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The Statsies: Where the Canucks outbore the Kraken for a shootout win
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Photo credit: © Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images
Michael Liu
Dec 30, 2025, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Dec 30, 2025, 12:01 EST
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That was certainly a game of all time.
The Vancouver Canucks secured a 3-2 shootout win in their last away game of 2025 against the Seattle Kraken. There honestly wasn’t much to see in this one as both the Canucks and Kraken really struggled to open the game up at 5v5 action. Neither team truly seized the initiative, and it ended up being relatively quiet and boring. But hey, at least Kevin Lankinen picked up more saves for his pristine shootout record.
Here’s the win, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Game Flow

From the way the first period started, one might be forgiven for thinking that the Kraken were going to run away with things. They looked the better team early and got themselves on the board first thanks to a Jared McCann power play goal (because of course it was him). But the Canucks didn’t let themselves get too far out of it, and managed to close out the period with a 55.56 CF% share and 68.50 xGF% share, which was their best tally of the game. Vancouver racked up 1.24 xGF in that opening period too, which would be their high mark in a period as well.
After that, the game kind of stalled out for both sides in the second. Yes, the Canucks still held strong share metrics, but dropped down to just 0.48 xGF in the period. The third rolled around, and Vancouver sat back in the expected goals department while Seattle pushed to result in a 20.4 xGF% share. The home team had a full 1.00 xGF, while the Canucks only managed 0.26 in the third. Fortunately, that didn’t cost them going into overtime.

Heat Map

Again, there wasn’t a lot to write home about in this contest. Overall, Seattle had the edge in scoring chances with 24-18 at 5v5 play, but the high-danger chances only stood at 10-7 favouring the Kraken. That’s shown in the vague hot spot that Seattle posted in front of Lankinen, definitely out-chancing the Canucks in that regard but not enough to be wholly overwhelming. As for Vancouver, they didn’t do too much of anything to threaten Joey Daccord, at least not enough to show up on the heat map.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Kiefer Sherwood led the Canucks in CF% last night, recording a 75.00 to lead the team. He hasn’t been putting up the points lately, but getting bumped down the lineup has allowed him to post some stronger analytics against weaker opposition. Sherwood was also used extensively on the penalty kill, continuing to feature strongly on special teams. The hope is that he can rediscover his shooting touch a little and rack up a couple of points as the Canucks look to move him.
Corsi Chump: Brock Boeser continues to be ice cold. The Canucks winger recorded a team-worst 38.89 CF%, on ice for just 4 shots for and 11 shots against. Naturally, that resulted in some pretty bad expected goals numbers, as Boeser tallied the second-worst xGF% on the roster with a 36.79, only narrowly missing out on the team’s worst mark belonging to Nils Hoglander at 36.11 xGF%. Given how much Boeser played though, his impact was arguably worse, being on ice for a 5-11 scoring chance deficit during his 17:19 TOI. It’s just not good enough from a supposed offensive leader on this Canucks group.
xGF: Sherwood led the Canucks in this category too, recording a 73.64 xGF% while being on ice for a 4-2 advantage in high-danger chances. If you’re keeping track, that meant that at 5v5, he was on ice for 4 of the 7 high-danger chances Vancouver managed to total. Again, he hasn’t been racking up the points like he did at the start of the season, so hopefully that can change in the near future, but the analytics are certainly painting him in a very friendly light. Sherwood’s 0.73 xGF was just behind the team’s leader in raw xGF, Filip Hronek, who registered 0.76 xGF on the night.
GSAx: Kevin Lankinen definitely did his part in getting the Canucks this win. The Finn was tested especially early and late in this contest, and faced down 3.40 xGF across all situations at the hands of the Kraken. That meant with just 2 goals against, Lankinen finished with a 1.40 GSAx, giving up a high-danger and low-danger goal. It’s not the worst performance in the world by any means, and he did quite well all things considered. The shootout was yet another dime from Lankinen as well, staying otherworldly in that regard.

Statistical Musings

The kids on the back end: Pairing up Zeev Buium with Tom Willander feels like a look at the future top pairing the Canucks sport. The duo were pretty darn solid according to the numbers, tallying up 69.23 CF% and 50.45 xGF%, splitting evenly with a 2-2 scoring chance battle and 1-1 high-danger chance margin. It’s some solid, tidy work from the young defencemen, continuing to show that they belong at the NHL level and contribute. One can only imagine what they could become as they mature and develop going forth.

As a team

CF% – 50.78% HDCF% – 32.00% xGF% – 43.96%
The Canucks were not particularly impressive in this one, but managed to get themselves the win. Whether that’s the best-case scenario for this team in the long run is another debate, but two points are two points, and they did enough to get it to a shootout where Lankinen took care of the rest. A lot of things still weren’t the best, and this Canucks group is definitely showing that they shouldn’t have been anywhere near the playoff picture. But, at least, there are promising signs from the young guns on this team, and it’ll be interesting to see how they develop as the season goes along. Hopefully, the Canucks can play more entertaining hockey along the way.
Vancouver is right back in action tonight, closing out the 2025 calendar year by hosting the Philadelphia Flyers.
Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com
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