Right back to regularly scheduled programming.

The Vancouver Canucks couldn’t string together back-to-back home wins again this season, getting drubbed by the Tampa Bay Lightning to the tune of 6-2. Tampa struck early and often, burying Vancouver in a hole on the scoreboard that they simply couldn’t climb out of. It makes sense – this is one of the best teams in the league versus the team in dead last place. At the very least, the Canucks could take some positives from the performance of their younger players, despite the heavy defeat.

Here’s the loss, by the numbers.

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

For a bit in the first, the game hung in the balance for the Canucks and Bolts. Neither team seized the advantage until about halfway into the opening frame. From that point on, it was pretty much all Tampa. The Lightning were rolling through the Canucks at 5v5 action, producing 1.45 xGF in the first off 5 HDCF while holding a 79.35 xGF% share as well. Things would be much the same in the second, as despite dropping from a 66.67 CF% in the first to a 55.88 CF% in the second, Tampa would still manage a 1.28 xGF and 78.83 xGF%, pretty much playing the Canucks off their own rink through 40. The third would see them ease off a little as Vancouver managed to post a 59.38 CF% and a 57.72 xGF% – but it clearly didn’t move the needle much at all in the grand scheme of the game.

The heat map not only shows just how much the Canucks were outchanced, but also highlights how much more clinical the Bolts were when it came to capitalizing on their opportunities. The raw numbers aren’t horrific – Tampa had a 27-20 lead in scoring chances at 5v5, with an 11-7 lead in high-danger chances. The gap between the two teams can definitely be visualized, but the Lightning were clearly trying to exploit something given the spread of their densest shot attempts – and it was working for them too. Being able to deliver on the opportunities that you create is one of the biggest things when it comes to converting expected goals into actual goals, and that’s something Tampa was able to deliver in spades, where Vancouver simply could not.

Corsi Champ: Leading the way in CF% was Victor Mancini. Much maligned for usually bringing up the rear of the group, the defenceman found himself posting a team-best 73.91 CF% while splitting time between Zeev Buium and Elias Pettersson as his pairing partners. Mancini primarily faced the bottom 6 of the Bolts, specifically in the form of Corey Perry and Nick Paul, but it isn’t like they’re a run-of-the-mill bottom 6 either. Against them, the defenceman held a pretty solid 8-2 edge in shots, an impressive feat no matter how you look at it.

Corsi Chump: This is a pretty rare sight to see these days. Filip Hronek brought up the rear in the Corsi department, putting up a 29.55 CF% while seeing heavy deployment against Tampa’s second line. It’s a rare off night for the Czech defenceman, who has been so good all season. Hronek was on ice for a team-low 2.45 xGA, resulting in the team’s second-worst xGF% at 15.12. Vancouver was outchanced 5-17 while Hronek was playing, with a 2-8 margin in high-danger chances. Obviously, there should be some grace given, considering the body of work that Hronek has put in along with the quality of his opposition.

xGF: Mancini finds himself pacing the Canucks in this category as well, recording a team-high 74.65 CF% with the second-best xGA of 0.14. The defenceman held an 8-4 advantage in overall scoring chances, while splitting a low-event 1-1 high-danger chance battle, which really isn’t the worst indication of everything. A low-event outing from a depth defenceman is never a bad thing, and posting the share metrics that Mancini did should always be taken as positive. Leading the way in raw xGF was Linus Karlsson, coming in at a 0.90 xGF and managing to find the back of the net as well.

GSAx: Kevin Lankinen really tried his heart out here. Facing 3.44 xGF from the Bolts, the 6 goals that got past him meant that his GSAx was a rough-looking -2.56. Probably a big contributing factor to this was the 2 low-danger goals that he gave up, with a single goal against coming from middle danger and 3 high-danger goals against to finish the job. There really wasn’t much help coming his way though, as Tampa took full advantage of a very leaky Canucks group. Lankinen managed to get a save-of-the-year candidate going, though, as a silver lining to an otherwise very brutal outing.

The final stats across all situations probably flatter the Canucks more than they should. This team was simply outplayed – but that’s alright, given the fact that Tampa is a very good team, and Vancouver is literally the league’s worst team. They had a good stretch of hockey coming into this game, and that much shouldn’t be forgotten even in the face of this loss. There’s only a couple more rides before the season ends, and the draft lottery odds continue to improve with each and every defeat.

Vancouver hosts the St. Louis Blues for their next contest tomorrow.