RECAP: NUCKS WIN! A Goal - Lose 4-1 to Jets

Another back to back in the central, another loss. Just as we planned. Throw-away games. Get those out of the way with conference opponents early. Points? No point collecting points in throw-away games.

Who decided these were throw-away games? NM Win/Loss Command. They delivered their verdict just moments after they turned lights off in the Nucks road locker room in the Peg. That’s the kind of pro-active pronouncements you can expect from a group of hot-headed reactionaries.

Factoid: Jets win streak is 9 games over the Canucks - dating back to Dec. 22, 2016. That’s a very long date. Jets have outscored Vancouver 31-10 during that one-sided courtship. Ugh.

Secondary factoid, it’s the 2nd game of a back-to-back that no one wanted. Did we ask to play in Winterpeg? No, we did not.

Ask Westy:

this arena is cursed for Vancouver - kinda like NJ - Westy

We knew in the SPW that good things don’t happen for the Nucks in the Jets rink. Thanks again, Westy, for the Curses.

1st Period

Good road period for the Nucks - didn’t give up the first goal. Didn’t get it either. Neither the power-play nor PK were tested - hence why the period remained scoreless.

The Nucks outshoot the home team 13-9, so that’s worth a road point right there. But we’ve decided that points on the road aren’t important. This week.

2nd Period

This period is where the Nucks win the game. Temporarily. We love our 5 goal 2nd periods.

And lose the game. More permanently. We don’t love our 1 goal 2nds.

But first, we get the first goal of the game. Yay!

It’s Miller time in Millerpeg.

Wooo! We’re winning in Winterpeg!

Stop the game, the game thread wants to get off to sleep it off.

Nope. Not to be. Instead, Bo takes an un-captainish penalty.

The Nucks PK goes to work. Spend the full 2 minutes in the death lanes. Laine maims Tanev and it’s a 5-on-3. However, Chris isn’t fully maimed. And the legendary Nucks PK warrior paused only to say this:

Nucks kill a penalty and that leads to a momentum shift another Nucks penalty. Thanks to Beags hanging onto Laine’s jersey just as Bo returns to the ice for a breakaway that didn’t get away.

And it’s a momentum shift for the Jets as they score on the quite odd-man advantage - Eddie was out momentumized and Demko was beaten by Roslovic. Ending Demko’s SO bid before it even got to the jinxing period.

What’s worse than a tie game on the road? Losing the tie too early.

And that worseness happens at the end of a Nucks shift as the Jets jet right back into the Nucks zone and the tie is broken. By the Jets.

Nucks get a late power-play, but the first unit has to wait until the 2nd unit doesn’t do much, so the 1st unit can match them. Jets keep breaking up the zone entry. And as we know, breaking up is so hard to do. Not harder than not getting a break up... but still...

It’s 2-1 Jetsetters after 2. Thanks to the Jets PP x2, outshoot the Nucks 19-9.

3rd Period

Do you get the feeling the Nucks can comeback and tie, get a point or win in OT? Me neither.

The road team is pressuring despite looking tired. But, still feisty, since Littlethings was kept on the bench.

Bo gets a great chance on Hellebuyck, but it’s not quite great enough. And worse, Connor strips Myers of the puck at the blue line blah blah blah Jets goal.

Down 3-1, the Nucks empty the net. Wrong net as it turns out. Would have been better to get an EN’r on the Jets, rather than blah blah blah.

The Curse continues and the Jets win 4-1 after 3. At this point the Nucks decline to continue and finish off this centralized road trip as it started. With a loss.

Highlights - for a brief moment in the 2nd - low lights after.

STATS (market corrected)

	SOG	FO%	PP	PIM	HITS	BLKS	GVA
Canucks VAN	33	53%	0/2	6	13	16	13
Jets WPG	35	47%	1/3	4	16	12	11

PLAYERS ($6M 7minute Lou)

It’s a Nucks loss on the road... so as is tradition, the Capt’n faces the worried media.

Here’s Coach ‘Better’ Green in a rare road Green room appearance.

Ok, so it’s officially a 3 game L-streak. The Nucks have 1 win in 5 games.

Is it time to over-react? Actually, anytime is the time to over-react. If you wait for just the right moment, the over-reaction can seem contrived. No one wants that. FFS!

We know there’s going to be peaks and valleys throughout the season. It’s just that the early 5-goals-a-period peaks really got us pretty peaked up. And now the descent into the depths of losing hell have us shivering in a dark shadow of last season’s basement.

That useless, meaningless road trip is over and we can return to the happy home of winning this Sunday afternoon at 1PM. Home is where the heart is. Winning at home is where the heart is.

2 or 3 game L-streaks are expected from a good team. More than that and the good loses some of its goodness. Let’s stay on the good side of goodness with a good ol’ home win.

Savour your Saturday commiserations and enjoy the Nucks bringing the goods on Sunday.