The Statsies: Kevin Lankinen robs Boston Bruins of victory in Canucks win

The Vancouver Canucks absolutely stole a result from the Boston Bruins last night, securing a 2-0 win thanks to an incredible performance from Kevin Lankinen. By almost all metrics, the Canucks deserved to lose in this one. There really was no redeeming quality to this match other than the effort of the man between the pipes. That’s crazy to think about, and perhaps speaks more to Boston’s ineptitude than Vancouver trying to pull one off.

Here’s the win, in numbers.

As always you can find it our glossary of advanced statistics here.

It’s really funny how one-sided this game was on the stat sheet. There wasn’t a single period where the Bruins finished below 67.00 CF% and at worst their xGF% was 73.74 in the third period. The flow of the game was therefore heavily in Boston’s favor, and it’s almost comical to see how both trend lines never came close to Vancouver’s favor. And yet somehow the Bruins still failed to convert.

It should come as no surprise to know that the Bruins heavily outscored the Canucks. At 5v5, the total odds were 27-8 for Boston, with a sizeable 13-1 advantage in high-risk chances. That shouldn’t be a surprise considering how much of the puck the Bruins had all night, amassing chance after chance without converting. That’s a good sign for the Canucks’ defense, which bent but didn’t break. It should also come as no surprise that the Canucks only managed to generate 0.36 xGF throughout the entire match, which will likely be a season low from this point on.

Corsi Champion: This won’t be the most staggering number ever, but given the team’s averages, it could be worse. Quinn Hughes finished with a 45.16 CF% to lead the Canucks in this one, with a 26.79 CF% relative to the team average. The defender also recorded the second-best xGF of 0.19, but only managed a total of 20.99 xGF%, showing just how much of the tide he had to fend off all night. At least Hughes only conceded two high-risk chances.

Corsi Chump: Okay, this looks bad, but it also makes sense given the stakes. Elias Pettersson finished with a team-worst 14.81 CF%, but that was against Boston who threw everything they had into holding back the only high-end talent the Canucks had up front. Pettersson spent most of the night against noted two-way center Elias Lindholm, with Boston deploying their defacto first line against him to halt Vancouver’s attack. It worked to an extent – ​​Pettersson managed just a team-worst 5.52 xGF% while on the ice for a 1-10 deficit, four of which came against risky chances. Again, given the overall context of this matchup, all the numbers become more than reasonable.

xGF: There isn’t much to choose from here either. Arshdeep Bains finished with the best xGF% of 37.63, indicating he hasn’t been on the ice that long, meaning his xGA was a team-low 0.05. With an xGF of 0.03, and compared to the rest of the team, that meant the Bruins didn’t trample him during the limited deployment Bains got. In terms of raw xGF, Pius Suter led the way with a… 0.2. Yeah, it wasn’t exactly a great day for Vancouver offensively.

GSAx: Thanks Kevin Lankinen. This was an all-time performance from the Finn to secure the win in Vancouver as the Bruins fired a total of 3.44 xGF on the night. Blanking them, Lankinen finished with a 3.44 GSAx, more than stealing the game for the Canucks as they only managed to score 2 goals in run support for him to work with. Notable among all this is that Lankinen stops all twelve of Boston’s dangerous shots and denies them their high-end looks.

Where the DPS didn’t shoot: Looking top to bottom at the stats in this game, one thing stands out: Vancouver’s first line was stifled in 5v5 play in this game. Again, knowing the Bruins threw everything they had at stopping this line, it makes sense, but the numbers weren’t kind to them. Overall, Jake DeBrusk-Elias Pettersson-Kiefer Sherwood finished with a team-low 18.18 CF%, 0.03 xGF, 0.53 xGA and 4.63 xGF% while on the ice for the worst 9 team’s scoring chances. It wasn’t nice to them at all, but it was part of the game plan the Bruins had, and they executed it well.

A test in the top 4: Erik Brännström has found money for the Canucks on the back end. However, with the increased stakes he saw against the Bruins, it was clear the team was trying to run a stress test to see if he could play in the lineup. Brännström finished with the worst CF% (14.81) among defenders, being on the ice for 4 high-risk chances against while having to shuffle around in his own end for a while. But similarly, despite giving up the worst CF% at the back, Brännström recorded the third-best xGF% among defenders, including some very well-timed blocks to save goals. And all that with the lowest ice time among defensemen.

CF% – 30.10% HDCF% – 10.00% xGF% – 18.46%

There’s honestly not much to talk about other than Kevin Lankinen. The Canucks held on by the skin of their teeth, spared by the Bruins’ complete incompetence to bury the many chances they had last night. Defensively there are some things to like, how they were able to bend under pressure but not break. But offensively, it was virtually a black hole, and given the numbers in this hole, the Canucks shouldn’t be trying to win games like this very often.

Vancouver is back in action tonight, heading to Pittsburgh to take on the floundering Penguins.

Statistics provided by naturalstattrick.com