If the most consistent thing about this team is inconsistency, there’s issues.
The Vancouver Canucks fell in limp fashion to the Boston Bruins, a 5-1 scoreline was honestly generous for the tepid effort that this team turned in. The 5v5 share stats are far too kind for the kind of hole that they dug themselves into in the first period, and it was clear that this Canucks team simply didn’t have the jump to be able to compete with a struggling Bruins team. That’s alarming, and considering how much this team has struggled at home as well, it’s a big cause for concern that they don’t seem to have any motivation to get up for a marquee December matchup.
Here’s the loss, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Game Flow

The extent of that hole the Canucks dug themselves into in the first period cannot be overstated. In just the opening frame, Boston managed to accumulate 12 high-danger chances out of a total of 13 scoring chances, putting up 1.92 xGF while the Canucks spun their wheels with 0.43 xGF. When you’re conceding as many high-danger looks in such a concentrated amount of it, it’s definitely going to up the chances of conceding a goal. Sure, the Canucks were able to get good control of the CF% and xGF% share in the second and third periods, but in total, they only had 6 high-danger chances in the entire game with a total of 1.78 xGF at 5v5. The fact that the Bruins exceeded that game total in just one period should be alarming.

Heat Map

Somehow having Thatcher Demko back between the pipes has created the impression that the Canucks could be porous in front of him once more. It is honestly embarrassing to see how badly out-chanced Vancouver was, as despite having a 21-19 lead in total scoring chances at 5v5, they gave up 16 high-danger chances against and only had 6 high-danger chances for themselves. Accounting for all situations, that gap jumped to a 19-7 edge for Boston. The heat map shows as much, as a veritable lake of chances was happening in front of Demko while nothing of the sort was even close to being replicated by the Canucks.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Considering everything, JT Miller finding himself leading the Canucks in Corsi should be taken as a win. His 72.41 CF% was coming primarily against Boston’s first line, with Miller posting a third-best 0.72 xGF and 5th-best xGF% of 62.83. Again, it shouldn’t be a surprise that he was on ice for 5 high-danger chances against however, given how dominant the Bruins were when it came to generating those kinds of looks. But, Miller also wasn’t on ice for a goal against at 5v5, and instead helped chip in for Max Sasson’s first NHL goal.
Corsi Chump: On the other end of the spectrum is Erik Brännström, who ended up tallying a 33.33 CF% to bring up the rear of this Canucks squad. The Swedish defender was simply not good against the Bruins, managing to record the 6th worst xGA on the team with 0.86 with 6th-lowest ice time at 5v5. On ice for two goals against, Brännström ended up facing 6 high-danger chances against without managing to record a single high-danger chance for. After being healthy scratched the last game, then pressed into action for this one, Brännström did himself no favours in proving the coaches wrong in their decision.
xGF: Jake DeBrusk finds himself leading the Canucks with a 70.00 xGF%, with a large portion of that coming from his team-best 0.21 xGA. The winger only faced 1 high-danger chance against, which isn’t exactly an easy feat given how many chances the Canucks as a team were bleeding against the Bruins. Unfortunately, that didn’t result in a lot of good things, as DeBrusk did find himself out on the ice for a goal against. Leading the charge in raw xGF was none other than Quinn Hughes with 1.31 xGF.
GSAx: Thatcher Demko did try, but it’s not like he could stem the tide all on his own when the Canucks were so porous in front of him. In total against the Bruins’ 3.18 xGF, Demko would finish with a -1.82 GSAx, with three goals coming off high-danger chances and the other two being split between middle and low-danger opportunities. It’s hard to fault him for not making those stops, considering that the Canucks were straight up terrible in front of him. Demko is definitely not being eased back by his own team, suffice it to say.

Statistical Musings

Where Teddy Blueger got run into the ground: One of the bigger anomalies on the night came in the form of Teddy Blueger, who just got absolutely demolished no matter what kind of opposition that he was facing. The Latvian was doing decent when it came to Corsi, but was getting a ton of expected goals stacked up against him. Posting a team-low 13.23 xGF%, a lot of that was due to a team-worst 1.49 xGA, on ice for 7 high-danger chances against and two goals against to boot. Blueger usually is better than this, but it was definitely symbolic of the game for him to be posting these numbers.
Vancouver’s defence: It sucks to keep harping on this, but it is clear that Vancouver needs to do something immediately to address the lack of back end depth and talent. Quinn Hughes was saddled with Tyler Myers and Noah Juulsen last night – and saddled is definitely the right word here. The two right-sided defencemen were straight up dead weight piggybacking on Hughes, with the Hughes-Myers pairing recording a 24.54 xGF% and a 1.02 xGA together. Hughes-Juulsen was a little better with 56.70 xGF%, but is the answer for a top-pairing right hand defenceman Noah Juulsen in the year 2024? It’s an organizational failure to find themselves in this situation, with Filip Hronek out for a good while on top of that.

As a team

CF% – 51.40% HDCF% – 26.92% xGF% – 37.55%
The Canucks sucked in this one. There was pretty much no redeeming quality to this game outside of a feel good moment with Max Sasson’s first NHL goal. They stunk it up on home ice once more, a concerning pattern that only has continued throughout the year. It could’ve been rationalized if it were just the month of October – now though? This team needs to figure it out and fast. The systemic flaws in the roster construction are being exposed thanks to injury and underperformance, and the Canucks are spinning their wheels as a result.
Vancouver welcomes the surging Colorado Avalanche to town tomorrow night.
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