Not a bad way to go into Christmas.
The Vancouver Canucks defeated the San Jose Sharks by a 4-3 margin at home. While the score was the right result, the process wasn’t exactly to plan. It was a game that didn’t feature many scoring chances for both teams and one where the Canucks conceded a lot of puck possession to the Sharks. This didn’t cost them in this contest, but against better opposition who can make them pay, the Canucks probably don’t want to be making a habit out of it all. At the very least, it was nice to see an Elias Pettersson snipe show again.
Here’s the win, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Game Flow

As mentioned previously, the Canucks didn’t see much of the puck last night consistently. The Corsi percentages heavily favoured the Sharks at 5v5, with Vancouver giving up 38.89 CF%, 42.31 CF%, and 25.00 CF% in each of the periods. The only frame where that didn’t end up leading to a big San Jose xGF% advantage was the second period, where the Canucks coincidentally put up 3 goals on a 78.27 xGF% share. In the first, the xGF% was at 42.48, and in the third, that dropped to 23.27 xGF%. It made sense why the Sharks were able to score twice in the third – and Vancouver can’t be content with sitting back that hard on a lead.

Heat Map

There weren’t a lot of scoring chances to speak of in this game. At 5v5, the Sharks barely edged the Canucks out 13-12 in total chances, with San Jose also having a 6-4 lead in high-danger chances. Accounting for all situations, the numbers jump to 31-23 chances for the Sharks but 11-9 high-danger chances for the Canucks. The heat map reflects the lack of action at 5v5, with a large portion of the special teams numbers due to the 5-on-3 advantages that each team was able to have. Not the worst thing in the world, but if you’re the Canucks, you want to be producing a lot more than 4 high-danger chances at 5v5 against a team like the Sharks.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Leading the way in Corsi was Conor Garland’s 57.89 CF%. Featuring alongside Dakota Joshua and Pius Suter for the majority night, Garland would face down pretty much every skater that San Jose had in their top 6. That CF% isn’t a bad contribution at all, especially considering that he was 31.48 CF% rel to team average. Garland also recorded the 4th-best xGF% of 62.98, on ice for a 6-1 scoring chance lead and a 3-0 high-danger chance edge.
Corsi Chump: Danton Heinen was involved in a fracas tonight, and during his limited 5v5 ice time posted a team-worst 18.18 CF%. Given that the team average was pretty low, this isn’t the worst thing in the world. Thanks to that limited ice-time, Heinen would go on to post a team-low 0.01 xGF and 9.05 xGF%, but the winger wasn’t on ice for a high-danger chance against. It was nice to see him step up for a teammate in Teddy Blueger after a pretty dirty hit – Heinen gets a pass for the numbers for that one.
xGF: Dakota Joshua posted the best xGF% on the roster with 70.71, mostly thanks to recording the second-best xGA on the team with 0.16. There wasn’t much else to note as Joshua kept things pretty low-key, posting a 2-1 lead in total scoring chances and with all of them being high-danger looks. He also saw a large majority of his deployment in the defensive zone, suggesting that Tocchet wanted him to take on some of the tougher minutes last night. Who else but Quinn Hughes would lead the Canucks in raw xGF, putting up a 1.07 at 5v5.
GSAx: Thatcher Demko did what was asked of him. Besides giving up a last-minute goal that didn’t mean much in the scheme of the game, his GSAx stood marginally in the negatives with a -0.03 in the face of the Sharks’ 2.97 xGF. None of the goals came off of high-danger chances, with two being middle-danger and one being low-danger. It was by no means a bad game and came down to marginal chances. Demko did well in continuing his career dominance against the Sharks.

Statistical Musings

Pettersson’s night: Getting a two-goal contribution from Elias Pettersson has been few and far between recently, so it’s amazing to see him getting back to this kind of form. The second goal in particular was vintage Petey, the one with the confidence to grip it and rip it. Across all situations, the Swede finished with a 1.78 xGF, good enough for 3rd on the team, while his 79.76 xGF% was the second-best on the roster. The only two other players on the roster to have been on the ice for more high-danger chances than him were Garland and Hughes, making it some good company for him to keep. Something worth noting is that Pettersson didn’t have the best time centering Nils Hoglander and Jake DeBrusk at 5v5 – the trio recorded team worsts in CF% and xGF%. Still, the major headline was his early exit, and one can hope that the performance and extra rest can help spur Pettersson onto more of the same when he returns.
Please give more defensive depth: Some news that made waves earlier yesterday was the possibility that Hughes would not be dressing against the Sharks. While he did end up playing in the game, the defence corps without him in the lineup looked rough. Perhaps nothing more exemplifies how terrifying the prospect of a defence without Quinn Hughes would be than the Derek Forbort – Vincent Desharnais pairing. Last night, the duo was horrific, posting 22.22 CF% and a measly 17.21 xGF%. This was against the Sharks too, and in a low-event game at that. They were lucky not to be on the ice together for a goal against, but if either of them has to play in elevated competition… things probably won’t be going well for the Canucks.

As a team

CF% – 38.79% HDCF% – 55.00% xGF% – 50.31%
Honestly, the Canucks didn’t have their best game last night. Luckily for them, a strong stretch in the second proved too much for this young Sharks team to overcome. However, for them to consistently play good hockey, the next step is to be able to generate chances consistently and get good performances up and down the lineup. A win at home has been hard to come by, and it’s probably not worth nitpicking that much. But to be putting up these kinds of numbers against a team like the Sharks isn’t the most encouraging of outcomes even despite the victory.
Vancouver heads into their Christmas break, before returning to action on December 28th as they host the Seattle Kraken.
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