The Vancouver Canucks came close to blowing a lead again, but pulled one out against the Edmonton Oilers to win 4-3 in overtime. Despite the lead, the Canucks were on their heels for much of last night, withstanding a lot of Oiler pressure throughout the contest. They did well for the majority of the contest to limit the amount of damage that Edmonton could do, and while it didn’t pay off in regulation, Vancouver was able to get the job done in the extra frame.

Here’s the win, by the numbers.

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

Game Flow

It’s apparent from the game flow that the Canucks weren’t ever truly in control of this game. Through the first two periods, they were handily out-possessed and out-chanced, Edmonton accumulating 10 high-danger chances across the first and second combined while Vancouver only had 2 in the same time frame. Ironically, it was the third that the Canucks had their best statistical performance, holding a narrow 3-2 high-danger chance edge and splitting a 50.00 CF% and 51.83 xGF%.

Heat Map

The heat map also shows the gulf between the two teams when it came to the quality of their scoring chances. Both teams had an 18-18 split in scoring chances, but it was the Oilers that posted a 12-5 edge in high-danger chances. That’s highlighted by that immense hot spot that they created in front of Thatcher Demko, while the Canucks in comparison didn’t manage much of anything. What was a little encouraging was seeing Vancouver reduce the number of high-danger chances they gave up steadily across the game, going from 6 in the first to 4 in the second, to just 2 in the third.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Surprisingly, it was Pierre-Olivier Joseph leading the pack in Corsi with a 61.90 CF% share during his time on ice. It was a good, low-event type of game for the depth defenceman, who managed to split near evenly at 53.05 xGF% while only giving up the 5th-lowest xGA at 0.27. Joseph wasn’t bleeding chances either, on ice for a 6-1 advantage in scoring chances overall and 1-1 deadlock i  high-danger chances. While he wasn’t a game breaker by any means, Joseph wasn’t a liability on the back end, which is pretty nice to see.

Corsi Chump:  Before he had to exit this game due to injury, Victor Mancini was not doing so hot. He was bringing up the rear at 25.00 CF% while being on ice for 0.00 xGF, meaning that his xGF% share was also 0.00. It wasn’t as if Mancini was bleeding chances, but he definitely wasn’t making a positive impact by any measure. Hopefully, the injury doesn’t keep him out for long in an already depleted Canucks lineup.

xGF:  There weren’t a lot of opportunities for the fourth line to get out there, but Arshdeep Bains made the most of what he got to record a 64.82 xGF% share, leading all Canucks in that category. There wasn’t too much to note because he only had 6:27 of 5v5 ice time, but it’s at least nice to know that he wasn’t being overexposed against some pretty tough opposition. Filip Hronek accumulated the most raw xGF on the team with a 0.75 to his name. That was coming off some heavy minutes against the Oilers’ big guns, so it wasn’t as if it was empty calories either. The Czech stepped up big in Hughes’ absence to help drive the Canucks’ back end as their 1D.

GSAx:  This is Demko’s “worst” game so far this season, and yet he still nearly broke even. Across all situations, the Edmonton Oilers accumulated 2.68 xGF against the Canucks. That meant that with three goals getting past him, Demko was ever so slightly in the negatives at -0.32 GSAx. Of the three goals, two came from middle-danger chances, while the remaining one was a high-danger chance converted into a goal. It wasn’t a bad performance by any means, and Demko certainly wasn’t dragging this team down. It’s a lot better sight than the -1.55 GSAx Calvin Pickard posted across from him, that’s for sure.

Statistical Musings

Matching up McDavid:  It’s not like Elias Pettersson hasn’t ever been used in a matchup role, but for a large portion of the last two years, JT Miller was given that responsibility of shutting down McDavid whenever these two teams went up against each other. But, with Miller out of Vancouver, Pettersson went head-to-head against one of the best players in the NHL last night. While his numbers don’t jump off the page, the Swede was able to hold McDavid off the scoresheet at 5v5, which is a pretty significant contribution. As well, Pettersson managed a very nice 69% faceoff win percentage against McDavid, making sure a good chunk of 50/50 pucks went the way of the Canucks. It’s nice to see these defensive contributions holding strong, and especially when he’s finding the scoresheet.

Chief Kief:  Kiefer Sherwood has been dynamite to kick off the season, and he put on a show last night against the Oilers. Playing on a line with Aatu Raty and Drew O’Connor, the line was threatening all of last night with a goal for, a disallowed goal, and a crossbar. They led all Canuck forward lines with a 61.11 CF%, taking advantage of playing away from the Oilers’ top line and dominating their matchups in the rest of the forward corps. It’ll be interesting to see what Sherwood’s next contract will look like if he keeps up this level of play.

As a team

CF% – 46.15% HDCF% – 39.13% xGF% – 47.74%

The Canucks were not the better team last night statistically. But, what they did do a good job of was capitalizing on their opportunities when they got them and riding out a lot of Edmonton’s pressure. They didn’t fold on themselves when the game got knotted up, and getting the win in overtime gets them a much needed result after a bit of a skid. Hopefully, the injury luck will get a bit better as well and the Canucks can return more players into the lineup.

Vancouver’s next matchup sees them hosting JT Miller and the New York Rangers tomorrow night.

Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com

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