It wasn’t the most convincing of results, but it was a win.

The Vancouver Canucks squeaked out a win against the San Jose Sharks, topping them by a 3-2 scoreline. Despite generally outplaying them, Vancouver made this way too tight for their own good. The Sharks have been on a good run of form and playing some better hockey, but for the amount of the game that the Canucks should’ve controlled, they should’ve been up by more. Chance generation continues to plague them even in this win, but some timely goals helped buoy them to victory.

Here’s the win, by the numbers.

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

It really shouldn’t have been a close game. In the first period, Vancouver dominated the flow of the game, holding a 73.53 Corsi for (CF%) with an 81.22 expected goals for (xGF%) as a result of that. The problem in that came because the Canucks simply did not generate a lot of chances. Despite that possession advantage, the first period was as low-event as it could get, with only 2 high-danger scoring chances for (HDCF) by the Canucks in a total of four scoring chances. While the Sharks didn’t do anything of note, Vancouver absolutely did not capitalize when they probably should’ve. That allowed San Jose to gain the lead in this game, where they took advantage of Vancouver’s breakdowns. The CF% split dropped down to near 50-50 for the second and third, with the Canucks maintaining a slim edge in Corsi and xGF%. But, for what they should’ve been able to do, it is a letdown for the Canucks to have put in that kind of performance.

That theme of low-event hockey really translates into this heat map. There isn’t much to say or observe here simply because neither team did much to generate anything. In total, the scoring chances stood at 25-20 for Vancouver, with the Canucks posting a 9-8 advantage in scoring chances. Yes, while it’s good that they kept the Sharks to below 10 HDCF, it’s also San Jose – not exactly an offensive juggernaut. As for themselves, the fact that the Canucks couldn’t manage more than nine high-danger chances against the Sharks’ defence is not the best testament to their chance generation. Funnily enough, all of Vancouver’s high-danger looks came from 5v5, meaning that they didn’t manage a single high-danger chance on the power play.

Corsi Champ: Brock Boeser paced the Canucks in the Corsi department, leading the team with an 80.77 CF% in a game where they had a clear advantage over the Sharks. The shots stood at 7-1 while Boeser was on the ice with him and the rest of his line facing off against San Jose’s top line. Although, a top line of Toffoli-Granlund-Eklund isn’t exactly the most potent of competition to be facing off against.

Corsi Chump: It is unideal to be the odd one out, but Arshdeep Bains finished with Vancouver’s worst CF% of 39.29 while also being dropped off of the Elias Pettersson line towards the end of the game. Last night was not one of Bains’ best as a Canuck, finishing with a team-worst 0.77 expected goals against (xGA), second-worst 33.42 xGF%, and being on ice for the most high-danger chances against with four. Simply put, Bains did not look like he belonged in the top six, and the results at the end of the game showed that the Canucks could’ve had better personnel on that line.

xGF: As a byproduct of not facing a lot of dangerous chances, Boeser would also record the Canucks’ best xGF% of 91.71. On ice for eight scoring chances and just one against, the winger didn’t face a single high-danger chance against while generating four. That resulted in a team-low 0.09 xGA while putting up the fourth-best xGF of 0.96. Leading the way in that category would be Filip Hronek’s 1.46, as he and Quinn Hughes continued to be in a class of their own amongst Vancouver’s defence corps.

GSAx: Because the San Jose Sharks did not generate a lot of chances, Kevin Lankinen’s metrics suffered a little. The Finn faced down 1.80 xGF to post a -0.20 GSAx on the night, one goal coming off a high-danger chance and another goal off a low-danger chance. He was great when he had to be, though; Lankinen definitely bailed the Canucks out of some dicey moments when lapses were to be had. He’s cemented himself as the best option Vancouver has going forth until Thatcher Demko returns or Arturs Silovs finds his confidence again.

DeBrusk finally breaks through: It was a while coming, but Jake DeBrusk finally potted home his first goal as a Vancouver Canuck. His line with JT Miller and Brock Boeser was statistically Vancouver’s most effective unit, producing a team-high 88.89 CF% and 0.39 xGF, going along with a 92.30 xGF%. They had the ice tilted in their favour, capitalizing off of a weaker “first line” from the Sharks, with a 7-0 advantage in scoring chances and a 3-0 high-danger chance lead as well. Hopefully, it’s a sign of things to come, especially against stronger opposition.

What a difference a Suter makes: A two-goal performance from Pius Suter, including the game-winner, probably wasn’t on the betting cards for many. But, the Swiss forward made the most of his opportunities and found himself alongside Elias Pettersson and Conor Garland to finish up the game. From the stats, it was clear that his impact was huge. In just 2:57 TOI, the Suter-Pettersson-Garland line accumulated 0.34 xGF, the third-highest total on the team, equalling the number of scoring chances that the Bains-Pettersson-Garland had (3) while outdoing that line in xGF (0.27). Again, Bains should probably not be in the top 6, and the metrics had that line combination as the worst on the entire team last night.

The Canucks probably should’ve been able to beat the Sharks by a more handy margin. The issues plaguing the team when it comes to chance generation continue to ring through, unable to get a relatively weaker Sharks team to crack as much as they would like. Perhaps a positive thing to take away from this is that they didn’t give up much either, but Vancouver would like to be able to get more grade-A opportunities and capitalize on them. Still, it is nice to bounce back from a 6-0 shellacking with a victory.

Vancouver continues their California road trip in Anaheim, taking on the Ducks on Tuesday.