The Vancouver Canucks started off their 2025-26 campaign with a win, topping the Calgary Flames by a 5-1 scoreline. It beats blowing a hefty first period lead like last year, but despite the scoreline, it wasn’t that comfortable a game. The Flames kept the Canucks honest for a lot longer than most people probably would’ve liked. In the end though, they ran out of juice, and Vancouver was able to capitalize on that – something that they weren’t able to do last year.

Here’s the win, by the numbers.

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

Game Flow

From the game flow, it’s clear that the game was very much in the balance through two periods. While it wasn’t a drastic edge, throughout the Canucks 1-0 lead early, the flow was slightly in favour of the Flames. It got to the point where at 5v5 play in the second, Vancouver only held a 31.82 CF% share. That lack of puck possession naturally was correlated with some poor xGF% numbers, the Canucks posting 31.4 xGF% in the middle frame. The first wasn’t much better for the record – Vancouver had 42.31 CF% and 34.93 xGF% to show.

The third period was where the Canucks “turned it on,” so to speak, accumulating 54.17 CF%, 78.34 xGF%, and 4 high-danger chances to boot. But it was also the only period where the home team actually out-chanced the away team, as Calgary had a 9-5 edge in total scoring chances heading into the final frame. So while it’s good to see the Canucks capitalize on a tired team running out of gas, the play leading up to that point wasn’t the best.

Heat Map

The heat map plays into the story told by the game flow. From this chart, it’s clear that the Canucks weren’t able to establish much in the way of a hot spot from a high-danger area. And no wonder – at 5v5 play, Vancouver saw a 12-14 deficit in total scoring chances with a slight lead in high-danger chances at a 4-2 margin. Simply put, that’s not a lot of offence at even strength play, and with 40:45 minutes of 5v5 action, it’s pretty poor numbers. At the very least, the Canucks were able to stymie the Flames defensively in return.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Leading the way in Corsi last night was Brock Boeser, who recorded a 57.14 CF% to lead the Canucks at 5v5 action. It figures that he would also be heading up the Canucks in terms of scoring chances for as well, posting a 71.43 SCF% share during his TOI. Lining up with Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson on the de facto first line, they weren’t at their tip-top shape early in the contest, but still managed to find a way to produce when the floodgates opened.

Corsi Chump: Bringing up the other end of the Corsi spectrum is Jonathan Lekkerimäki, who recorded 25.00 CF% as a team-low. That wasn’t saying that he had a bad game, but the numbers just didn’t like the fact that he was deployed with just 20% of his faceoff starts in the O-zone. Lekkerimäki posted a team-low 18.33 xGF% while playing heavy minutes against the Flames middle 6, which isn’t all bad considering he gave up just 1 high-danger chance against. Again, not the greatest numbers, but Lekkerimäki was able to show off that shot again, the one that makes him so valubale to this Canucks team.

xGF:  Boeser led the Canucks in expected goals share as well, winning the battle to the tune of 78.28 xGF% during 5v5 play. Not only did the winger have the aforementioned scoring chance edge, but he was also on ice for 3 high-danger chances for and 0 high-danger chances against. Coupling that with the third-best xGF of 0.87, and the share metrics will really like the impact that he was able to provide as an offensive threat for the Canucks. In terms of raw xGF, it was none other than Quinn Hughes who led the way with a 1.05. The Canucks captain didn’t find the scoresheet last night (which is a rarity for him), but it should still be encouraging that not only was Hughes able to contribute in other ways, but the team itself was able to find offence throughout the lineup.

GSAx:  The Flames didn’t get too many shots, but when they did, they were pretty dangerous. Having a netminder like Thatcher Demko between the pipes helped ease a lot of those threats. In total, Calgary mustered up 2.59 xGF on the night, meaning that with just the one low-danger shot squeezing past him, Demko posted a 1.59 GSAx. It was tidy work, and while he didn’t have to play game-saver, it was great to see him moving well, reading plays, getting ahead and in position, and making the game look easy. What a difference a healthy offseason can make.

Statistical Musings

Chytil’s night:  There was enough variation in Filip Chytil’s night that it almost looked like a Dvořák symphony. His start as the Canucks 2C was a little rough, coughing up the puck a couple of times and looking a little tentative. It didn’t last long, as soon enough, freed from the north-south chains, Chytil began to buzz. He was threatening offensively, racking up the team’s 4th best xGF of 0.62 and being on ice for 2 high-danger chances off 6 scoring chances. Again, considering that the Canucks only had 12 total scoring chances at 5v5, it isn’t exactly insignificant. Chytil didn’t just generate these numbers, though, as he converted those metrics into tangible results with 2 goals on the night. Hopefully, it’s a sign of things to come.

Cootes’ Debut:  For the 18-year-old, cracking the Canucks’ opening lineup mere months after being drafted probably seemed like a long shot. But Braeden Cootes was able to prove that he belonged, even if he didn’t stand out particularly. It should say a lot that a fresh rookie blended in without favourable deployment, a mere 57.14% of his faceoff starts coming in the offensive zone and 66.67% shift starts in the attacking end. Cootes’ ice time was limited, playing the second-least amount at 11:13 TOI, but there wasn’t a whole lot to hate about his game. Again, that’s pretty darn solid for a teenager in the best hockey league in the world.

As a team

CF% – 45.54% HDCF% – 38.46% xGF% – 50.40%

Winning to start the year is always a good thing. The Canucks were able to deliver by pouncing on a team that just straight up ran out of gas against them. That’s something that this group had trouble with last year, and hopefully this is a positive sign of things to come. Now, getting to the point of the win wasn’t the most convincing thing in the world, with some meh moments littered throughout the contest. But, again, this is just the start of the season, and there’s time to iron out those issues.

Vancouver heads into Edmonton tomorrow to face McDavid and the Oilers on Saturday night.

Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com