Advanced Statistics Show How Bad Carson Soucy Was During Sunday's Loss to Nashville, Time for a Change?

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Cooper Godin
November 18, 2024 (8:09 PM)

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Advanced statistics show that last night's loss to the Nashville Predators at Rogers Arena was a tough one for Vancouver Canucks defenseman Carson Soucy.

The Vancouver Canucks continued their six-game homestand on Sunday night with the second-half of a back-to-back, as they hosted the Nashville Predators for the first time since the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Thanks to a three-goal second period, the Nashville Predators went on to win the game by a score of 5 to 3, giving them their sixth win of the 2024-25 season.

Carson Soucy's advanced stats vs Nashville show how poorly he played

There's plenty of blame to go around during last night's loss and it's hard to single out anyone individually. Heck, even J.T. Miller was bench during the third period by Rick Tocchet, but Carson Soucy didn't have a great game either.

When taking a look at the advanced statistics from the loss to Nashville, Michael Liu of Canucks Army highlighted how bad Carson Soucy played.

Carson Soucy had the worst Corsi percentage of anyone on the Vancouver Canucks at 29.03. For those who aren't familiar with Corsi%, it's calculated by dividing 'Corsi For' shot attempts by 'Corsi For' shot attempts + ' Corsi Against' shot attempts. Anything below 50% shows that the opposing team is doing much better at puck possession and generating shots attempts while a player is on the ice.

Along with having the worst Corsi percentage, Soucy was on the ice for 75% of Nashville's high-danger scoring chances at 5-on-5 and had the second-worst expected Corsi at 0.22 and expected Corsi percentage at 20.42.

"Carson Soucy finished with a team-worst 29.03 CF%, with his partner Tyler Myers not far behind in second-last with 36.67 CF%. Soucy was bad against the Predators, on ice for a 2-9 scoring chance deficit while facing three high-danger chances against - three-quarters of what Nashville was able to create at 5v5." Liu said.

He added, "The defenceman also had a second-worst xGF (0.22) and xGF% (20.42) with a team-worst 0.85 xGA. The player with the worst xGF and xGF% was Myers, with 0.11 and 13.64%, respectively. It's rapidly becoming obvious that these two cannot be a second pair."

Soucy, 30, has appeared in all 17 of Vancouver's games this season where he's registered just one assist, along with ten penalty minutes and was a minus-six. The Viking, Alberta native has one-year remaining on his contract beyond 2024-25 with a cap hit of $3.25 million.

Sure, Carson Soucy isn't known for his offense, so seeing him with only one assist through 17 games isn't much of a surprise, but Rick Tocchet and the Canucks need him to be better on the defensive side of the puck and in their own zone - hopefully soon.