The Vancouver Canucks lost 3-1 on the road to the Edmonton Oilers, in a game where the scoreline flattered them dramatically. Make no mistake, if it weren’t for the stellar efforts of Thatcher Demko, the final score would’ve been blown wide open in favour of the home side. There wasn’t a whole lot to like about the team’s efforts, and the stats only further back that up.

Here’s the loss, by the numbers.

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

Game Flow

While the game flow doesn’t look terrible at first glance, one look at the Y-axis shows that this game was always consistently and heavily in favour of the Oilers. Vancouver only broke 50 CF% in the third period, getting outpossessed handily through the first and second. Naturally, that led to a ton of expected goals against them. The Oilers totaled 1.14 xGF in the first period alone, and just from 5v5 play as well. There was not a single period where the Canucks finished above 50% in expected goals share, their best period coming in the second at 45.90 xGF%. It should say a lot when accounting for all situations, the Canucks got pumped by a 5.57-1.71 xGF margin.

Heat Map

Maybe this should be called a lack of heat map, because the Canucks were pretty darn bad at creating chances for themselves. The total scoring chances were 24-17 at 5v5 for Edmonton, the Oilers also holding a 9-5 HDCF edge as well. It shows with the much more expansive patch that Edmonton was able to create, whereas Vancouver had a hint of a similar spot forming. Certainly, it wasn’t encouraging, and the probability of scoring just wasn’t there for the Canucks to be threatening at all.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: One of the only Canuck skaters to make an impact last night was Quinn Hughes. He was one of only 4 Canucks to finish above 50 CF%, with a 60.53 CF% to lead the way. Unfortunately for Hughes and the rest of Vancouver, there wasn’t much else in the way of puck possession from anyone else, and the lack of offensive impact was only magnified by that.

Corsi Chump:  When the numbers are this bad as a team, the worst man on the roster looks putrid. Derek Forbort brought in a 14.29 CF% as the worst player on the team, getting absolutely cooked no matter who he was thrown out against. Forbort faced the second-most xGA of 1.09 and posted the 4th-worst xGF% of 14.50, on ice for a 4-1 deficit in high-danger chances. The fortunate part was that he wasn’t on ice for a goal against, but with numbers like those, it would’ve just been a matter of time.

xGF: Hughes was the team’s leader in xGF% as well, posting a 67.01 to lead the way. Only 4 Canucks broke the 50.00 xGF% mark as well, showing just how tilted the ice was in favour of the Oilers. Hughes’ team-eading 0.95 xGF came off the back of a 13-7 scoring chance differential, while also posting a 4-2 HDCF lead. Thing is, when a player is on ice for 4 out of 5 high-danger chances, it’s not a great look for what the rest of the team is contributing.

GSAx: Without Thatcher Demko, this game would’ve been a blowout. The American netminder was on top of his game to give the Canucks a chance to win this contest, performing highway robbery again and again and again. Edmonton racked up 4.89 xGF against the Canucks while Demko was between the pipes, and with just 2 goals getting past him, the final GSAx was 2.89. Demko gave up 1 high-danger chance goal and 1 middle-danger chance goal, which really isn’t bad at all. And certainly, given the firing squad that he was facing, this was a stellar performance.

Statistical Musings

Where D-Petey got hosed: One of the things that stood out in all of the worst ways last night was Elias Pettersson’s numbers. The defenceman got absolutely rinsed by the Oilers, with a team-worst 1.21 xGA and 6.14 xGF%. That last number meant that every time Pettersson was on the ice, Edmonton controlled a 93.86% expected goals share, a viciously high probability of scoring. No wonder too – at 5v5, Pettersson gave up a 1-11 scoring chance difference and a 0-5 high-danger chance hole. Not great, suffice it to say.

Do something, Elias (please): Possibly the most frustrating aspect of last night was the lack of presence from Elias Pettersson the forward. EP40 just didn’t do much at 5v5, and the numbers highlight that lack of impact. Only seeing the ice for 9:49 of 5v5 play, Pettersson was middle of the pack in CF%, ever so slightly negative at -2.48 CF% rel to team average. The expected goals numbers were alright, coming in at 60.95 xGF% to be the third-best mark on the team. However, that was only coming from a 0.55 raw xGF, Pettersson on ice for a 5-5 scoring chance split and 2-2 high-danger chance split. There was no game-breaking quality to the Canucks’ 1C, and that was frustrating in and of itself.

As a team

CF% – 37.27% HDCF% – 26.92% xGF% – 23.44%

That scoreline flattered the Canucks effort last night, or lack thereof. They were pummeled by the Oilers in a pretty awful display, the Stanley Cup finalists taking the game to the visitors and never letting them really get into it. It’s frustrating to see, especially given that many things from years past haven’t really changed, and there isn’t much dynamism to be seen. One star player performed as a skater, and their netminder turned in a worldie of a performance. Too bad no one else was there to help row the boat.

Vancouver returns home to host the St. Louis Blues on Monday.

Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com