NUCKS WIN! Fowl 5-4 Loss

The less we say about this easy pre-scheduled win against the lowest scoring team in the league, the better our drinking songs will sound.

So... in that fine pseudo-musical tradition, let’s just put this one on the final spot of the 3 game losing streak. And then hit it with an interfering stick.

Nucks looked good for the last 10 minutes in the first and the last 12 minutes of the 3rd. The squishy middle bit was looking like a semi-formal too many goals unanswered disinterested judicial mystery.

1st Period

As per tradition, the Nucks permitted the migrating hockey birds to have looks and shots at the local game keeper goal keeper.

After blocking, our new D-kid Teves shot from the point, Ducks 1st rounder, Sam Steel steals the puck for the Steely breakaway. Marky didn’t keep his keepers kept tight.

According to Westy, this was a night of omens. And this wasn’t a good one.

No matter.

After the ritual goal against, the Nucks are now permitted to score at will. Hockey gods willing.

And they were. Rootin’ n tootin’ for Virt.

Jake breaks into the zone and snaps a shot at/near the goal and puck deflects off Fowler’s skate past Gibson. Yay!

Ugly duckling goal or swan skates ballet? You decide.

Doesn’t matter.

The hockey gods are playing puckery with the fowlest of the duckery.

Eddie slaps a shot on goal. Gibson might have had it, but for Perry’s flyby tip. It’s a goal!

It’s the lead! The game! The win!

No way the lowest scoring team in the league can get another goal.

2nd Period

Half way through the 2nd period, that observation is pssibly correct.

And then the probability meter was dropped. Westy picked it and shook it. Probably looking for a loose omen.

Instead it was loose defensive play at the line by Leivo that cascaded into an uncovered rebound off Marky and another goal by the shooting of Steel.

Ugh. 2-2 tie. It’s not a good omen. And the Omenish were pushing the refs for puritanical rulebook references.

Granny is doing the work of lazy linemen, clearing the stick out of the way. And accidently on purpose in the way of fowl passing.

And after much discussion and scratching of the Nucks luck wheel of badness, the refs decided it was a penalty shot. The official call was: “Markus Granlund PS - Thow object at puck”.

And even though the foul was on Fowler, the lucky Ducks get to pick their shooter. Rookie coach, Murray, picks Steel to shoot and steal the game. And he does.

His first NHL hattie. Sam’s last goal was last October. That’s the Nucks luck way - curing goal droughts. For others. Maybe try that rookie mojo cure for Pete. Sure, 7 games without a goal isn’t a drought, but it’s an annoying dry spell.

What’s even more annoying is the fowl 3-2 lead by the Ducks. But the Nucks, the not-lowest scoring team in the league, can baste and waste that poultry lead.

Nucks are outshoot 9-6 in the 2nd. The measly 6 shots symbolises the squishy middle bit that still has some squish left to squash.

3rd Period

Probably on your NHL debut you wouldn’t want to take your first penalty against the 2nd most lethal PP in the league. I know, it’s a weird stat. The Duck’s are the lowest scoring NHL team with the 2nd best power play. I don’t make this stuff up. The NHL does.

Anyhow, Teves takes a hooking call and the fowl PP workers make him, us, the Nucks pay.

It’s 4-2. It’s the omen Westy has been waiting for. The exact score that his team-free prediction predicted. The game thread speaks in fowl tones. Westy doesn’t care and leaves the game thread early to count his freshly won rigged SPW points.

For those of us left in the game thread, the mood was not ducky. Not at all.

And was about to get much worse. While Schenn had been sticking up for Pete against the Anahoo Bullies, his passes to Pete could do with a little more finesse. Looked like a sound defensive play - it usually is, give the puck to Pete is pretty much a Nucks mantra.

However, the hard pass can’t be contained by Pete and rebounds out to an oppourtunistic, high shooting Ducker. Dammit!

That’s it. Game is over. The ROGgers are exiting the building. The game thread is exiting its minds.

Or is it?

That last egregious goal seemed to spark the Nucks. The Never-Quit-Canucks. Yeah, remember those guys? Well...they’re back for a time-limited 12 minute appearance at home.

With a little help from a bad clear attempt by Gibson - thanks, we’ll take it. So will Leivo. Snaps a shot past Gibson for the redemption goal of the night.

If Pete had scored, that would have been more redemptive, but that’s for the next game. Hattie night in Canada. For Pete.

The leftover crowd in the ROG are making some noise. Many early-birders are going back to their seats.

A couple of high compete shifts later and the comeback is almost complete. Just 53 seconds after the first almost equaliser, Pearson scores the 2nd almost equaliser.

Marky is not the only one giving out juicy rebounds and not every Canuck can miss the empty net every time. The probability meter might be operational again. Westy’s gaming of the SPW system has been thwarted by fowl or fair luck.

The not-as-empty ROG is rocking.

After a long hiatus, it’s the Comeback Kids! Live on the ice in Vancouver!

They’re going to tie the game.

But the minutes trickled down the jerseys and left no time on the clock for the full equaliser.

The game thread wasn’t too upset...

Close but needed the Ducks to score another on their own net.

Posted by Canta

Nucks lose 5-4 to the lowest scoring team in the league. That stings a bit.

In the 10-12 minutes of engagement Nucks have put 16 shots on Gibson in the 3rd. As many as the 1st and 2nd combined.

If only the Nuck PP had more than 1 chance... 5 or 6 chances might have changed the tone of the game. And the score.

The 2 Johns intone the goal-fest in the West.

The Nucks and Ducks are tied for semi-last in the West with 74 points each. The Nucks hold a game in hand. Which means they don’t hold much at all.

Fowled Stats

Nuck Luck Stats

A hard fought loss? In places. Entertaining loss at least? It was in the final 10 minutes or so.

Can’t ask for much more at this uncritical juncture of the season.

Bo had a radio interview and used words that are too strong for the delicate nature of NM recaps. Suffice it to say he was really pissed about the big droop in the 2nd and early 3rd, despite the pre-game team talk the players had about playing the full 60 minutes.

Ok, in the redacted version, Bo said:

“We had a 30-minute lull and we can’t be doing that. “We showed what we could do there in the last 10 minutes of the game; we were all over them, in their zone all the time. We’ve got to play like that every single game, every shift, everybody.” - Horvat

Meanwhile, Eddie set a milestone. Or matched a mile record. With his 93rd Nuck goal, he tied Mattias Ohlund’s franchise record for defencemen. He pondered the imponderable as well:

“We’ve all got to be hungry and play hard. It’s a little bit frustrating that we could be so good and so bad in the same game.” - Edler

Marky had a tough night - a sub .800 SV% will do that.

Our newest D gets his post-game media debut.

Teves didn’t look too bad for his 1st NHL game either. Look forward to his progress. If not in this season, then next.

Over in the Green Room it’s getting weird. And not just in the margins of the rule book.

And that’s your Vancouver Canucks 77th game of the season. Probably felt like the 1007th game for some of young kids. And a few vets.

Just one more pre-scheduled easy hard won game. The former royalty from LA-LA-land land in the ROG to witness their castoff forward score 3 or more on their soon-to-be castoff goalie. Or at least pulled in the 2nd consecutive game.

Either way, we need to savour (or sorta tolerate) this final stretch of meaningless games. That does allow us to assign our own meanings. Put aside your ponders and plunders and gird your inner Nuck fan tissue for Thursday.