remaining one from a low-danger chance. This loss can’t be pinned on Lankinen’s shoulders – not when Vancouver stunk up the ice in front of him.

Statistical Musings

Quinn needs a break: This is where Vancouver’s lack of defensive depth will hurt the most. Quinn Hughes has been logging over 20 minutes a night and that added mileage will show up down the stretch. Against the Islanders, while posting the team’s best xGF, he also faced down the most xGA with 1.02. Hughes split a 10-10 scoring chance battle with New York, but resulted in a 2-6 deficit in high-danger chances. The issue is that if Hughes’ isn’t able to make up for the rest of the back end’s deficiencies, then all the flaws of Vancouver’s back end will become all that more apparent. Hronek has not been able to do his due diligence on his side of the ice, the less said about Soucy-Myers the better, and Brännström-Desharnais is for all intents and purposes a third pairing. Nothing about this corps screams playoff contender – especially when Hughes isn’t able to perform.
Joshua’s return: Dakota Joshua made his season debut last night alongside Räty and Nils Höglander, getting eased into the lineup after recovering from cancer. It wasn’t a game to write home about, but there were some encouraging signs – that line in their 6:52 TOI together accumulated the team’s best xGF% of 84.44. Funnily enough, that trio tied the Suter-Miller-Lekkerimäki line for the second-most xGF (0.21), behind DeBrusk-Pettersson-Garland’s 0.24 despite playing a full 3 minutes less. It’s definitely both a reflection of some decent play on their end, and the top 6 just underwhelming hard last night.
Where Elias Pettersson was Vancouver’s best forward: There hasn’t been many games where we could say this, but Elias Pettersson was Vancouver’s best forward statistically. He didn’t find the scoresheet but led all forwards in CF% (58.62) and posted a 58.81 xGF%, the highest share amongst forwards with over 12 minutes of 5v5 TOI. You’d want to see the points start coming quicker and have Pettersson be a game breaker, but from the eye test and the stats, it’s evident that the efforts are there and becoming much more consistent.

As a team

CF% – 50.00% HDCF% – 27.78% xGF% – 40.87%
The Canucks sucked last night. There wasn’t many positives to take away from the game at all as the wheels just fell right off of the wagon. Once more, the struggle to generate high-danger looks continues, all the while their team defence feels like it’s being plastered over with some silly putty and glue. It’s a trend that gets exposed every time Vancouver plays against a team with actual playoff ambitions, and it’s frustrating to see a lack of response or adjustment. The team feels lifeless at times, and that’s concerning, given that we’re only just over a month into the season.
Vancouver welcomes Conor Bedard home for the first time tomorrow as they face off against the Chicago Blackhawks.
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