3 takeaways from the Canucks’ 4-3 loss to the Calgary Flames last night

Sloppy overall play

The final scoreboard shows that Vancouver scored two power play goals, but that doesn’t accurately reflect their performance with the man advantage.

I’ve been saying this for a while now, but the Canucks have consistently struggled to gain and maintain offensive zone time, which is the most important aspect to sustaining a dangerous power play. The first goal was scored by the second unit with a second remaining in Calgary’s penalty, and the team largely failed to generate dangerous chances before then.

In fact, that was the first power play goal that the second unit scored this season.

That tweet was posted before the game, and the second unit still has a negative differential on the power play even after scoring.

The second goal scored with the man advantage occurred on a five on three, which is the only time that Vancouver had long stretches of offensive zone time in Calgary’s zone on the power play in the entire game.

Moreover, there were many sloppy possessions at five on five too, with the worst one being this soft pass from Bo Horvat that ended up in the back of the Canucks’ net.

The good news is that many of these mistakes are self-inflicted, which should mean that the team can fix them given time.

The bad news is, well, they’re running out of time to salvage the season.

Other notes

• The Lotto Line had another decent outing, as they ended the game with an expected goals percentage of 75.46% despite only controlling half the shot attempts, according to Natural Stat Trick. At this point, it’s safe to say that they’re back.
• After having one of his best games as a Canuck on Saturday, Tyler Myers struggled mightily last night. He ended up posting a 36.38% expected goals percentage, which was one of the worst marks on the team.
• As previously mentioned, Boeser tied the game up with less than a minute to go with a wrist shot. It wasn’t the prettiest goal he’s ever scored, but it’s still nice to see him shooting more and getting his scoring touch back.

The Canucks are back in action Wednesday against, you guessed it, the Flames. The two teams will square off in Calgary this time before Vancouver comes back home for a Friday night matchup versus the Jets. Let’s see if the team can bounce back with a win tomorrow.