Is this what they mean by consistency?
The
Vancouver Canucks beat the Nashville Predators by a 3-1 scoreline in a pretty rough affair. It seemed like the refs had some blinders on throughout the night, with plenty of missed calls going in the home team’s favour. But the Canucks managed to battle through that, putting together a solid stretch of hockey to get into the lead and not relinquish it. That’s something that this team hasn’t done often enough this season, so any bit of progress is well received.
Here’s the win, by the numbers.
Game Flow
The game flow might look like it favoured the Preds by a decent chunk, but a glance at the Y-axis shows that their advantage was relatively minimal in terms of raw numbers. Generally speaking, this game was pretty back and forth, and that’s a testament to the Canucks being able to stay focused on the game itself and not get wrapped up in some of the extracurriculars. Vancouver only finished the first with a slight edge in xGF% and CF%, with the rest of the periods finishing in favour of Nashville – but, their advantage wasn’t too statistically significant, and that defensive effort the Canucks put in was very good indeed.
Heat Map
The heat map showed the good game that the Canucks had in their own end. While the Preds did secure a 25-16 lead in scoring chances at 5v5, their high-danger chance lead was just 9-7. Vancouver proportionally had more high-danger chances in relation to the total amount of scoring chances that they generated, while also limiting the raw number of Nashville’s high-danger looks despite having a pretty handy scoring chance advantage. Plus, with just one goal against, it was a deserved result for a very good game defensively. Vancouver did well to limit the Preds on the man advantage too, giving up just 1 high-danger chance against when Nashville had a powerplay, and just one more chance when they pulled the goalie for an extra attacker.
Individual Advanced Stats
Corsi Champ: What else can be said about Quinn Hughes? It’s been a broken record this season and probably more noteworthy when he doesn’t have a good game. The defencemen led the Canucks in CF% with his 57.14, on ice for two goals for and racking up two assists in the process. Hughes played some hefty minutes against the Predators’ best players, and while he gave up a 2-4 high-danger chance split, the defenceman still managed to tally up a 59.45 xGF%, good enough for third on the team.
Corsi Chump: Dakota Joshua’s return to the lineup wasn’t the best of times, as he brought up the rear with a 28.57 CF%. However, it wasn’t too far off the team average, with the forward recording a -15.87 CF% rel. The rest of the stats weren’t the prettiest for Joshua though, as he recorded a 0.12 xGF for the second-lowest total on the team, posting a team-worst 21.62 xGF% and going without a single high-danger chance while he was on ice. Again, first game back, so there should be some slack cut for Joshua.
xGF: It is so nice to see Nils Höglander find the scoresheet. The Swede recorded a team-best 69.27 xGF% on the night along with the second-best xGA of 0.21. On ice for three high-danger chances for and zero high-danger chances against, Höglander got the Canucks off to a great start with one of the more direct, attacking the middle type goals that Vancouver has scored all season. With all of his very public struggles in Tocchet’s doghouse, seeing him perform alongside Elias Pettersson and Linus Karlsson was a very nice change of pace. Leading the way in raw xGF was Danton Heinen, tallying up a 0.78 xGF at 5v5 play.
GSAx: A vintage Thatcher Demko performance capped off this game for the Canucks. The Predators managed to total a 2.48 xGF on the night across all situations and Demko turned away everything except one high-danger chance for a 1.48 GSAx. This was the kind of performance many in Vancouver expect of Demko, and a standard that he has held in previous years. Now, this game was an anomaly of sorts in the midst of a poor run of form, but hopefully with a very capable netminder in Kevin Lankinen to help shoulder the load, Demko can get back to his best without as much pressure in previous years as well.
Statistical Musings
How Swede it is: A big part of Höglander’s performance was the performance of the line he found himself on. Höglander-Pettersson-Karlsson was electric against the Preds, posting a 50.00 CF% and massive 70.51 xGF% to clear any other forward combination that the Canucks managed to ice last night. No other forward unit broke 40.00 CF% or 50.00 xGF%, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that Höglander-Pettersson-Karlsson combined for two even-strength goals last night. They fully earned it according to the stats, and it was especially nice to see Karlsson grab his first NHL goal after some rough outings previously.
As a team
CF% – 40.82% HDCF% – 42.11% xGF% – 47.01%
The Canucks have won three games in a row. A week ago, this would’ve seemed to be a little implausible. But Vancouver looks to be building momentum, finding their game and the style that brings them success. Would it have been nice to see them generate a bit more chances? Absolutely. But relative to their opponents and in relation to their defensive performance, the Canucks did well on that front. Battling against the refs too, it was also nice to see a great performance from Demko especially with his recent struggles. One can only hope that this is the building point for a run the Canucks sorely need.
Vancouver heads into Dallas to take on the Stars tomorrow night.
Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com
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