Somehow, a classic Vancouver Canucks loss.
The Canucks dropped a 3-1 decision to the Utah Hockey Club in disappointing fashion at home. Was it the second half of a back-to-back? Sure it was. But the Canucks simply just didn’t look up to battle. Their first and second periods were sleepy at best and nightmarish at worst. And while the third was better, teams don’t usually win hockey games just by playing for 20 minutes. Vancouver simply isn’t a good enough team to do that kind of thing.
Here’s the loss, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Game Flow

The first period didn’t look terrible, but the Canucks clearly weren’t up for it as much as they probably should’ve been. A 52.00 CF% is acceptable, but a 32.62 xGF% isn’t great, especially when the team was only producing 0.30 xGF at 5v5 play. The second period was even worse – Vancouver only posted a 32.35 CF% and 13.56 xGF%, sitting at a mere 0.16 xGF in the frame while giving up 1.01 xGA. That comes with the territory of giving up six high-danger chances in a single period without even managing a single one. And sure, the Canucks were a little better in the third with a 63.16 CF% and 71.37 xGF% – but by that point, it was too little, too late.

Heat Map

Just from looking at the heat map, it was apparent that the Canucks were outclassed. The overall scoring chances at 5v5 sat at 19-12 in favour of Utah, with the high-danger chances at 10-3. That much looks very apparent with the massive hot spot in front of the Canucks’ net and the lack of one on the other end. Simply put, it just wasn’t good enough at 5v5 to warrant winning this game. One of the worst indictments of the Canucks’ lack of scoring chances comes from looking at their powerplay. With six minutes in the third, Vancouver only managed one high-danger chance in a situation where they needed to score.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Quinn Hughes is trying his very best. Leading the Canucks with a 73.33 CF%, the captain was dragging the team into the fight, posting a team-best 0.86 xGF while holding a 3-3 split in high-danger chances during his TOI. If you’re keeping track, that meant that Hughes was on ice for all of the Canucks’ high-danger chances. Again, great thing for the player himself, but not great for the rest of the team surrounding him.
Corsi Chump: On the other end of the spectrum, Victor Mancini did not have a great game. His 15.58 CF% was a solid -36.92 CF% rel to team average, with the defenceman also posting a 37.80 xGF% with just a 0.06 xGF to his name. The only silver lining with all of this is that Mancini was only on ice for one high-danger chance against, which limited how bad things could’ve gotten, considering the disparity that went on all of last night.
xGF: As mentioned previously, Hughes was the raw xGF leader with his 0.86. Jonathan Lekkerimaki, the leader in xGF%, was not coming close to those numbers by posting a 0.17 xGF on the night. But, thanks to the team-best xGA of 0.01, the Swede came in at a 92.15 xGF% to lead the way. He was on ice for a 3-1 scoring chance difference and a 1-0 high-danger chance lead, which feels marginal at best. But, compared to the rest of the team last night, this wasn’t bad at all. The biggest concern is that Lekkerimaki only played 7:24 last night, which cannot be good for his development.
GSAx: Kevin Lankinen gave the Canucks a fighting chance in this one. Utah recorded a 2.57 xGF against him, which resulted in a 0.57 GSAx on the night, with the goals against coming off an even split between high-danger and middle-danger chances. Lankinen fought with basically nothing in front of him, the Canucks bleeding chances in front of him and completely unable to get run support. It was nice, at least, to see the bounce back from a couple of rougher outings previously.

Statistical Musings

Marcus Pettersson’s rough night: Being the Canucks’ best defensive defenceman means being assigned tough roles. Unfortunately, that could also backfire when things aren’t going well for the player. Marcus Pettersson was used extensively against the first line of Utah, and the numbers were simply not great on the night. He recorded the worst xGA on the roster with a 1.37 and the team’s worst xGF% at 9.94. Pettersson bled a 2-13 scoring chance deficit while also recording a 0-6 high-danger chance hole as well. Perhaps it comes with being partnered up with Tyler Myers all of last night, but to put it simply, Pettersson didn’t play as well as the Canucks needed him to.
Underwhelming: After putting together a good effort the previous night, the Nils Höglander – Elias Pettersson – Jake DeBrusk line underperformed hard against Utah. As a trio, the line posted the worst stats out of any forward line the Canucks iced at 5v5 last night, recording a 27.78 CF% and 18.12 xGF%. They were on ice for a team-high three high-danger chances against with zero HDCF, which also resulted in the second-worst xGF of 0.08 and tied for team-worst with a 0.35 xGA. Nothing could offset the lack of production during 5v5 play at any end of the ice.

As a team

CF% – 50.48% HDCF% – 31.58% xGF% – 35.68%
It’s understandable that the Canucks could’ve been dealing with fatigue with the back-to-back games. But they just simply weren’t up to play, with a lack of urgency costing them points. And especially given the magnitude of the opponent, at this point of the season in a playoff race – it wasn’t good for the postseason odds, suffice it to say.
Vancouver hosts Winnipeg at home tomorrow for their next matchup.
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