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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Hello darkness my old friend <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canucks</a> <a href="https://t.co/2pObc3tW51">pic.twitter.com/2pObc3tW51</a>
&mdash; Jarred (@JarredChan_) <a href="https://twitter.com/JarredChan_/status/1882627866892083370?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The Vancouver Canucks are not great. Losing 6-2 on the road against the Edmonton Oilers, the frustrating part wasn&#8217;t just the fact that they lost the game, but the manner in which they did so. Wouldn&#8217;t you guess it, but the Canucks, once again, did not generate enough scoring chances. They once again did not generate enough high-quality chances. And against a McDavid-less Oilers team, bled chance after chance after high-danger chance. This isn&#8217;t good enough. It hasn&#8217;t been good enough, and it will never be good enough.
Here&#8217;s the loss, by the numbers.
As always, you can find <a class="text-accent" href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/official-glossary-guide-canucksarmy-analytics-post-game-statsies" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">our glossary guide of advanced stats here</a>.
<h1>Game Flow</h1>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138052" src="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/01/20242025-20768-xgdiff-5v5.png" alt="" width="751" height="350" srcset="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/01/20242025-20768-xgdiff-5v5.png 751w, https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/01/20242025-20768-xgdiff-5v5-300x140.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 751px) 100vw, 751px" />
It seriously could not be emphasized enough that the Canucks simply were not ready to play against the Oilers. From the trendlines alone, it&#8217;s apparent that Edmonton had solid control of this game, with no real momentum dips to allow Vancouver any chance of clawing their way back into it. Sure, Vancouver made it 5-2 in the second, but the advanced stats showed a heavily lopsided 62.96 CF% and 85.37 xGF% share for the Oilers. The Canucks didn&#8217;t deserve to even have those two goals on the board, in all honesty. And as it turned out, it was nothing but false hope as the Oilers closed out the game holding the Canucks to just 0.41 xGF in the third, while totaling a 61.22 xGF% to control the chances. That is called managing and closing out a game appropriately.
<h1>Heat Map</h1>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138053" src="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/01/20242025-20768-5v5.png" alt="" width="803" height="422" srcset="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/01/20242025-20768-5v5.png 803w, https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/01/20242025-20768-5v5-300x158.png 300w, https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/01/20242025-20768-5v5-768x404.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 803px) 100vw, 803px" />
A heat map like this has been commonplace this season. Edmonton lapped Vancouver when it came to chance generation, totaling a 22-16 lead and a massive 12-2 high-danger chance advantage at 5v5. The fact that an NHL team can&#8217;t generate more than 2 high-danger chances at 5v5 is an embarrassment. It is unacceptable. It gets even worse when looking at all situations &#8211; Edmonton had SEVEN TIMES the amount of high-danger chances (21-3). Look at where the Oilers&#8217; goals came from &#8211; nearly all of them from the trapezoid area and right in tight. Again, generating high-danger chances doesn&#8217;t mean that a team scores on all of them &#8211; it often depends on the quality and talent of the shooter. But it doesn&#8217;t change the fact that they are the highest percentage of looks and are the type of chances that are most likely to become goals. Probability-wise, you are going to score more goals if more of your chances are better opportunities and you get a lot of opportunities. Edmonton demonstrated this last night. Vancouver has demonstrated the exact opposite throughout this season.
<h1>Individual Advanced Stats</h1>
Corsi Champ: Carson Soucy led the Canucks in CF% last night with a 58.82, but he didn&#8217;t really accomplish much with it. Paired up with Filip Hronek and Quinn Hughes through stretches of this game, Soucy was remarkably unimpressive, racking up a 31.27 xGF% while being on ice for 2 goals against. He did play minutes against Leon Draisaitl, who is one of the league&#8217;s best players &#8211; but it wasn&#8217;t as if he was tasked with containing him alongside McDavid or anything along those lines. Soucy split the scoring chances 7-7, but didn&#8217;t manage to be on ice for a single high-danger chance for while facing 2 high-danger chances against.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canucks</a> get caught with three forwards low in the offensive zone. 
Hronek has help from Soucy but he’s worried about the trailer (Van forwards nowhere to be seen), but can’t get beat wide like that <a href="https://t.co/1K90gGnv9s">pic.twitter.com/1K90gGnv9s</a>
&mdash; Rob Williams (@RobTheHockeyGuy) <a href="https://twitter.com/RobTheHockeyGuy/status/1882617223631769967?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Corsi Chump: We&#8217;re taking Kiefer Sherwood out of the running due to the fact that he got injured. Bringing up the rear in the Corsi department was Linus Karlsson, putting up a 33.33 CF% in heavily sheltered deployment. He didn&#8217;t add much and in fact was pretty darn awful for his limited time on ice, managing to face 0.85 xGA (the third most on the team!!) in just 8:52 minutes. That also meant that Karlsson tallied the worst xGF% of 7.81, meaning that the Oilers were dominated the expected goals to the tune of 92% and change while the Swede was on the ice. These kinds of numbers were against the fossilized remains of Corey Perry. Not good, suffice it to say.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
‘Then I scratched Hoglander again for Linus Karlsson, Phil Di Giuseppe and Max Sasson’ <a href="https://t.co/Ja3JvhHiHD">pic.twitter.com/Ja3JvhHiHD</a>
&mdash; Chester Ming (@ChesterM222) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChesterM222/status/1882612266492997946?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
xGF: When Danton Heinen is leading the team in xGF%, there are so many problems it isn&#8217;t even funny. Somehow, the bottom 6 winger led the Canucks with a 60.08 xGF%, one of three Canucks to finish above 50% in that category. His 0.51 xGF was the 4th-best on the team, while the 0.34 xGA was the 4rd-best. Heinen was also the only Canuck to finish with an even split in high-danger chances, with a 1-1 tally at 5v5. Great for the Langley native, but not good for the Canucks. Heinen should not be leading Vancouver in these categories, much less with the raw values that he put up. Quinn Hughes led the way in raw xGF with his 0.73, but got pummeled with a 1.30 xGA to drag his xGF% down.
GSAx: It is honestly sad to see Thatcher Demko like this. Not just because he isn&#8217;t quite up to form, but the team in front of him is just collapsing. He wasn&#8217;t even the worst of issues last night, facing down a 4.77 xGF from the Oilers. Demko would record a -1.23 GSAx while giving up 4 high-danger goals and 2 middle-danger goals. Again, it&#8217;s not a great performance from the netminder, but given the barrage and tire fire of a team he has to play behind, some slack should be cut.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
This is the eighth game this season Thatcher Demko has allowed at least three goals. 
He has 11 total starts (excluding game he got hurt). <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canucks</a>
&mdash; Noah Strang (@noahstrang_) <a href="https://twitter.com/noahstrang_/status/1882619437305807046?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<h1>Statistical Musings</h1>
Can the top 6 play like a top 6: One of the most frustrating parts about watching the game last night was seeing how the Oilers were able to run a forward group which was definitely less &#8220;talented&#8221; than the Canucks and dominate them. Seriously, having Viktor Arvidsson and Vasily Podkolzin alongside Draisaitl is not a top 6 solution, much less a top line, and yet they absolutely ran through the Canucks&#8217; answers in the top 6. DeBrusk-Pettersson-Garland only managed a measly 0.25 xGF and 33.47 xGF%, while the Suter-Miller-Boeser line posted 0.23 xGF and 34.56 xGF%. When Zach Hyman, Adam Henrique, and Corey Perry form a line and proceed to put up 0.22 xGF and 72.32 xGF% in top 6 minutes, this group really does not deserve to win games.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Elias Pettersson in his last 82 games played, including the 2024 playoffs:
18 goals, 38 assists, -2.
11.6 million dollar, 56 point player.
&mdash; Memarzadeh (@ArashMemarzadeh) <a href="https://twitter.com/ArashMemarzadeh/status/1882658318034088376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
When not even a &#8220;top 4 defenceman&#8221; can rescue this group: Adding Filip Hronek back into this group should&#8217;ve helped stabilize the defence corps. Should&#8217;ve being the key operator there. The Czech is a good defenceman but clearly struggles to carry his own pairing. The numbers were noticeably bad away from Hughes (as it usually happens to be), but Hronek was just bad against the Oilers. He faced a team-high 1.62 xGA and a 7-14 scoring chance deficit, with 8 of those chances against being high-danger. That deservedly earned him the 2 goals against that he faced. It wasn&#8217;t as if the rest of the defence was sparkling, but this team&#8217;s back end is just so dire, every single night.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Complete breakdown by the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canucks</a> PK. They had Sherwood effectively in the D spot and Hronek as F. 
This is what they ended up with… and nobody paying attention to Draisaitl. <a href="https://t.co/jAy3WMMmuC">pic.twitter.com/jAy3WMMmuC</a>
&mdash; Rob Williams (@RobTheHockeyGuy) <a href="https://twitter.com/RobTheHockeyGuy/status/1882619033499189655?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<h1>As a team</h1>
CF% – 45.76% HDCF% – 12.50% xGF% – 23.92%
What is there to say? For all the emotions, all the hype leading into this game, the storylines, the tensions, Vancouver simply just came out and lay flat as the Oilers ran over them again and again and again. It&#8217;s embarrassing to lose a game in this sort of fashion. NHL teams should not be this poor at chance generation and prevention consistently unless they are actively tanking. For the Canucks to be labelled as a bubble team after a performance like this is laughable. Something needs to change, because this many games into the season, nothing has.
Vancouver returns home to host the Washington Capitals tomorrow night.
Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com
Sponsored by bet365
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Hahahahahahahahahaha.
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https://twitter.com/JarredChan_/status/1882627866892083370

The Vancouver Canucks are not great. Losing 6-2 on the road against the Edmonton Oilers, the frustrating part wasn't just the fact that they lost the game, but the manner in which they did so. Wouldn't you guess it, but the Canucks, once again, did not generate enough scoring chances. They once again did not generate enough high-quality chances. And against a McDavid-less Oilers team, bled chance after chance after high-danger chance. This isn't good enough. It hasn't been good enough, and it will never be good enough.

Here's the loss, by the numbers.

As always, you can find <a class="text-accent" href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/official-glossary-guide-canucksarmy-analytics-post-game-statsies" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">our glossary guide of advanced stats here</a>.
<h1>Game Flow</h1>
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138052" src="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/01/20242025-20768-xgdiff-5v5.png" alt="" width="751" height="350" />

It seriously could not be emphasized enough that the Canucks simply were not ready to play against the Oilers. From the trendlines alone, it's apparent that Edmonton had solid control of this game, with no real momentum dips to allow Vancouver any chance of clawing their way back into it. Sure, Vancouver made it 5-2 in the second, but the advanced stats showed a heavily lopsided 62.96 CF% and 85.37 xGF% share for the Oilers. The Canucks didn't deserve to even have those two goals on the board, in all honesty. And as it turned out, it was nothing but false hope as the Oilers closed out the game holding the Canucks to just 0.41 xGF in the third, while totaling a 61.22 xGF% to control the chances. That is called managing and closing out a game appropriately.
<h1>Heat Map</h1>
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138053" src="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/01/20242025-20768-5v5.png" alt="" width="803" height="422" />

A heat map like this has been commonplace this season. Edmonton lapped Vancouver when it came to chance generation, totaling a 22-16 lead and a massive 12-2 high-danger chance advantage at 5v5. The fact that an NHL team can't generate more than 2 high-danger chances at 5v5 is an embarrassment. It is unacceptable. It gets even worse when looking at all situations - Edmonton had SEVEN TIMES the amount of high-danger chances (21-3). Look at where the Oilers' goals came from - nearly all of them from the trapezoid area and right in tight. Again, generating high-danger chances doesn't mean that a team scores on all of them - it often depends on the quality and talent of the shooter. But it doesn't change the fact that they are the highest percentage of looks and are the type of chances that are most likely to become goals. Probability-wise, you are going to score more goals if more of your chances are better opportunities and you get a lot of opportunities. Edmonton demonstrated this last night. Vancouver has demonstrated the exact opposite throughout this season.
<h1>Individual Advanced Stats</h1>
Corsi Champ: Carson Soucy led the Canucks in CF% last night with a 58.82, but he didn't really accomplish much with it. Paired up with Filip Hronek and Quinn Hughes through stretches of this game, Soucy was remarkably unimpressive, racking up a 31.27 xGF% while being on ice for 2 goals against. He did play minutes against Leon Draisaitl, who is one of the league's best players - but it wasn't as if he was tasked with containing him alongside McDavid or anything along those lines. Soucy split the scoring chances 7-7, but didn't manage to be on ice for a single high-danger chance for while facing 2 high-danger chances against.

https://twitter.com/RobTheHockeyGuy/status/1882617223631769967

Corsi Chump: We're taking Kiefer Sherwood out of the running due to the fact that he got injured. Bringing up the rear in the Corsi department was Linus Karlsson, putting up a 33.33 CF% in heavily sheltered deployment. He didn't add much and in fact was pretty darn awful for his limited time on ice, managing to face 0.85 xGA (the third most on the team!!) in just 8:52 minutes. That also meant that Karlsson tallied the worst xGF% of 7.81, meaning that the Oilers were dominated the expected goals to the tune of 92% and change while the Swede was on the ice. These kinds of numbers were against the fossilized remains of Corey Perry. Not good, suffice it to say.

https://twitter.com/ChesterM222/status/1882612266492997946

xGF: When Danton Heinen is leading the team in xGF%, there are so many problems it isn't even funny. Somehow, the bottom 6 winger led the Canucks with a 60.08 xGF%, one of three Canucks to finish above 50% in that category. His 0.51 xGF was the 4th-best on the team, while the 0.34 xGA was the 4rd-best. Heinen was also the only Canuck to finish with an even split in high-danger chances, with a 1-1 tally at 5v5. Great for the Langley native, but not good for the Canucks. Heinen should not be leading Vancouver in these categories, much less with the raw values that he put up. Quinn Hughes led the way in raw xGF with his 0.73, but got pummeled with a 1.30 xGA to drag his xGF% down.

GSAx: It is honestly sad to see Thatcher Demko like this. Not just because he isn't quite up to form, but the team in front of him is just collapsing. He wasn't even the worst of issues last night, facing down a 4.77 xGF from the Oilers. Demko would record a -1.23 GSAx while giving up 4 high-danger goals and 2 middle-danger goals. Again, it's not a great performance from the netminder, but given the barrage and tire fire of a team he has to play behind, some slack should be cut.

https://twitter.com/noahstrang_/status/1882619437305807046
<h1>Statistical Musings</h1>
Can the top 6 play like a top 6: One of the most frustrating parts about watching the game last night was seeing how the Oilers were able to run a forward group which was definitely less "talented" than the Canucks and dominate them. Seriously, having Viktor Arvidsson and Vasily Podkolzin alongside Draisaitl is not a top 6 solution, much less a top line, and yet they absolutely ran through the Canucks' answers in the top 6. DeBrusk-Pettersson-Garland only managed a measly 0.25 xGF and 33.47 xGF%, while the Suter-Miller-Boeser line posted 0.23 xGF and 34.56 xGF%. When Zach Hyman, Adam Henrique, and Corey Perry form a line and proceed to put up 0.22 xGF and 72.32 xGF% in top 6 minutes, this group really does not deserve to win games.

https://twitter.com/ArashMemarzadeh/status/1882658318034088376

When not even a "top 4 defenceman" can rescue this group: Adding Filip Hronek back into this group should've helped stabilize the defence corps. Should've being the key operator there. The Czech is a good defenceman but clearly struggles to carry his own pairing. The numbers were noticeably bad away from Hughes (as it usually happens to be), but Hronek was just bad against the Oilers. He faced a team-high 1.62 xGA and a 7-14 scoring chance deficit, with 8 of those chances against being high-danger. That deservedly earned him the 2 goals against that he faced. It wasn't as if the rest of the defence was sparkling, but this team's back end is just so dire, every single night.

https://twitter.com/RobTheHockeyGuy/status/1882619033499189655
<h1>As a team</h1>
CF% – 45.76% HDCF% – 12.50% xGF% – 23.92%

What is there to say? For all the emotions, all the hype leading into this game, the storylines, the tensions, Vancouver simply just came out and lay flat as the Oilers ran over them again and again and again. It's embarrassing to lose a game in this sort of fashion. NHL teams should not be this poor at chance generation and prevention consistently unless they are actively tanking. For the Canucks to be labelled as a bubble team after a performance like this is laughable. Something needs to change, because this many games into the season, nothing has.

Vancouver returns home to host the Washington Capitals tomorrow night.

Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com

Sponsored by bet365
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