Be sure to check out <a class="text-accent" href="https://betway.com/en/sports/grp/ice-hockey/north-america/nhl" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NHL betting odds site Betway</a> for all the latest Canucks game day odds!
Guess a trip to Disneyland can solve all problems.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
When you start falling asleep in the middle of class <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canucks</a> <a href="https://t.co/kW08sjnXTf">pic.twitter.com/kW08sjnXTf</a>
&mdash; Lachlan Irvine (@LachInTheCrease) <a href="https://twitter.com/LachInTheCrease/status/1637638763433324545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
After being dominated in Los Angeles, the Vancouver Canucks headed down the I5 and smothered the Anaheim Ducks, the 2-1 scoreline far too generous to the home team. In pretty much every aspect on and off the statsheet, the Canucks were great. The big asterisk on all of this was that it came against the Ducks who are one of the only two teams in the Pacific below Vancouver in the standings. Still, it&#8217;s nice to see a win like this, even if the scoreboard wasn&#8217;t the most comfortable of things.
Here&#8217;s the win, by the numbers.
As always, you can find <a class="text-accent" href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/official-glossary-guide-canucksarmy-analytics-post-game-statsies" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">our glossary guide of advanced stats here</a>.
<h1>Game Flow</h1>
<img decoding="async" src="https://www.naturalstattrick.com/graphs/20222023-21114-xgdiff-all.png" />
The expected goals trend line probably isn&#8217;t what you might expect, but it&#8217;s very explainable. The reason why it straddles so close to the midline is due to the Ducks&#8217; power play generating a large majority of their chances, and thus expected goals. Their xGF on the night goes from 2.28 across all situations to just 0.9 at 5v5 play. Most of that spike can be seen in their first power play of the game, where the xG line jumps straight up in the Ducks&#8217; favour. The amount they generated on that power play was enough to buoy their numbers to the end of the game.
However, puck possession absolutely favoured the Canucks. At even strength, they accumulated a 65.71 CF% over the entire game, not letting the Ducks have more than 39 CF% in a single period. They made good use of the puck retention as well, out-shooting Anaheim 40-18 and out-chancing them 27-15. It feels almost like a complete flip of the script from the Kings game.
<h1>Heat Map</h1>
<img decoding="async" src="https://www.naturalstattrick.com/heatmaps/games/20222023/20222023-21114-all.png" />
A sparse-looking heat map at both ends of the ice makes sense in this one. Though Vancouver did have the 27-15 edge in scoring chances, only 11 of them were considered high-danger. For Anaheim, they accumulated 7 HDCF over the course of 60 minutes. Neither team was able to get too much in terms of a hot spot going from high-danger areas. If it&#8217;s any consolation, the Canucks were able to get a slightly dark blue spot in the middle of the slot, though it wasn&#8217;t much.
Credit should be given to the defence as well in limiting the opportunities the Ducks had. Outside of the power play, Anaheim only managed 7 scoring chances, 5 of them high danger. It&#8217;s quite impressive given those numbers come across 45:55 minutes of game time. Of course, the Ducks aren&#8217;t exactly the most potent of offensive teams, but to hold an opposition to just a handful of high-danger chances is always a good way to win hockey games.
<h1>Individual Advanced Stats</h1>
Corsi Champ: For possibly the first time this season, there&#8217;s a tie for the best Corsi man on the Canucks. It isn&#8217;t the usual suspects either. Vitali Kravtsov and Vasily Podkolzin take home the joint champ award with a 87.50 CF%. It&#8217;s worth pointing out that despite not seeing more than 12 TOI per person, they were still shifted mostly against the Ducks&#8217; top 6 and doing a very good job against them as well. The two Russians were tied for the second-lowest xGA (0.1) as well, out-shooting Anaheim 5-0 while they were on ice. Kravtsov and Podkolzin have been streaky alongside Sheldon Dries, and it might just be worth trying them out with a different centre to see what they can do.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Kravtsov staying out on the ice without his helmet to win a board battle: <a href="https://t.co/NNaTytRHEI">pic.twitter.com/NNaTytRHEI</a>
&mdash; Lachlan Irvine (@LachInTheCrease) <a href="https://twitter.com/LachInTheCrease/status/1637626970434592768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Corsi Chump: Even in a game where the Canucks comfortably out-possessed their opponents, a chump does have to exist. Last night that was Dakota Joshua coming in at a 38.71 CF%, enough for a -33.51 CF% rel. Joshua did give up the highest xGA in the lineup (1.59) which isn&#8217;t too surprising. What is surprising is that his 1.12 xGF actually somewhat helps balance it out. Vancouver was out-chanced 4-8 when Joshua was on ice, but he was able to keep the Ducks to only 4 HDCA. Meanwhile, three out of the four scoring chances Joshua had were high-danger. It was a mixed bag of numbers, one that suggests a bit of a free-flowing game from the fourth line.
<h2 class="mb-5 text-2xl font-bold">THE STATSIES PRESENTED BY BETWAY<img decoding="async" class="w-full" src="https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Betway-Article-Image.jpeg" alt="" /></h2>
xGF: This one is Anthony Beauvillier&#8217;s, and the numbers are absurd. He led the Canucks with an astounding 93.78 xGF%, which made him likely to score 94% of the time he was on ice. Of course, Beauvillier finished with zero points last night, but the offensive gravity that he commands through this type of chance generation should not be underestimated. Beauvillier had 15 scoring chances for, with zero scoring chances against and 5 high-danger chances to boot. In fact, the Canucks outshot the Ducks 17-2 while he was on ice. It was that sort of night for Beauvillier alongside Elias Pettersson.
A shoutout does go to Andrei Kuzmenko&#8217;s 92.12 xGF%, just barely in second place. He recorded the best xGA on the team (0.08) with 10 SCF and 0 SCA. Essentially, the Beauvillier-Pettersson-Kuzmenko line was once again clicking after a run of games under the radar.
GSAx: Colin Delia was solid. This is the type of game that a backup like him should be getting, and it shows in the numbers. Anaheim managed to generate 2.28 xGF, thus meaning Delia&#8217;s GSAx was 1.28 in the positive. This is far cry from the numbers that he had put up in the last couple of months, seeing a heavy load thanks to Thatcher Demko&#8217;s injury. Coming in every so often against a weaker team will doe wonders not only for his confidence, but the stats that he puts up in appropriate settings. The only goal that got past him was recorded as high-danger, meaning that Delia was perfect from all the areas he was expected to make a stop. He wasn&#8217;t busy, but was good when needed.
<h1>Statistical Musings</h1>
Quinn Hughes becoming underrated: Again, this is a topic that we at CanucksArmy have touched on a lot in the past while, but Quinn Hughes is having himself a season. He&#8217;s one of only 3 defencemen in NHL history to have back-to-back 60 assist seasons, and only the second Canuck skater to hit that mark multiple times since Henrik Sedin. It&#8217;s a shame that Vancouver has been playing poorly this year or else Hughes would probably be featured a lot more. Against the Ducks, the defenceman was excellent as always, leading the team in xGF (2.85) while the Canucks out-shot Anaheim 23-4 when he was on ice. It was an absurd contribution, especially when you consider Hughes saw 27:19 of TOI and still managed to pump his rate metrics higher.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Quinn Hughes picks up 2 more assists to give him 206 in 270 career games.
Most assists per game among defencemen in NHL history (minimum 200 assists):
Bobby Orr &#8211; 0.98 Paul Coffey &#8211; 0.81<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canucks</a> Quinn Hughes &#8211; 0.76 Ray Bourque &#8211; 0.73 Denis Potvin &#8211; 0.70 <a href="https://t.co/zu9VAXx6CC">pic.twitter.com/zu9VAXx6CC</a>
&mdash; Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) <a href="https://twitter.com/SNstats/status/1637834708821180422?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Ethan Bear and&#8230; Tyler Myers?: Yup, that&#8217;s right, two right-handed defencemen were slotted on the same pairing last night against the Ducks. That&#8217;s already an oddity in this league, so how was their performance? Honestly, it wasn&#8217;t too bad. Myers looked to have done the heavy lifting last night, with the pairing posting a 50.00 CF%, 57.14 SF%, 67.32 xGF% and limiting the Ducks to 5 scoring chances against. Bear&#8217;s numbers drop significantly away from Myers, going to a 20.00 CF%, 0.00 SF%, and 38.59 xGF%. It might just be him shaking off the injury rust, but this isn&#8217;t quite the same Ethan Bear that we saw alongside Quinn Hughes. Meanwhile, good work and credit to Tyler Myers for using the healthy scratch as motivation.
<h1>As a team</h1>
CF% – 61.14% HDCF% – 61.11% xGF% – 65.46%
It&#8217;s a tale of two ways to win a hockey game. The Vancouver Canucks got the job done against an inferior opponent yesterday by dominating them in pretty much every statistical category. It&#8217;s what is expected of them, and they were able to show as much in every facet but the scoreboard. The stark contrast of this performance vs the one with the Kings is definitely odd, but shows that the Canucks are able to pull points out of results now regardless of how the momentum is flowing. Whether that&#8217;s a good or bad thing at this juncture of the season still remains to be seen.
Next up, Vancouver heads into Las Vegas tomorrow to square off against the Golden Knights.
Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com

Be sure to check out <a class="text-accent" href="https://betway.com/en/sports/grp/ice-hockey/north-america/nhl" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NHL betting odds site Betway</a> for all the latest Canucks game day odds!

Guess a trip to Disneyland can solve all problems.

https://twitter.com/LachInTheCrease/status/1637638763433324545?s=20

After being dominated in Los Angeles, the Vancouver Canucks headed down the I5 and smothered the Anaheim Ducks, the 2-1 scoreline far too generous to the home team. In pretty much every aspect on and off the statsheet, the Canucks were great. The big asterisk on all of this was that it came against the Ducks who are one of the only two teams in the Pacific below Vancouver in the standings. Still, it's nice to see a win like this, even if the scoreboard wasn't the most comfortable of things.

Here's the win, by the numbers.

As always, you can find <a class="text-accent" href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/official-glossary-guide-canucksarmy-analytics-post-game-statsies" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">our glossary guide of advanced stats here</a>.
<h1>Game Flow</h1>
<img src="https://www.naturalstattrick.com/graphs/20222023-21114-xgdiff-all.png" />

The expected goals trend line probably isn't what you might expect, but it's very explainable. The reason why it straddles so close to the midline is due to the Ducks' power play generating a large majority of their chances, and thus expected goals. Their xGF on the night goes from 2.28 across all situations to just 0.9 at 5v5 play. Most of that spike can be seen in their first power play of the game, where the xG line jumps straight up in the Ducks' favour. The amount they generated on that power play was enough to buoy their numbers to the end of the game.

However, puck possession absolutely favoured the Canucks. At even strength, they accumulated a 65.71 CF% over the entire game, not letting the Ducks have more than 39 CF% in a single period. They made good use of the puck retention as well, out-shooting Anaheim 40-18 and out-chancing them 27-15. It feels almost like a complete flip of the script from the Kings game.
<h1>Heat Map</h1>
<img src="https://www.naturalstattrick.com/heatmaps/games/20222023/20222023-21114-all.png" />

A sparse-looking heat map at both ends of the ice makes sense in this one. Though Vancouver did have the 27-15 edge in scoring chances, only 11 of them were considered high-danger. For Anaheim, they accumulated 7 HDCF over the course of 60 minutes. Neither team was able to get too much in terms of a hot spot going from high-danger areas. If it's any consolation, the Canucks were able to get a slightly dark blue spot in the middle of the slot, though it wasn't much.

Credit should be given to the defence as well in limiting the opportunities the Ducks had. Outside of the power play, Anaheim only managed 7 scoring chances, 5 of them high danger. It's quite impressive given those numbers come across 45:55 minutes of game time. Of course, the Ducks aren't exactly the most potent of offensive teams, but to hold an opposition to just a handful of high-danger chances is always a good way to win hockey games.
<h1>Individual Advanced Stats</h1>
Corsi Champ: For possibly the first time this season, there's a tie for the best Corsi man on the Canucks. It isn't the usual suspects either. Vitali Kravtsov and Vasily Podkolzin take home the joint champ award with a 87.50 CF%. It's worth pointing out that despite not seeing more than 12 TOI per person, they were still shifted mostly against the Ducks' top 6 and doing a very good job against them as well. The two Russians were tied for the second-lowest xGA (0.1) as well, out-shooting Anaheim 5-0 while they were on ice. Kravtsov and Podkolzin have been streaky alongside Sheldon Dries, and it might just be worth trying them out with a different centre to see what they can do.

https://twitter.com/LachInTheCrease/status/1637626970434592768?s=20

Corsi Chump: Even in a game where the Canucks comfortably out-possessed their opponents, a chump does have to exist. Last night that was Dakota Joshua coming in at a 38.71 CF%, enough for a -33.51 CF% rel. Joshua did give up the highest xGA in the lineup (1.59) which isn't too surprising. What is surprising is that his 1.12 xGF actually somewhat helps balance it out. Vancouver was out-chanced 4-8 when Joshua was on ice, but he was able to keep the Ducks to only 4 HDCA. Meanwhile, three out of the four scoring chances Joshua had were high-danger. It was a mixed bag of numbers, one that suggests a bit of a free-flowing game from the fourth line.
<h2 class="mb-5 text-2xl font-bold">THE STATSIES PRESENTED BY BETWAY<img class="w-full" src="https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Betway-Article-Image.jpeg" alt="" /></h2>
xGF: This one is Anthony Beauvillier's, and the numbers are absurd. He led the Canucks with an astounding 93.78 xGF%, which made him likely to score 94% of the time he was on ice. Of course, Beauvillier finished with zero points last night, but the offensive gravity that he commands through this type of chance generation should not be underestimated. Beauvillier had 15 scoring chances for, with zero scoring chances against and 5 high-danger chances to boot. In fact, the Canucks outshot the Ducks 17-2 while he was on ice. It was that sort of night for Beauvillier alongside Elias Pettersson.

A shoutout does go to Andrei Kuzmenko's 92.12 xGF%, just barely in second place. He recorded the best xGA on the team (0.08) with 10 SCF and 0 SCA. Essentially, the Beauvillier-Pettersson-Kuzmenko line was once again clicking after a run of games under the radar.

GSAx: Colin Delia was solid. This is the type of game that a backup like him should be getting, and it shows in the numbers. Anaheim managed to generate 2.28 xGF, thus meaning Delia's GSAx was 1.28 in the positive. This is far cry from the numbers that he had put up in the last couple of months, seeing a heavy load thanks to Thatcher Demko's injury. Coming in every so often against a weaker team will doe wonders not only for his confidence, but the stats that he puts up in appropriate settings. The only goal that got past him was recorded as high-danger, meaning that Delia was perfect from all the areas he was expected to make a stop. He wasn't busy, but was good when needed.
<h1>Statistical Musings</h1>
Quinn Hughes becoming underrated: Again, this is a topic that we at CanucksArmy have touched on a lot in the past while, but Quinn Hughes is having himself a season. He's one of only 3 defencemen in NHL history to have back-to-back 60 assist seasons, and only the second Canuck skater to hit that mark multiple times since Henrik Sedin. It's a shame that Vancouver has been playing poorly this year or else Hughes would probably be featured a lot more. Against the Ducks, the defenceman was excellent as always, leading the team in xGF (2.85) while the Canucks out-shot Anaheim 23-4 when he was on ice. It was an absurd contribution, especially when you consider Hughes saw 27:19 of TOI and still managed to pump his rate metrics higher.

https://twitter.com/SNstats/status/1637834708821180422?s=20

Ethan Bear and... Tyler Myers?: Yup, that's right, two right-handed defencemen were slotted on the same pairing last night against the Ducks. That's already an oddity in this league, so how was their performance? Honestly, it wasn't too bad. Myers looked to have done the heavy lifting last night, with the pairing posting a 50.00 CF%, 57.14 SF%, 67.32 xGF% and limiting the Ducks to 5 scoring chances against. Bear's numbers drop significantly away from Myers, going to a 20.00 CF%, 0.00 SF%, and 38.59 xGF%. It might just be him shaking off the injury rust, but this isn't quite the same Ethan Bear that we saw alongside Quinn Hughes. Meanwhile, good work and credit to Tyler Myers for using the healthy scratch as motivation.
<h1>As a team</h1>
CF% – 61.14% HDCF% – 61.11% xGF% – 65.46%

It's a tale of two ways to win a hockey game. The Vancouver Canucks got the job done against an inferior opponent yesterday by dominating them in pretty much every statistical category. It's what is expected of them, and they were able to show as much in every facet but the scoreboard. The stark contrast of this performance vs the one with the Kings is definitely odd, but shows that the Canucks are able to pull points out of results now regardless of how the momentum is flowing. Whether that's a good or bad thing at this juncture of the season still remains to be seen.

Next up, Vancouver heads into Las Vegas tomorrow to square off against the Golden Knights.

Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com

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