GAME RECAP #46: NUCKS WIN! OEL Goal And 4-2 Loss

Tired of Dinner Theatre Road Hockey?

While last night’s feast on fowl was pretty appetizing, this was less appealing fare from the plate of predation. Been better served as a light snack. Just skip the 2nd and 3rd courses and scarf an OT desert point. Or more.

Not to be. Last month the Nucks won the silverware in this same dining rink - back when Pete scored and the Nucking PP earned its dinner. This leftover game seemed to have had left some vengeful feelings in the hosts. So much for the Southern hospitality myth.

While we were correct to worry about the 1st game of this horrible B-2-B - I was busy not worrying about Kent jinxing the game in his preview with dreams of moving out of the 7th spot in the division.

Need to better focus our worry time and not tempt the hockey gawds who guard the gate of Standings Mountain.

Nucks go on a crazy BruceBumped 7 game W-streak - remain in 7th place. Lose a bunch of tough games on the road to start the new year, remain in 7th place.

Hockey physics is a tough school of hard knocks. To break free from the Law of Conservation of Ranking requires better lawyers, players and traders. Possibly even scoring from the blueline. We’ll get to that in a moment.

We were hopeful when the Nucks got on the big shiny board first in the first. A sniper’s goal from an unexpected combo of skill and opportunism.

We’re on the board first!

Highmore sprung on the breakaway by Lammi-chops! — Gwailoh

When the Nucks score 1st on the road, it portends good things.

Not to be.

Just as the Nucking (futile) PP ended... a bobbled puck at the Nashville line - Eddie style - led to a RJ goal that fooled Demmers.

Welp... our powerplay continues to be hot garbage surrounded by wet shit... — Twitchy

To be fair this is fully fermented Nucking crap PP. 8 or maybe it’s 10 PP chances that have not only not scored, they’ve been momentum killers.

And worse, the hungry preds gobble another goal less than a minute later.

No worries. While the Preds may have broken the tie, we have a player willing to break some rules.

As we witnessed last night, Schenn is a team scofflaw - violated the No-Goals-From-D code that Myers, at least, is fully committed to.

But tonight, OEL goes off the blue ranch line, spins and scores! Exciting Oliver Ekman-Larceny.

Could this be a shocking trend of Nucking defensive offensiveness?

lol garrett... “nice to see someone other than schenn score from the blue line”... quotes we just don’t expect to hear in a season... — Twitchy

Not heard often, because most Nucking D obey the unspoken code. Until now. This was the 9th goal of the season from the backend. NINE GOALS! 2nd game in a row of Nucking D-goals!

At this rate of D-isobedience, wouldn’t be surprised to see the Nucks D break the double digit barrier within the next 20 30 games.

This is why a Dman like Josi can’t be signed in Vancouver - has 13 goals this season - all on his own. Would be a terrible example in the Nucks room.

With the game tied at 2 and 2 more periods to go, perhaps the Nucks forwards - in a show of no-goal solidity - did not score for the rest of the game.

Especially on the PP. Which continued the recent Bruce trend to use the power play as a special puck-gulag to punish players and fans. OEL on the PP on the side wall?! That’s Bruce saying as much as: “You wanna be goal scorer, go play in Pete’s spot/Brock’s spot/JT’s spot.”

And fortunately for the NM D-stats staff, no Nucking D, including OEL scored again in the game.

Unfortunately for the Nucks PK, the streak was broken at 14 killings - the 15th was the killer.

The 15th sponsored by our sought after trade-bait and game thread inflammatory litmus tester.

Miller on full mifler week. — Twitchy

and another PP goal against...thanks JT — Westy

Preds got the lead in the 2nd and never gave it back. Added another in the 3rd. And spoiled game thread festivities planned for the week. Wish we could have put the rum back in the bottle, but the Law of Entropy denied us. Or the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Whatever.

But not even physics can deny our game thread rants analysis.

Well that sucked and was lame too. What’s with these Jekyll and Hyde Canucks? I’m not actually sure which of those is the preferable one, but the team sure does seem to switch from one to the other quickly. — Raddy

Nucking B-2-B games are like that. Binary hockey. Win 1. Lose 1.

Dine ‘n Dash Video Recap

With the horrific HNIC coverage of the weekend game still ringing in our mute buttons, the 2 Johns serve some decent fare through the course of indigestible periods.

GAME STATS (not pretty ones)

	SOG	FO%	PP	PIM	HITS	BLKS	GVA
Canucks VAN	32	39%	0/2	6	31	12	7
Predators NSH	28	61%	1/3	4	44	15	17

SHOT COUNT (not enough that count)

PLAYER STATS (solid 20 minute team effort)

ROAD DPRESSERING

Highmore, again reminding us how we won the trade, talks about the goal, the game.

OEL, defensive rule breaker, talks about winning the game. In 1 period or less.

Bruce has some ‘splaing to do. And does.

We thought Pete on Bo’s wing experiment was over. When Pete last played the Preds with the young guns on his wings - they were the best Nucking line.

Why Bruce put Pete back on stone cold Bo’s line is a bit of an enigma. As much as an enigma as the recent PP deployment? Only you can decide. Or...

We can have Westy decide it for you - once the next Nucking coach is signed.

Oh well... 2-1-1 road trip isn’t bad at all. Unless the Nucks want to break out of 7th place jail. To do that they’ll need a bigger BruceBump at home next week.

Enjoy the Olympic All Star break.