If there’s one thing that’s consistent about this team, it’s that they’re wildly inconsistent.
The Vancouver Canucks managed to shutout the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena, taking a game that was nearly postponed thanks to a snowstorm by a 3-0 scoreline. After the previous night’s performance in Carolina, it was hard to imagine that the Canucks would be able to pull off a performance like this one. Yes, they still didn’t manage to get a ton of chances or dominate their opposition offensively. But, Vancouver didn’t let the Leafs get a sniff of things either – and that’ll do considering the adversity they had to battle through in this one.
Here’s the win, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Game Flow

For the first time in a while, the Canucks came out of the gate hot. Actually, they jumped out to a pretty handy advantage. While the CF% sat at 47.06, the Canucks managed to create 1.12 xGF, which was the most of any team in a single period all of last night. That led to a 58.59 xGF%, which is seriously pretty decent given everything as of late. The Leafs were able to turn that on its head a little in the second, tallying an 80.43 xGF% share, but their raw numbers were seriously depressed – they only managed 0.62 xGF in the middle frame. In the third, that raw figure dropped to 0.15, with the Leafs not getting a single high-danger chance in the period. Not a bad way to close out the game.

Heat Map

The heat map tells a pretty big part of this game’s story. Both teams did not get a lot of scoring chances, and not a lot of them were high-danger. Toronto had a slight 14-13 edge in total scoring chances, but the high-danger chances were split 4-4 between the teams. All 4 of Vancouver’s came in the first period, while Toronto split it 2 apiece in the first and second. Neither team managed a single high-danger chance in the third period, which works out if you’re the Canucks trying to see it all through. But the lack of hot spots shows that Vancouver was able to do a darn decent job at snuffing out any chances that the Leafs were trying to create last night.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Nils Höglander drew back into the lineup and ended up making a bit of a difference. Leading the team with a 57.14 CF%, the Swedish winger lined up alongside JT Miller and Conor Garland to record the fourth-best xGF% of 65.19 and xGF of 0.61. Höglander also was on ice for half of the Canucks’ high-danger attempts, which isn’t a huge raw amount, but contextually within the game was quite significant. A good performance from a healthy scratch the night before.
Corsi Chump: Does this really come as a surprise to anyone at this point? Noah Juulsen brought up the rear of the team with a 29.63 CF%, facing a team-worst 0.82 xGA but surprisingly not giving up the worst xGF%. Still, Juulsen’s 29.83 xGF% made him the fourth-worst Canuck in that category, on ice for 3 high-danger chances against. And if you’re keeping track, that’s 3/4ths of what the Leafs were able to generate. In this game, Juulsen lined up alongside Derek Forbort, the pair of them being shuffled against much of Toronto’s lineup with not a lot of food numbers to show for it. But hey, at least they didn’t get scored against.
xGF: Given that he had a multi-point night, Quinn Hughes was the natural choice to appear as the team leader in both xGF and xGF%. His tallies of 0.93 and 76.81, respectively, paced the Canucks to this win, brushing off any signs of rust in his return to the lineup. Hughes was on ice for 10 scoring chances – meaning that the Canucks only managed to get 3 scoring chances when their captain wasn’t playing. Hughes also didn’t face a single high-danger chance against, while being on ice for 3 high-danger chances for. There’s not much more that a single player can do to help a team win hockey games.
MVP.
GSAx: Kevin Lankinen wasn’t particularly busy last night thanks to the defensive performance the Canucks put on in front of him, but the Finn was perfect whenever he was called upon. He faced down 1.79 expected goals from Toronto and turned aside everything for a 1.79 GSAx. Vancouver did a good job to ensure that the majority of his workload came from low-danger opportunities, and to have as little high-danger chances against is a reflection of great team defence. Lankinen will probably appreciate this after being left out to dry for the last couple of performances.

Statistical Musings

Petey for Selke: The two-way performance that Elias Pettersson put in last night was key to helping the Canucks secure victory. While his metrics weren’t the best, it was for the specific reason of being matched up against Matthew Knies, Mitch Marner, and Auston Matthews, tasked with shutting down the Leafs’ prized offence-heavy line. And Pettersson did a darn good job. He suppressed them to the point of just one high-danger chance against, only giving them 0.26 xGF all night. That’s really impressive considering the firepower that they possess, and for Pettersson to effectively make them a non-factor is impressive. Of course, credit needs to be shared with his linemates Jake DeBrusk and Brock Boeser, but it was a very impressive defensive performance from Petey.
Some versatility: Jonathan Lekkerimäki was displaced in the top 6, finding himself lining up alongside Phil Di Giuseppe and Teddy Blueger in the bottom 6. While that didn’t sound the most promising, the rookie actually fit in pretty decently well alongside those two in that role. In fact, the trio of them managed to generate the second-most xGF (0.33) of any Canucks forward line. Granted, they also faced the most xGA of any forward line as well (0.36), but it was interesting to see that deployment last night, and to see Lekkerimäki in different roles than just a scoring winger in the top 6.

As a team

CF% – 43.88% HDCF% – 55.56% xGF% – 46.61%
The Canucks didn’t generate a lot of chances last night. They didn’t need to, considering how well they played defensively to limit Toronto’s ability to harm them. It was nice to see that kind of effort and attention to detail in light of the rough run that this group has been on – doubly so given the delays and tribulations that they faced just getting to Toronto. It was a good win, and hopefully a defensive effort they can keep up while managing to figure out how to score more goals.
Vancouver travels a little bit more west for their next matchup, taking on the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday.
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