Christmas is always a good time to ask for things, right?

The title seems like common sense. Yeah, no duh, the Vancouver Canucks want to create more high-danger chances. Which fanbase, which team doesn’t want to be getting the best looks at the net, the ones that have the highest probability of becoming goals?

But it’s been easier said than done for this team.

To get a sense of the Canucks’ struggles offensively this season, let’s take a look at the numbers. So far this year, the Canucks have totalled 63 goals, tying them for fifth-worst in the league. That’s not great, and it isn’t as if Vancouver has been getting unlucky either. They’re the seventh-worst team in total scoring chances, sitting at 295 high-danger chances total, putting them as the fifth-worst team in the league.

Obviously, those aren’t great numbers, and more than explain why this team has been as bad as they have been this season. The lack of offensive production has also been affecting their overall share metrics, as they are the fourth-worst team in HDCF%, largely due to allowing the second-most high-danger chances against (378). The only team worse than them in that regard is Anaheim, but the Ducks at least get the fifth-most high-danger chances in the league to offset that impact.

Suffice it to say, the stats reflect the eye test. This team is hard to watch at times. They can’t get great looks at 5v5 play, the lackadaisical nature of their even-strength play spills over to a mostly anemic power play, and they continue to have difficulty defending in any setting. Not exactly the characteristics of a winning team.

If you’ve been keeping up with the Statsies at all this season, more often than not, it’s a lake of red in front of the Canucks’ own net, while there’s a frozen tundra in the offensive zone. And I do mean those adjectives literally.

Especially as this team undergoes another rebuild, looking to try and gain something out of this lost year, I hope that this group can figure out how to consistently generate those high-danger looks. This is an opportunity to rebuild this team’s identity and structure. Whether Adam Foote remains at the helm or not, for the team’s long-term success, they need to focus on those high-probability areas.

It’s not good enough to rely on netminding to bail them out. Kevin Lankinen has looked more than a little mortal this season after a stellar 2024-25 campaign. And while Thatcher Demko is brilliant, we’ve seen what happens when this team leans on him too much, given his injury concerns.

One of the more interesting things to come out of the Quinn Hughes trade is how the numbers have shifted for Vancouver. Don’t get me wrong, they still struggle to create scoring chances. Between December 12 and the time of this writing (December 23), the Canucks have the second-worst total scoring chance, only barely ahead of the New York Islanders in last. It’s marginally better in the high-danger chance category, where Vancouver sits in fourth-last.

That much makes sense, though. You lose your best defenceman in franchise history, and more often than not, the most dynamic, offensively creative skater on the roster. The offence will take time to adjust; it will take a hit, and the team as a whole probably won’t be able to fully recreate the impact a player like Hughes has.

But what has been interesting is how the Canucks have improved defensively. Vancouver sits just above average in total scoring chances against, good enough for 12th-best in the league over this span. They’re still giving up a lot of high-danger chances against, but in terms of overall numbers, it’s definitely a much better sight than where they were.

In an ideal world, the Canucks can continue to build on this defensive improvement and limit their opponents’ chance creation. A good, structured defence goes a long way, especially in post-season hockey.

But getting there in the first place requires this team to score goals. And what gives the Canucks the best chance of scoring is getting those high-danger chances. It’s an opportunity to develop good habits, to get into consistent, sustainable ways of creating offence, and to provide a long-term foundation for the younger players to develop that scoring touch this team so desperately needs.

It would also make this season far, far more enjoyable to watch.