GAME RECAP #42: Nucks Win - 4th Straight Road Loss! Get Out-Pawed 4-3

A clean sweep. That’s what we’ve been asking for. Since 2015.

That’s all Trev asked for. Franny fired him.

Franny can’t fire us fans. But, he’s made it very difficult to keep being a Nucking fan of his oldest vanity project. Possibly not his oldest, but certainly one of his vainest.

I digress. With Franny’s hand-picked coach that replaced the last hand-picked coach soon to be picked off, he could be paying 3 coaches in a single season. Is that an NHL record?

Doesn’t matter.

What matters is this season’s Nucks are proving that records are meant to be broken.

Nucks hold the all-time NHL Losing Record for blowing multi-goal leads ending in... well... losing. To be fair, in this game, Nucks never got a multi-goal lead. Only a couple single goal leads. Losing those could happen to any team. And this team quite often.

However, another stunning all-time NHL record is on trend to be set by this very same record-setting team in the very same season!

Cue the regal brass (raspberry) fanfare and pass the envelope please...

Your 2022-2023 Vancouver Canucks are now breaking a league record. Again.

For the worst Penalty Kill. Of All NHL Time! A record not busted in over 3 decades!

66.1% effective PK. (Effective?)

statmuse.com

In this Nucking loss, like some many others, the Nucking PK made the loss possible.

And managed this stunning feat in a single period. Guess which one?

Correct. The 2nd. The Nucks goal differential in 2nd periods sits at minus -17. Is that a record? Don’t know, but there’s still 40 games left to ensure it.

In 1st and 3rd periods, Nucks are only in single digit minuses of -3 and -5. Maybe if there was some legal league-al loophole where the Nucks could skip 2nd periods, this season would look much different.

To be fair, this game had Stillman on the PK in the 2nd. Standing still, man, is not how you cover the shooter.

Good ol’ Riley Stillman, working his Nucks magic. — Raddy

Nucks were tied after 1 - as per the strict NM game management plan.

Nucks were trailing 4-2 after 2 - as per consecutive Nucking PK failures.

Is it bad that I was actually hoping for the panthers to score in that powerplay just to feel even more misery? — Twitchy

Not bad at all. Misery is how Nucks fans are measured. Good effort.

Nucks pushed back in the 3rd and closed within 1 on - not making it up - on Pete’s 1st PP goal of the season. However big tipper, Bo, was credited with this 30th goal because... trade value.

It was the perfect game. If you’re still following the Clean Sweep Doctrine we wanted as stated some meandering sentences ago. Or 2015, so I’m told.

The Nucks have lost every game on this road trip so far. Just one more to go lose.

Well at least we don’t play again in 23 hrs against the 2nd best team in the league — ‘82

Weird factoid:

Bob (the goalie) was scored on by all long shots from just inside the blue line - the three goals allowed traveled an average distance of 58 feet. Bob was all-world up close. All Mr. Magoo at distance. On the late last push in the 3rd, perhaps the Nucks could have shot from center ice.

South Beach Vid Wrap

Hope the 2 Johns have been eating well on this trip - not just the locals feasting on Nucks.

GAME STATS (unsurprising?)

	SOG	FO%	PP	PIM	HITS	BLKS	GVA
Canucks VAN	38	50%	1/5	8	18	11	8
Panthers FLA	35	50%	2/3	12	18	11	10

SHOT COUNTING

PLAYER STATS (Bo Turns 30)

PENTUPULTIMATE DEPRESSOR

After a close loss, Nucks media select to go with the Nucks fiery lip-shooter. Costing us a little bit means losing the game, by a little bit.

Bruce adds a little to the too little too late narrative. There it is.

The clean sweep is almost complete. We barely sleep and it will be complete.

That’s a relief.

What will happen next week in the Nucking off ice drama department? Probably too much.

Meanwhile, with so much on the line in this final game of the eastern tour of hell, NM needs to be ready. But how?

Let’s find out. (thank Twitch for the options).