clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

GAME RECAP #36: NUCKS WIN! NEW L-STREAK! GET BOLTED 4-2

A Road Trip To Forget Is Still Too Fresh - And Not Over!

By jimmi.cynic
/ new
NHL: Vancouver Canucks at Tampa Bay Lightning
Huggie Wants Bigger Goalie Pads
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

This wasn’t the loss we wanted. The loss we wanted was the one where Bubble Demko stunned the Bolts with the SO and Pete had his 1st hattie of the year, the season, all the seasons we spent dreaming of clobbering the covid cup chumps...

Ok, fine. The other loss we wanted, but not as much, would have been in OT or skillz practice. A loser point would have gone some ways to taking the sting off this current string of road rage reg losses.

Instead, the Nucking tropical pre-season road tour continues with a win drought. Which is weird for humidifying reasons as well as human interest ones.

If there were any positives for Bruce and the Bumpers to take from this game it was the Nucks 4th line. It was again the most dangerous line for the Nucks - so that’s something.

After the de-rusting treatment in the SoBe swamps, the Nucks were better prepared to start this game hard and fast. And they did. And still gave up the 1st goal. On the PK.

Oh well... at least the Nucking 4th line put Vaski in the no-see zone and Highmore scored to tie it up.

Highmore scores! We win the Gaudette trade! — Gwailoh

If only the Nucks could have preserved the tie to the end of the 3rd 2nd 1st. Not to be because Westy’s expectation bias will not be denied.

Last minute goal against...that’s the Canucks I know — Westy

At least the Nucks preserved the 1 goal down for the entire 2nd, with those tasty road-baked brownie points Nucks can take them to the intermission kitchen and supplement their single turnover.

We were primed for a comeback kids mockumentary moment in the 3rd, but Bolts mocked first.

Mistakes jumped on by the Lightning

3-1 — Westy

But still The Nucks have the Nucking best 4th line on the Nucks and will not be denied. Motte mocks Vasi with sweet short side shot from between the feet.

That’s a filthy goal, Tyler Motte — Kent

The Nucks looked closer to getting a loser point in this game than last, so that’s progress. A better loss than last? Sure, why not?

You know what wasn’t better? The ‘Right’ guy does...

This was an “if only” game. If only the PP worked....if only they took less penalties....if only the top line could score. — Westy

If only the middle top line could score. Would even settle for the bottom top line scoring. But so far this [redacted] pre-season tropical tour, only the Nucking 4th line can score.

The PP hasn’t scored on the road in over a week. The PK was back to 66% effective. However, small tweaks there and here and there and this woulda been a different game. Of course we said that about the PP and PK in November and it took large freaking tweaks to get a W-streak.

Neither Bruce nor JR can force Pete, Millzie, Bo, Podz, Pears, Hoagie, Brock, Gnarly, Huggie or OEL to score. That’s on NM. But, we’re not keen to get involved in tropical hockey motivational movements.

Still... it was a good hard-fought road game by the Nucks against the 2nd best tropical team. Nucks can add the hard-earned 0 points to the standings and take comfort in not having to perform fancy math addition exercises.

ROAD CAP

The 2 Johns called this tropical storm in a T-bay cup.

GAME STATS (winning again - the shot clock)

SOG FO% PP PIM HITS BLKS GVA
Canucks
VAN
 26 52% 0/4 8 22 9 1
Lightning
TBL
 21 48% 1/3 10 29 20 2

SHOTS THAT COUNT (just not enough of them)

Period VAN TBL
1st 13 8
2nd 4 5
3rd 9 8
Total 26 21

PLAYER STATS (legit 4th line time)

# Forwards GP G A P P +/- S PIM PIM SOG HITS BLKS GVA TKA FO% TOI PP TOI SH TOI PP GW
6 B. Boeser 0 0 0 0 -1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 19:53 5:52 --:-- 0
8 C. Garland 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 1 0 0 0 13:52 1:52 --:-- 0
9 J.T. Miller 0 0 0 0 -1 2 0 2 2 1 0 0 62 21:52 6:24 1:55 0
15 M. Highmore 1 1 2 2 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 12:15 --:-- 1:21 0
18 J. Dickinson 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 71 10:01 --:-- 1:08 0
21 N. Hoglander 0 0 0 0 -1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 13:20 2:18 --:-- 0
40 E. Pettersson 0 0 0 0 -1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 16:58 5:39 --:-- 0
53 B. Horvat 0 0 0 0 -2 2 2 2 4 0 0 0 39 19:25 5:56 1:06 0
64 T. Motte 1 1 2 2 1 2 0 2 0 2 0 3 13:57 --:-- 1:57 0
70 T. Pearson 0 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 33 18:36 2:21 0:17 0
91 J. Lammikko 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 60 13:45 --:-- 1:34 0
92 V. Podkolzin 0 0 0 0 -1 1 2 1 2 0 0 0 9:45 0:02 --:-- 0
# Defense GP G A P P +/- S PIM PIM SOG HITS BLKS GVA TKA FO% TOI PP TOI SH TOI PP GW
2 L. Schenn 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 3 1 0 0 16:49 --:-- 1:59 0
5 T. Poolman 0 0 0 0 -1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 13:38 --:-- 0:50 0
23 O. Ekman-Larsson 0 0 0 0 1 5 0 5 1 3 1 0 21:23 1:19 3:16 0
43 Q. Hughes 0 0 0 0 -1 3 0 3 0 0 0 2 27:16 6:41 1:36 0
57 T. Myers 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 3 0 0 0 18:21 0:02 1:37 0
77 B. Hunt 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 15:26 1:34 --:-- 0
# Goalies GP REC GA SV SA S EV PP SH SAVE-SHOTS SV% PIM TOI GAA
35 T. Demko -- 17 20 15–17 2–3 0–0 17–20 .850 0 58:49

GETTING PRESSERED

Here’s a voice to hear - Highmore talking about his first goal of the season.

Bruce is a positive guy and we need more good points - whether they’re made in the pressers or in the standings. Points in the standings still feel better tho.

Bruce sees the little details... like the PP not going. He’s going to work on it. Westy will vouch for that.

As badly as these 2 tropical games have turned out, we have to remember the worst part of the eastern cabal tour is yet to come. We don’t have to remember and now that I’ve mentioned it, you can forget it.

The next 2 games are B-2-Bs. Back to Back Morning games! Or as they call them in the east, afternoon games.

The next game Saturday morning is against the Canes and Sunday morning against the Caps. Both are must wins. For the Nucks.

And especially for us. While it would be fine if the Nucks win both games for Bruce, it would be more therapeutic for us, because hitting the rum therapy bottle before noon on the wet coast is a livery delivery too far.

Instead... enjoy the dinner theatre game next Tuesday.

More From Nucks Misconduct

Loading comments...