Another competitive loss.

The Vancouver Canucks fought but fell 3-2 in overtime to the Winnipeg Jets. They actually stood a decent chance to take the win, getting in front early in the game and trying their very best to defend their slim lead. Unfortunately, turtling only gets teams so far, and the Jets were able to use their deeper roster and heftier firepower to eventually even it up. At least it wasn’t a one-sided blowout, and the Canucks managed to actually make it a contest.

Here’s the loss, by the numbers.

As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

While the Canucks got the first goal of the game, there was nothing through the first 40 minutes that suggested this team was looking to press their advantage. Winnipeg finished the first with a 69.70 CF% and 63.28 xGF%, before tallying a 67.74 CF% and 79.39 xGF% in the second period. It was pretty darn lopsided in that middle period too, with the Jets having a 5-0 edge in high-danger chances. Somehow though, after the game got knotted up, the Canucks found their gear in the third. Scoring early to go up 2-1, they actually turned in their best period statistically with a 50.00 CF% and 69.17 xGF%, out-pacing the Jets by a 3-1 margin in high-danger chances. It was a good close to the game, and the overtime was enough to push Winnipeg over the top.

The heat map showed that the Jets had a handy advantage in overall scoring chances, but weren’t actually able to translate that into a big high-danger chance lead. At 5v5, they doubled up on the Canucks to the tune of 31-15 scoring chances, but that only turned into an 8-7 high-danger advantage for Winnipeg. The lack of true hot spots for either team showed that, visually, and realistically, the Jets got most of their HDCF in the second. The Canucks actually managed a 4-2 lead in the first and a 3-1 edge in the third, lacking the ability to capitalize on the couple of grade A chances they secured.

Corsi Champ: Teddy Blueger paced the Canucks with a 60.87 CF%, standing at a massive 31.29 CF% relative to team average. For context, the player with the next highest CF% rel was Tom Willander, who managed a 16.64. This was coming as Blueger was going up against the likes of Mark Scheifele for the majority of the night, managing to hold a 9-4 shot advantage and keep his opposition off the board. It really is interesting that no team was willing to pay for Blueger at the deadline, given his ability to contribute in a depth role.

Corsi Chump: Victor Mancini has not had the easiest of times reintegrating into the Canucks lineup since being called up to the big club. Coming in with a team-worst 21.43 CF% while paired up with Zeev Buium, Mancini was on ice for a team-worst 1.07 xGA at 5v5 action while going up against the bottom end of the Jets team. Again, it’s not like there’s a lot to surround and insulate him, but Mancini is absolutely not doing a lot of favours for himself with the performances he’s been turning in.

xGF: Blueger finds himself leading all skaters in this category again, posting an 87.18 xGF% with a team-best 0.14 xGA and 0.95 xGF. The Latvian was on ice for a 7-3 lead in overall scoring chances, which is pretty impressive considering the overall team numbers on both sides, and managed to hold a 3-0 high-danger chance advantage as well. The two assists he posted were very well deserved, chipping in at both ends of the ice in a big way.

GSAx: Kevin Lankinen definitely did his fair share to give the Canucks a fighting chance in this one. Playing up against the Jets’ 3.54 xGF, the three goals against gave him a 0.54 GSAx with the tallies evenly distributed across all three danger zones. The Finn was leaned on heavily while the Canucks were trying to protect their narrow lead, and the netminder was not going to be giving up anything too easily in this one at all.

Second line MIA: Perhaps having a functioning top 6 would’ve helped spur the Canucks over the top in this one. Last night, the Liam Ohgren – Marco Rossi – Brock Boeser line was a skating dash, posting a team-worst 20.83 CF%, 0.10 xGF, 0.68 xGA, and 13.33 xGF%. They were incredibly ineffective during their 5v5 minutes, and that’s not a good thing considering that they saw the most 5v5 ice time of any single forward unit. Their line was the one used to go up against the Scheifele line as well, with the other minutes against that line going to the Sasson-Blueger-Karlsson line. The latter forward combination saw the second-most minutes at 5v5, leading all forward lines with a 52.94 CF%, 0.73 xGF, and 85.42 xGF%.

The Canucks battled hard. It was clear that they were trying to squeak one out, playing a very defensively minded contest for the first two periods of the game. The Canucks did well to play a tightly-contested third period, but it wasn’t to be in the end. Still, a loss like this is definitely pretty palatable, especially considering some of the other losses that they suffered coming back from the Olympic break.

Vancouver returns home to host the Ottawa Senators tomorrow night for their next outing.