I didn’t eat dinner. All day. My self-inflicted hunger strike was set to expire only after the Nucks won their next game. Unless the next win wasn’t tonight, then the strike would be busted by stomach scabs served with a side of grease.

This was a must-win game. For the Nucks. And the Preds. Each team were on 7 losses in the last 8 brutal games. In our esteemed, fair and unbalanced NM opinion the Nucks had much more mustiness in their must-winning aroma. They needed the stinking win more.

Sure, we may have wanted the Nucks to dominate and win 5 on 5, but those ‘good’ wins are not important in the middle of a bad streak. Also... on the road in November, any win is a good win.

Tonight’s win was better than good, it was bazerk. Every 8 years the Nucks PP goes bazerk and scores 5 goals. FIVE! Last time was against Chicago in 2011.

Did we predict that tonight? Check the spw. I was oh so close. Forgot to specify the 5 on the PP.

How was that possible? Last game no PP goals. This game, all power-play goals. Almost.

Let’s get our spurs on and play that slick country hockey.

1st Period

The start of the period was better than it seemed.

How do we know this?

We know this because it is stated just two lines above.

Of course, it’s a road game with the home team as desperate as the road team. The home team seems a little more desperate 5-on-5. With more chances.

Sure, but what about the road team, they had chances too, right? Right. Chances to clear it out of their own end. To be fair, the Nucks did get a shot on Rinne by the 7 minute mark.

Sometimes the Nucks had the chance to get caught pinching. Which leads to...

A Nashville goal. By RJ. Yes, our RJ that would still be our RJ if the NM drinking club hadn’t got pulled over on the trip to liberate and re-patriot Ryan from the clutches of big USA money.

Anyhow... with that ongoing 2nd in the league record of allowing the 1st goal out of the way we can sit back and wait for the magic to happen.

Magic? Yes. Power-play magic.

The Nucks PP has a magic spell over Nashville. If only that same spell worked on 25 other teams...

It’s the first unit with the 1st PP goal from Pete.

After that sweet goal, the 2nd unit spins a little magic of their own.

Tyler Graovac tips the Eddie shot and the Nucks have the lead. On the road! On the PP!

That’s Tyler’s 3rd NHL goal in 3 years. He was saving it for Rinne and the this magic moment.

Nashville out-shoots 10-8 and out-plays the Nucks 5-on-5. Doesn’t matter.

We have the lead! That we will never surrender.

2nd Period

We didn’t surrender a single lead or malt in the game thread.

But the Nucks semi-legendary PK gave up a goal. Because Pearson was given a faulty stick. That broke. Otherwise the cross-seam pass that resulted in the Preds goal would have been unseemly. Or un-scored.

Oh well... with so much Nucks PP magic playing Nashville like Charlie Daniels playing the devil’s fiddle music, the Preds couldn’t help hum a bar or two.

With the bar still open at the gamethread, the Nucks are back on the power-play.

You know what that means. Another power-play, another goal.

This time, just to break the monotony and Rinne’s spirit, it’s Miller with a 35 foot seeing-tipped wrister that Pekka didn’t.

Boom! Lead restored. On the road! On the power-play! I’m not making this up.

And in honour of the Preds Scottish roots - the Nucks PP was ever so thrifty - 3 shots, 3 goals. Aye, that’s some canny hockey.

However, the the Preds keep taking stupid penalties. And the Nucks are already 3 for 3 on the canny man advantage.

Laviolette can be seen simmering behind the Preds bench. That will change to inflamed.

On the 4th Nucks PP of the game, this happened. Another Nucks power-play goal!

Doesn’t matter what the Nashville PK strategy is - play aggressive on the puck/player or stay back in formation.

There’s wild power magic in the Nucks power-play. If only they could harness it and use it against other teams besides LA and Smashedupville.

Hockey is a fun game when the Nucks score on all the power-plays.

To cap the the magic, Capt’n Bo puts his greasy magic in the net.

Nucks have 5 goals in the game. Seen that before. Nucks have 5 goals on PP!!! Haven’t seen that in almost a decade.

Period ends with Laviolette wanting to extend the intermission so he could personally strangle each of the Preds stupid penalty takers. And/or his PK unit.

Because the Preds had the advantage when the Nucks weren’t on the PP, which wasn’t that often, the shot count is 16-9 for Nashville.

And Marky stopped all but 1 of the 16. Whereas Rinne stopped 3 of 9. The game thread wants Rinne to play again on Saturday. For the Caps.

3rd Period

Laviolette doesn’t want Pekka to play in Nashville anymore. In this game. Soros starts in net and the Preds start on their fake comeback.

Sure, they had the Nucks on their heels, reeling from the pressure and worse than that, the Nucks magic power-play had a de-magical 2 minutes. Now only 5 for 6 on the night. Got to work on that conversion rate.

Still worse, Duchene gets a goal and the Tennesseeans are whooping it up. Like they’re back in the game. Game thread knows better.

The dreaded 3 goal lead is down to two. - Westy

—— 33.33% Less dread - Jimmi

Doesn’t matter. Marky is so dialled-in he could pickup an assist.

The Preds empty their net in the last few minutes. Pearson fills it with a 188 foot loft to restore the Nucks not-that-dreaded 3 goal lead.

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

A weird, caaaarazzze game. Sure. But any whacky road game in November that provides a happy ending is the best road game ever. This week.

Lousy 5-on-5 play and near perfect PP magic is one way to win a road game. Who knew?

The Nucks are off the schneid while still on the road. Good times in Nashville. Can we play there again on Saturday?

The 2 Johns were doing their Johnny-on-spot coverage for sportynet, but alas, we have to hear the crass voices of the homers. It’s ok, we still won.

STATS (Winnning Stats!)

	SOG	FO%	PP	PIM	HITS	BLKS	GVA
Canucks VAN	23	51%	5/6	12	5	22	11
Predators NSH	48	49%	1/6	12	17	7	13

PLAYER STATS (Feel the Power)

Nucks Special Teams Coach Brown, had a feeling about Tyler. Possibly a job-saving feeling.

The game’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd star, Marky, talks the aesthetics of winning. In November every win is a very pretty thing.

Miller is ready to get back to work already.

The road Green room was on the move, but we heard a few words...

Travis joked: ”Didn’t think PP had anything to do with it”

Also said when asked about the magic PP: “Not reading too much into it - you hope that it scores. Almost 22 minutes in special time. It was a weird game. “

Weird game, Big win!

We can’t get too win-wired, but why not...

Saturday morning the Nucks go retro with a peewee game in DC. Against a heavy non-peewee team, the Caps. Set your alarm to the hungover blurry point.