Not the best of trips to the State of Hockey.

The Vancouver Canucks dropped a 5-2 decision to the Minnesota Wild. While the performance probably didn’t deserve the final scoreline, it still highlighted how depleted this roster is, how much NHL-calibre talent they are lacking in comparison to their opposition. The numbers only tell the story of probabilities, how a team does the right thing to get the right chances to deliver as many goals as possible. It’s also up to the individual to convert on those opportunities – and what separates an everyday NHLer from a tweener.

Here’s the loss, by the numbers.

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

It was a back-and-forth affair for the entire game. The first period favoured Minnesota, and the Wild capitalized on that to take a 1-0 lead. The second period was much more in the balance, with the teams nearly splitting evenly in the Corsi department. It was Vancouver that managed to get itself a 54.33 xGF% share, leading 1.41-1.18 in the expected goals totals at 5v5 play. Both teams struck once, delivering on the expected goals that they generated. The third, however, saw the Wild rack up two quick goals and then be able to sit back to defend that lead as the Canucks pushed to try and equalize. While Vancouver had the controlling share of both CF% and xGF%, they were limited in terms of the quantity of chances they were able to generate, only managing 2 high-danger chances from 5v5 action in the third period. Not enough to try and come back, to say the least.

Overall, the heat map looks pretty uninspiring at both ends of the ice. Minnesota had an 18-16 lead in scoring chances, which isn’t a whole lot of action for an entire game. Both teams split a 7-7 high-danger chance battle, reflected in some similar-looking hot spots on either end of the ice. There wasn’t a whole lot else to note here, and both teams would likely be looking to improve in their next contest when it comes to chance generation.

Corsi Champ: Tom Willander has been getting better with each and every passing game. The young defenceman recorded the team’s best Corsi mark at 65.52 CF% while playing the majority of minutes against the Wild’s top line. That wasn’t all, though, as Willander posted the second-best xGF% on the team with 65.02, managing to be on ice for a team-low 0.27 xGA. That’s really tidy, considering his opposition, and the rookie defender should be commended for keeping his nose this clean thus far into his young NHL career.

Corsi Chump: On the complete flip side, Pierre-Olivier Joseph turned in a pretty big stinker against the Wild. His team-worst 32.14 CF% wasn’t the only part where he underperformed, as he was on ice for the worst xGA on the team with 1.02, along with the worst xGF at 0.16, meaning his xGF% was a team-worst 13.29. That’ll happen when you’re on ice for a 1-10 hole in scoring chances, as Joseph was playing for 5/7 of the scoring chances that Minnesota put up without a single high-danger chance for.

xGF: Leading the Canucks in both xGF% and xGF last night was Filip Hronek, who posted a team-best 66.50 and 1.41 respectively in those categories. It was certainly an impressive performance last night from the Czech, who’s been able to step up as the Canucks’ 1D in Quinn Hughes’ absence. On ice for two goals for, Hronek also held a pretty impressive 5-2 high-danger chance lead given the context of the contest. Hopefully, as the lineup gets a little bit healthier, he can continue to keep up this level of play.

GSAx: This was Thatcher Demko’s worst game of the season. With the Wild generating 2.48 xGF, the four goals that got past the netminder resulted in a -1.52 GSAx on the night. This team can’t rely on Demko to bail them out game after game, and it wasn’t for a lack of trying when it came to the netminder. The expectation shouldn’t be for the American to have a world-beating performance night in and night out. Two of the goals Demko gave up were from high-danger chances, with the remaining two split between middle-danger and low-danger.

Trying to find the top 6: While the focus seems to be on who will be rounding out the bottom 6, the top 6 of the Canucks are also just not producing. Now, this is definitely related to the sheer amount of injuries in the lineup, but it should also be reasonable to expect the Canucks’ best forwards to actually play like them. Out of the opening night roster lineup that’s still active, only Evander Kane finished in the top half of the team in raw expected goals, coming in third on the entire team. Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson, and Jake DeBrusk were all buried deep in the bottom half of the team. Again, they might be taking on harder matchups, but they also need to be winning those matchups to help the Canucks to victories.

Drew O’Connor: He’s been much maligned for this entire season and is probably playing too high in the lineup right now. But, it’s nice to see Drew O’Connor actually deliver and convert on his chances, as he finished second on the team in CF% and third in xGF%. The two goals that DOC converted were all the offence that the Canucks were able to get, and while that’s a good thing for the player, it’s not a great sign overall for the team.

There was nothing inherently wrong with how the Canucks played in this game when it came to the numbers. But it also very much highlighted the lack of talent to convert these chances into goals, and how the Canucks need to be a lot better to winning games. With how much of their lineup is missing, their best players need to play as such – and thus far, they haven’t done so. The season might be young, but time is rapidly running out to turn this around.

Vancouver closes out their road trip tomorrow, heading into Nashville to face off against the Predators.