<p>That certainly was a hockey game of all time.</p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Two of the most boring periods of hockey I have ever seen tonight, then a cocaine fueled overtime. Weird game.</p>
<p>Also Canucks blew that one.</p>
<p>&mdash; Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheStanchion/status/1869618930878431653?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The Vancouver Canucks dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to the Utah Hockey Club in tough fashion. Coming out of the gates slow, the Canucks simply decided to sit back after getting their foot in the door as the teams traded hockey things for the remaining two periods. Seriously, it wasn&#8217;t that entertaining, and even with that the Canucks just couldn&#8217;t find enough to push themselves over the edge for the victory. That definitely is not a great thing considering they had a lead late in the game- but hey, at least there&#8217;s a loser point.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s the loss, by the numbers.</p>
<p>As always, you can find <a class="text-accent" href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/official-glossary-guide-canucksarmy-analytics-post-game-statsies" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">our glossary guide of advanced stats here</a>.</p>
<h1><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Game Flow</strong></em></span></h1>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-136089" src="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/12/20242025-20510-xgdiff-5v5.png" alt="" width="751" height="350" srcset="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/12/20242025-20510-xgdiff-5v5.png 751w, https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/12/20242025-20510-xgdiff-5v5-300x140.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 751px) 100vw, 751px" /></p>
<p>Utah had the game in their palms during the first period. Posting a 73.68 CF% and 90.68 xGF%, they had a huge 7-1 lead in high-danger chances to rack up a total of 1.52 expected goals in the opening period alone. The Canucks were fortunate to escape their less-than-serendipitous start without giving up a goal against, finding their footing in the game after the first intermission. Well, if it could be called finding their footing. Vancouver answered back in the second with 77.48 xGF%, posting a raw 1.08 xGF, but only managed 4 high-danger chances during that span. They would split the xGF% near dead even in the third despite having a 3-1 edge in high-danger chances, which unfortunately saw Utah find enough to even up the game on the powerplay before ending it in overtime.</p>
<h1><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Heat Map</strong></em></span></h1>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-136091" src="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/12/20242025-20510-5v5.png" alt="" width="803" height="422" srcset="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/12/20242025-20510-5v5.png 803w, https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/12/20242025-20510-5v5-300x158.png 300w, https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/12/20242025-20510-5v5-768x404.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 803px) 100vw, 803px" /></p>
<p>The heat map reflects the limited amount of chances that both teams managed to muster up last night. In total at 5v5, Utah held a 26-20 edge in scoring chances and a slim 9-8 advantage in high-danger chances. That difference is minimally noticed from looking at the heat map, with both teams posting a similar hot spot from in tight around the crease at a similar concentration. Overall in all situations, Utah&#8217;s lead shrunk to 35-31 for scoring chances, but grew slightly in high-danger chances with 13-11. Still, not a lot of action during the game to say the least.</p>
<h1><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Individual Advanced Stats</strong></em></span></h1>
<p><strong>Corsi Champ: </strong>Noah Juulsen is on a hot streak. The defenceman finished the game with a team-leading 60.71 CF% while managing to post the third-best xGF% of 79.03. Juulsen tied with his partner Carson Soucy for the second-most xGF of 1.00, while not being on ice for a single high-danger chance against. While Utah doesn&#8217;t exactly have massive guns to be icing, Juulsen still saw time against their better players, mostly matching up against the likes of Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz. They are not bad players by any means and give further support to the good performance Juulsen put in last night.</p>
<p><strong>Corsi Chump: </strong>Jake DeBrusk hit a bit of a wall last night. While the team-worst 25.00 CF% was bad, it also led to a horrendous 8.02 xGF%. That&#8217;s right, that reads 8 percent. DeBrusk not only produced a team-low 0.13 xGF but also gave up a third-worst 1.49 xGF while facing the likes of Ian Cole, Michael Kesselring, and the aforementioned Keller-Schmaltz-Hayton unit. Simply put, the winger shouldn&#8217;t be giving up that bad of a stat line to the competition that he faced last night.</p>
<p><strong>xGF: </strong>On the opposite end of the expected goals spectrum from DeBrusk was none other than Conor Garland, who recorded a team-high in xGF (1.24) and xGF% (84.78). That came thanks to Garland being on ice for a 9-5 scoring chance advantage and a 5-1 high-danger chance lead too, doing pretty darn well to limit opportunities against and grabbing over half of Vancouver&#8217;s high-danger chances during his TOI. It&#8217;s not a surprise given the deployment, where Garland featured on a wing with JT Miller and Brock Boeser, but it&#8217;s definitely still a good sign for one of the most consistent Canucks all season.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Conor Garland doing everything he can to tie this game! </p>
<p>🎥: Sportsnet | NHL<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canucks</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UtahHC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UtahHC</a> <a href="https://t.co/CCcRLuQLeW">pic.twitter.com/CCcRLuQLeW</a></p>
<p>&mdash; CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) <a href="https://twitter.com/CanucksArmy/status/1869616620014104942?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p><strong>GSAx: </strong>Thatcher Demko is genuinely not far off from Vezina form. He isn&#8217;t quite his old self but with the more games he&#8217;s featuring in, the more settled in he&#8217;s looking. Utah posted a 3.60 xGF last night, which meant that Demko finished with a 0.60 GSAx. While that isn&#8217;t the most impressive on paper, consider that most goalies giving up 3 goals would probably be in the negatives. Demko gave up two high-danger goals and one middle-danger goal, doing his darn best especially in the first to give the Canucks a chance at the win.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">A J.T. Miller giveaway on the power play turns into a Utah 3-on-1, but Thatcher Demko is there to save the day. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canucks</a> <a href="https://t.co/dxt7UDdKM9">pic.twitter.com/dxt7UDdKM9</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Lachlan Irvine (@LachInTheCrease) <a href="https://twitter.com/LachInTheCrease/status/1869600101116891504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<h1><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Statistical Musings</strong></em></span></h1>
<p><strong>One line isn&#8217;t enough: </strong>Simply put, Vancouver needs to figure out a way to get two lines rolling offensively at least at the same time. Last night against Utah, the Garland-Miller-Boeser line did well to put up 45.45 CF% and a team-leading 77.61 xGF%. While it didn&#8217;t result in a 5v5 goal for, the trio at least were consistently generating chances (which is also thanks to Hughes being stapled to them). However, the rest of the lineup wasn&#8217;t the greatest, and attention specifically falls to the DeBrusk-Pettersson-Sasson line. As the &#8220;second&#8221; line, they posted a team-worst 30.77 CF% and 32.38 xGF%, going with a team-low 0.13 xGF together at 5v5. The fact that the third and fourth lines were able to produce more raw expected goals than them should be cause for concern. It is a little head-scratching to have Max Sasson as high up in the lineup as he was &#8211; perhaps Kiefer Sherwood is a better fit alongside DeBrusk and Pettersson, actually to give the Swede options like the line Miller has.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">“We’re just trying different things right now,” says Rick Tocchet about the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canucks</a> power play personnel. </p>
<p>Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller on different units over the past two games.</p>
<p>&mdash; Noah Strang (@noahstrang_) <a href="https://twitter.com/noahstrang_/status/1869627787893776494?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p><strong>About Miller: </strong>Despite the decent numbers that he put up, something of note with Miller last night was the amount of giveaways that he had. He led the team with 3 turnovers and had some really dicey moments, things that probably could&#8217;ve and should&#8217;ve been prevented. Miller did not see a lot of 5v5 ice time and that seemed to have limit the damage at even strength &#8211; but noticeably, on the Utah overtime winner, Miller&#8217;s backcheck looked a little half-baked, leaving Soucy and Demko out to dry.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">JT Miller had 3 shifts in OT. They got progressively longer.<br />:49<br />:53<br />1:13*<br />a total of 2:55 of the 4:47</p>
<p>&mdash; Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) <a href="https://twitter.com/patersonjeff/status/1869783978330468715?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p><strong>The Soucy comeback train: </strong>Okay, again, that overtime winner didn&#8217;t look the best against Carson Soucy, but at the same time he played it as well as he could&#8217;ve, without his forward backchecking, and with the shot being one that Demko usually has. That shouldn&#8217;t take away from the solid effort that he turned in all game, yet another performance that he&#8217;s been stringing together. Soucy finished third on the team in CF%, one of 4 Canucks to finish above 50.00%, while his 84.31 xGF% pegged him in second place right behind Conor Garland. It&#8217;s territory that people didn&#8217;t think Soucy still had in him after the rough start to the year, but for whatever reason, Soucy and Juulsen have come to unlock the best parts in each other as a pairing.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Charts don’t tell the whole story but Soucy’s rebound over the past month has been a very positive development for the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canucks</a> <a href="https://t.co/3EmMdhGmc9">https://t.co/3EmMdhGmc9</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Noah Strang (@noahstrang_) <a href="https://twitter.com/noahstrang_/status/1869633015363883024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<h1><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>As a team</strong></em></span></h1>
<p><strong class="text-lg font-bold">CF% – 47.54% HDCF% – 45.83% xGF% – 46.32%</strong></p>
<p>Looking at the overall stats, the Canucks probably did deserve to lose marginally in overtime. But that still sucks, because the team had a lead in the third and looked probable to drive this to another two points. Vancouver can&#8217;t be in the business of counting losses on the road, especially when the struggles at home continue. Utah was very beatable here &#8211; it just didn&#8217;t seem like the Canucks had the juices to compete when it mattered the most.</p>
<p>Vancouver is right back in action tonight when they face off against the Golden Knights in Vegas.</p>
<p><em class="text-lg italic">Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com</em></p>
<p><strong>Sponsored by bet365</strong></p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>


That certainly was a hockey game of all time.
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&nbsp;

https://twitter.com/TheStanchion/status/1869618930878431653

The Vancouver Canucks dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to the Utah Hockey Club in tough fashion. Coming out of the gates slow, the Canucks simply decided to sit back after getting their foot in the door as the teams traded hockey things for the remaining two periods. Seriously, it wasn't that entertaining, and even with that the Canucks just couldn't find enough to push themselves over the edge for the victory. That definitely is not a great thing considering they had a lead late in the game- but hey, at least there's a loser point.

Here's the loss, by the numbers.

As always, you can find <a class="text-accent" href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/official-glossary-guide-canucksarmy-analytics-post-game-statsies" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">our glossary guide of advanced stats here</a>.
<h1><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Game Flow</strong></em></span></h1>
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-136089" src="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/12/20242025-20510-xgdiff-5v5.png" alt="" width="751" height="350" />

Utah had the game in their palms during the first period. Posting a 73.68 CF% and 90.68 xGF%, they had a huge 7-1 lead in high-danger chances to rack up a total of 1.52 expected goals in the opening period alone. The Canucks were fortunate to escape their less-than-serendipitous start without giving up a goal against, finding their footing in the game after the first intermission. Well, if it could be called finding their footing. Vancouver answered back in the second with 77.48 xGF%, posting a raw 1.08 xGF, but only managed 4 high-danger chances during that span. They would split the xGF% near dead even in the third despite having a 3-1 edge in high-danger chances, which unfortunately saw Utah find enough to even up the game on the powerplay before ending it in overtime.
<h1><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Heat Map</strong></em></span></h1>
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-136091" src="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/12/20242025-20510-5v5.png" alt="" width="803" height="422" />

The heat map reflects the limited amount of chances that both teams managed to muster up last night. In total at 5v5, Utah held a 26-20 edge in scoring chances and a slim 9-8 advantage in high-danger chances. That difference is minimally noticed from looking at the heat map, with both teams posting a similar hot spot from in tight around the crease at a similar concentration. Overall in all situations, Utah's lead shrunk to 35-31 for scoring chances, but grew slightly in high-danger chances with 13-11. Still, not a lot of action during the game to say the least.
<h1><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Individual Advanced Stats</strong></em></span></h1>
<strong>Corsi Champ: </strong>Noah Juulsen is on a hot streak. The defenceman finished the game with a team-leading 60.71 CF% while managing to post the third-best xGF% of 79.03. Juulsen tied with his partner Carson Soucy for the second-most xGF of 1.00, while not being on ice for a single high-danger chance against. While Utah doesn't exactly have massive guns to be icing, Juulsen still saw time against their better players, mostly matching up against the likes of Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz. They are not bad players by any means and give further support to the good performance Juulsen put in last night.

<strong>Corsi Chump: </strong>Jake DeBrusk hit a bit of a wall last night. While the team-worst 25.00 CF% was bad, it also led to a horrendous 8.02 xGF%. That's right, that reads 8 percent. DeBrusk not only produced a team-low 0.13 xGF but also gave up a third-worst 1.49 xGF while facing the likes of Ian Cole, Michael Kesselring, and the aforementioned Keller-Schmaltz-Hayton unit. Simply put, the winger shouldn't be giving up that bad of a stat line to the competition that he faced last night.

<strong>xGF: </strong>On the opposite end of the expected goals spectrum from DeBrusk was none other than Conor Garland, who recorded a team-high in xGF (1.24) and xGF% (84.78). That came thanks to Garland being on ice for a 9-5 scoring chance advantage and a 5-1 high-danger chance lead too, doing pretty darn well to limit opportunities against and grabbing over half of Vancouver's high-danger chances during his TOI. It's not a surprise given the deployment, where Garland featured on a wing with JT Miller and Brock Boeser, but it's definitely still a good sign for one of the most consistent Canucks all season.

https://twitter.com/CanucksArmy/status/1869616620014104942

<strong>GSAx: </strong>Thatcher Demko is genuinely not far off from Vezina form. He isn't quite his old self but with the more games he's featuring in, the more settled in he's looking. Utah posted a 3.60 xGF last night, which meant that Demko finished with a 0.60 GSAx. While that isn't the most impressive on paper, consider that most goalies giving up 3 goals would probably be in the negatives. Demko gave up two high-danger goals and one middle-danger goal, doing his darn best especially in the first to give the Canucks a chance at the win.

https://twitter.com/LachInTheCrease/status/1869600101116891504
<h1><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Statistical Musings</strong></em></span></h1>
<strong>One line isn't enough: </strong>Simply put, Vancouver needs to figure out a way to get two lines rolling offensively at least at the same time. Last night against Utah, the Garland-Miller-Boeser line did well to put up 45.45 CF% and a team-leading 77.61 xGF%. While it didn't result in a 5v5 goal for, the trio at least were consistently generating chances (which is also thanks to Hughes being stapled to them). However, the rest of the lineup wasn't the greatest, and attention specifically falls to the DeBrusk-Pettersson-Sasson line. As the "second" line, they posted a team-worst 30.77 CF% and 32.38 xGF%, going with a team-low 0.13 xGF together at 5v5. The fact that the third and fourth lines were able to produce more raw expected goals than them should be cause for concern. It is a little head-scratching to have Max Sasson as high up in the lineup as he was - perhaps Kiefer Sherwood is a better fit alongside DeBrusk and Pettersson, actually to give the Swede options like the line Miller has.

https://twitter.com/noahstrang_/status/1869627787893776494

<strong>About Miller: </strong>Despite the decent numbers that he put up, something of note with Miller last night was the amount of giveaways that he had. He led the team with 3 turnovers and had some really dicey moments, things that probably could've and should've been prevented. Miller did not see a lot of 5v5 ice time and that seemed to have limit the damage at even strength - but noticeably, on the Utah overtime winner, Miller's backcheck looked a little half-baked, leaving Soucy and Demko out to dry.

https://twitter.com/patersonjeff/status/1869783978330468715

<strong>The Soucy comeback train: </strong>Okay, again, that overtime winner didn't look the best against Carson Soucy, but at the same time he played it as well as he could've, without his forward backchecking, and with the shot being one that Demko usually has. That shouldn't take away from the solid effort that he turned in all game, yet another performance that he's been stringing together. Soucy finished third on the team in CF%, one of 4 Canucks to finish above 50.00%, while his 84.31 xGF% pegged him in second place right behind Conor Garland. It's territory that people didn't think Soucy still had in him after the rough start to the year, but for whatever reason, Soucy and Juulsen have come to unlock the best parts in each other as a pairing.

https://twitter.com/noahstrang_/status/1869633015363883024
<h1><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>As a team</strong></em></span></h1>
<strong class="text-lg font-bold">CF% – 47.54% HDCF% – 45.83% xGF% – 46.32%</strong>

Looking at the overall stats, the Canucks probably did deserve to lose marginally in overtime. But that still sucks, because the team had a lead in the third and looked probable to drive this to another two points. Vancouver can't be in the business of counting losses on the road, especially when the struggles at home continue. Utah was very beatable here - it just didn't seem like the Canucks had the juices to compete when it mattered the most.

Vancouver is right back in action tonight when they face off against the Golden Knights in Vegas.

<em class="text-lg italic">Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com</em>

<strong>Sponsored by bet365</strong>
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&nbsp;

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