The Statsies: Hughes continues to buzz in Canucks’ loss to Panthers

The Vancouver Canucks dropped a high-scoring 8-5 affair to the Florida Panthers last night. Unfortunately, this team couldn’t get the job done, especially after scoring five goals, but at least this contest was entertaining. Defensively, there’s probably going to be some heads rolling for the sheer permissiveness, but otherwise, it’s hard to really be upset over this group finally running out of gas against the defending Cup champs.

Here’s the loss, by the numbers.

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

Game Flow

Vancouver started strong. The first period saw them evenly split a 50.00 CF% with their opposition, and actually controlled a 62.80 xGF% share. It would’ve been even better if they managed to come out of that period with the lead, but a 2-2 scoreline wasn’t the worst thing in the world. However, it was everything that came after that opening frame that did the Canucks in.

The team seemed to collapse coming out in the second statistically, with their CF% shares plummeting into the mid-30s. That opened the door for the Panthers to step on the gas, as they would total about 86.00 xGF% in the second and third, with a 9-0 high-danger chance margin in that timespan. Given these numbers, it’s absolutely realistic that Florida would turn the game in their favour, although probably not to the 8-5 extent that it finished up with. The Canucks were very much scoring against the flow of the game, keeping themselves afloat for as long as possible.

Heat Map

Florida turned up the heat on Vancouver in this one. The Cats finished with a 28-15 advantage in scoring chances and a 12-5 margin in high-danger chances. All of Vancouver’s high-danger chances came in the first period, with the team unable to get too much offensive traction for the rest of the contest. At least they were able to claw some goals out from other areas and on special teams, but the Canucks definitely didn’t have a sustainable plan for offence. As for the Panthers, they scored in bunches, and ideally, Vancouver just doesn’t bleed that many chances for as long as they did against quality opposition.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Quinn Hughes continues to make up for lost time and looks to be getting into a groove. The captain of the Canucks racked up a team-best 52.27 CF%, playing heavy minutes against the best that Florida had to offer. It was yet another multi-assist night for Hughes, racking up three, while also managing to hold off the Cats and limit the damage that they were able to do. During his TOI, the teams split an 11-11 scoring-chance battle and evened out at 5-5 in high-danger chances. Considering how the totals finished in both categories at 5v5 play, it’s a pretty impressive performance by Hughes at both ends of the ice.

Corsi Chump: Jake DeBrusk would bring up the rear in the Corsi department for the Canucks. Despite finding the scoresheet on the power play, the winger would also record a team-worst 12.50 CF%, on ice for two 5v5 goals against while going without any xGF during his limited TOI. That does come partially because of DeBrusk being paired up with 

xGF:  Leading the way in xGF% was Tyler Myers of all players, who managed to accumulate 62.29 playing against Florida’s second line for the majority of the night. The defenceman actually did pretty darn well all things considered, managing to hold a 4-1 high-danger chance edge in 11:40 5v5 TOI. That’s pretty darn solid, considering how lopsided the high-danger chances were in favour of the Panthers by the end of the night. A 0.97 raw xGF was good enough to put Myers as the second-best Canuck in that category, sitting just behind 

GSAx: Okay, for a fourth-stringer, this wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Jiri Patera made his Canucks debut and, honestly, did about what one would expect, given the situation he was thrust into. Florida totalled 3.68 xGF against him last night, and Patera gave up seven goals for a -3.32 GSAx. The goals came from all over the place, with two high-danger, four middle-danger, and one low-danger tally against him. Again, it’s anything but ideal to let in seven goals, but Patera did battle hard and came up with some pretty nice stops. Not bad from someone just there to fill in the gaps for a tired 

Statistical Musings

A struggle: David Kampf’s debut was certainly nothing to write home about. Obviously, it’s hard to be dropped right into a team and be expected to perform. However, Kampf was most noticeable skating to the bench every time the Panthers scored. Posting the third-worst CF% of 16.67, the forward ended with 0.00 xGF and 0.90 xGA, the latter of which was the second-worst mark on the team. That’s particularly impressive in all the wrong ways, as Kampf played just 9:13 at 5v5 and was on ice for three goals again. Hopefully, he’ll tighten it up, because this wasn’t a favourable first impression.

Has the Alien returned?:  Elias Pettersson has been putting up the points lately, and it looks like he’s coming back around to being productive at both ends of the ice again. The Swede managed to break even with the team average in both CF% and xGF% while being played against the likes of Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett, taking on tough assignments without getting buried. That’s pretty darn good considering how much the game was tilted in Florida’s favour, and EP40 still managed to pot two goals 5v5. Hopefully it’s a sign of a return to form, because Vancouver could definitely use a game-breaking talent at forward right about now.

As a team

CF% – 43.09% HDCF% – 38.10% xGF% – 38.26%

Considering how this road trip has gone and how badly the Canucks had been outplayed for the previous two contests leading up to this one, a result like this was bound to happen. They had their fourth-stringer between the pipes, and the defence just seemed way too permissive. At the very least, the offensive production was there, and the Canucks got a lot of production from their best players – something that had been missing for a good while. Ideally, that part can continue while the defence adjusts so as not to be a complete mess.

Vancouver returns home to host the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com