The Vancouver Canucks‘ third-period rally wasn’t quite enough as they dropped a 4-3 decision to the Edmonton Oilers. But considering the difference in terms of personnel in the lineups, considering that Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl still played 13:52 TOI at 5v5 in a preseason game, the Canucks as a group didn’t do badly at all. Edmonton was riding their superstars hard for a preseason win, and that in and of itself speaks of how this game was going.

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

Another standout preseason performance

Yes, there’s a lot of chatter about Braeden Cootes, something that people might already be getting tired of. However, the numbers that he’s been putting up through these tune-up contests, playing with men and looking like he isn’t missing a beat, are something to be excited about.

Last night, playing pivot between Drew O’Connor and Kiefer Sherwood, Cootes played a significant role in Vancouver’s best statistical line. It wasn’t even close, really, as this unit dominated their minutes being deployed away from McDrai. In total, DOC – Cootes – Sherwood put up 90.91 CF% and 90.53 xGF%, ensuring that the Oilers didn’t so much as get a sniff of offence while managing to pour on the chances themselves. This line held a 2-0 high-danger chance edge through 7:25 TOI at 5v5 play with a 7-1 shot differential. While not playing against the best the Oilers had to offer might temper the hype slightly, the numbers were still excellent – and realistically, do you really want this line to be up against McDrai anyways?

McDrai matchup

Speaking of matchup duties, the Canucks decided to throw a pairing of Elias Pettersson – Marcus Pettersson and Filip Chytil as a shadow to play up against the McDavid and Draisaitl combo last night. That doesn’t sound like it would end particularly well, but these three players showed pretty darn well given the duties they had to contend with.

The defencemen saw their numbers tank while playing against McDrai, which is to be expected. The Pettersson² pairing posted some pretty awful share metrics, their CF% in the low 20’s and their xGF% sitting below 40%. But, in those 5v5 minutes, they only held McDrai to one high-danger chance and no goals against, which is some pretty solid work, preseason or not.

As for Chytil, he was buzzing throughout the entire game. While his CF% was 27.27 and xGF% was 28.81, the Czech still only held the big duo to 1 high-danger chance against, trading goals at 5v5 to even out the impact. Again, tidy work by someone who’s looking to make an impression, and especially so in an audition for a top 6 role.

Caddying except dragging his partner along

We got a chance to see Filip Hronek actually carry his defence partner through a game. Paired up with Derek Forbort, Hronek was responsible for driving the play pretty frequently as his partner was clearly a little rusty. Hronek’s efforts managed to buoy that pairing to 51.61 CF% and 48.95 xGF%, on ice for two goals for and three goals against. That’s not the best thing in the whole world, but given that Hronek ended up playing nearly half the game, it was a pretty sizeable effort by the Czech defenceman.

As a team

CF% – 50.94% HDCF% – 54.55% xGF% – 37.71%

Again, considering that the Canucks were icing a much younger lineup against two of the best hockey players in the world, they did pretty darn well for themselves. A 4-3 loss given the conditions and how they were able to rally when going down 3-0 provides plenty of positives to take into their next contest. Clear favourites have emerged with inside tracks to crack the opening day roster, while others have started to fade off just a little more. With just a couple of contests left and more cuts to make, it’ll be interesting to see who stays and who goes.

Vancouver heads back to Alberta for their next preseason contest, this time in the Saddledome on Wednesday to take on the Calgary Flames.

Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com