That could’ve ended a lot worse.

The Vancouver Canucks lost 3-1 against the St. Louis Blues, in a game where it looked like they were going to get the wheels blown off of them. Their opposition didn’t need to be that good – the Canucks looked in the business of beating themselves, and it is a small miracle that they didn’t get shelled given the territorial disadvantage that they put themselves in. This game might’ve been the worst 5v5 effort we’ve seen thus far in the season, and that’s saying a lot from this crew.

Here’s the loss, by the numbers.

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

The first period numbers have to be seen to be believed. Vancouver would finish the frame with a staggering 9.52 CF%, which is just obscene to think about. The visualization for that would be that the Blues had the puck for just over 90% of 5v5 action, which just shouldn’t be happening in the NHL. Fittingly, the Canucks also recorded a 6.59 xGF% in the first, which just feels like a season’s worst. The second period was marginally better, but considering that the benchmark was subterranean, there was nowhere to go but up. Vancouver posted a 33.33 CF% and 30.55 xGF% in the second, giving up a big 0.66-1.51 xGF tilt during 5v5 play. The Canucks did have the stats favour them more in the third, with a 59.09 CF% and 65.55 xGF%, but it was clearly not enough, and the team’s raw production wasn’t enough despite them scoring against the flow of the game.

The biggest thing to note from last night was that the Blues themselves weren’t particularly impressive. Scoring chances stood at 28-13 for St. Louis, with just a mere 7-5 high-danger chance advantage for the visitors. One would expect a lot of the high-danger chances to have come in that first, but it was a 7-0 lead for St. Louis in overall scoring chances and a mere one high-danger chance amongst that in the opening frame. The bulk of the action came in the second, where the Blues held a 16-7 lead in chances and a 6-4 edge in high-danger opportunities. It wasn’t like the Canucks’ opponents were particularly dominant, but it just seemed like this team was going to give up whatever the Blues needed to get the win.

Corsi Champ: Zeev Buium finished with a team-best 47.22 CF%, which should show just how badly out-possessed the Canucks were last night. Paired up with Filip Hronek, Buium would be on ice for a single goal against while posting the fourth-best xGF% on the team with a 41.42. That’s right, the fourth-best tally on the team was well below 50%. Impressively enough, Buium would finish the game with a 3-2 lead in high-danger chances, despite being on ice for a slim 9-10 deficit in overall scoring chances.

Corsi Chump: Teddy Blueger bore the brunt of the possession disadvantage the Canucks had, recording a team-low 12.50 CF% while being thrown out against the entire Blues top six to try and stem the bleeding. Blueger would actually finish with a 0.00 xGF% share, on ice for a 0-10 hole in scoring chances and 0-3 deficit in high-danger chances. Suffice it to say it wasn’t the best outing for him territorially, but on the bright side, he wasn’t on the ice for a goal against.

xGF: Tom Willander paced the Canucks in xGF% at 46.78, managing to do this while going up against the said Blues top six alongside Marcus Pettersson to boot. His CF% numbers weren’t great, sitting at 27.27, but despite being on ice for a 4-9 differential in scoring chances, Willander held a 2-1 edge in high-danger chances when all was said and done. That’s pretty solid given everything that was going against them, and the quality of opposition that Willander was facing. Leading the way in raw xGF was Drew O’Connor, who racked up a 0.83 xGF while flanking Elias Pettersson for all of last night.

GSAx: Kevin Lankinen was not the reason why the Canucks lost last night. Given everything in this low-event contest, the Blues only managed to post a 2.43 xGF all night. The Finn turned away all but a high-danger chance and a low-danger chance for a 0.43 GSAx. It was pretty much everything that the Canucks could’ve asked for out of him, and Lankinen certainly broke even last night. Unfortunately, the team in front of him didn’t manage to live up to their end of the deal.

The Canucks are not a good team. Last night, they somehow played even worse than that. Territorially, they were in such a hole that it didn’t seem like they were going to get in the double digits in overall shots at all. There wasn’t much to like or to watch either, as the Blues themselves weren’t particularly good in this win. Probably the only positive to take away from this one is that the Canucks continue to lock up 32nd in the NHL.

Vancouver gets two days off before hosting the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.