Redemption game the Nucks needed - but a win we needed more.

Good news! Good teams don't lose 3 games in a row. Nucks haven't done that - so they're good. Really good teams don't lose 2 games in a row. Nucks haven't done that - so they're really good. Elite teams don't lose more than one game in a row. Wait a sec! What if they win one, then lose one, then win one, then... That's not elite, that's a 500 team. Stats are hard, confusing and misleading.

That's why we don't rely on stats to determine the status of the Nucks. We have gamethreads for that.

Tonight's afternoon gamethread was cautious at first...

A lot of running around so far

4 minutes no shots...nice

so few shots that the announcers are counting whistles

Westy

Conclusive evidence the Nucks started well. So well, in fact, they maintained the 0-0 tie right into the 1st intermission.

Altho... some mixed opinions...

Hughes continuing his chaos from last night.

Twitch

However, in the 2nd period after six minutes of preserving the tie, Huggie sends a 1Km pass up ice that Miller receives and passes to Gnarly for the sneaky redirect past Allen. 1-zip Nucks.

With the pressure mounting on the Habs, their young D trips over Allen's stick, knocking it behind his net, Pete has a tussle with some Habs back there and Allen's stick is going further away. Finally the Habs clear the zone, but just past the blueline. Miki gets the puck and skates in on Allen who is/isn't distracted about retrieving his stick. Doesn't matter. Miki scores. 2-zip Nucks.

Since Gnarly is feeling it and creating Chaos - the good kind around the Habs net - he swoops round and round or so it seemed to the distracted Montreal defenders. Puts a shot on net. Rebound goes round and round and Josh scores - the GWG. 3-zip Nucks.

WOOO JOSHUA! Man that was a great shift all around.

Twitch

Nucks with the totally unassailable 3-0 lead after 2. There was a Habs goal, or rather they put a puck past DeSmith. It was caught on near instant replay as being offside and the Habs returned to their zeroness status.

Also... Nucks had a wee visit from BC Ferries. Who knew they trolled the St. Lawrence. First Myers crashes awkwardly into the boards...

The Giraffe needs a vet

Westy

Then Soup blocks a shot with most unprotected part of his calf. He hobbled to the bench and didn't return.

2nd periods. The Nucks DIFF in that period is +17! There's many teams - possibly good ones - without a DIFF that big for all their games.

Coup d'état

Nucks had been the embodiment of Lady Bingness all game. But early in the 3rd Dr. Chaos was caught slashing. At least he returned to the game, since the Nucks are down to five 4D. No problem, except Juuly - who played a good game - whipped his stick across Suzuki's face. Not intentional, but still a penalty this time of year.

It's a Habs 5-on-3 with 3D left for the Nucks. Habs didn't take full advantage of the near minute of over-manned time. Suzuki blew a skate blade and wasn't able to spin and score as a star unidexter. Unfortunately for the Nucks and DeSmith's SO bid, he-who-hurt-Pete and can't be named, scored during a scrumble in front of the Nucks net as one or fewer penalties expired.

Habs feel they are on the scoresheet. And the NHL scorekeepers had the same feeling. 3-1 Nucks until the last 90 seconds. Brock pots the EN, 4-1 Nucks. Minute later Montreal inexplicably score, 4-2 Nucks. And in the last 20 seconds, PDG scores an EN.

Tense few minutes, but the Taco Tough Nucks stuck to their 'simple' system and win 5-2!

“We feel confident when we’re put out there late in games and really at any time against any line. Our system is so easy to follow that if you’re focused on your detail, it makes you look good as well"

Gnarland

Great redemption victory. At least the gamethread stats board said so.

Yay!

jimmi

Live Action Reel

John and what's his name... Ray something are back on the SN coverage team. That's good.

GAME STATS

FAN FACTS

The Canucks goal differential of +33 is only slightly less (by just a couple of goals) that the COMBINED differential of all the western conference teams with positive differentials, if you take out Vegas from the equation.
So, Stars, Kings, Avs, Jets, Blues, Coyotes, Ducks- add them all up, and they barely surpass the Canucks by 2 or 3 goals. And I don't count the bottom half, which are negative.

Atty

FUN FACTS

• The Canucks are the only team in the NHL with more than one player with 20+ points this season: Elias Pettersson (7-18- 25), Quinn Hughes (5-17-22) and J.T. Miller (9-12-21).
• On Nov. 9 @ OTT, Quinn Hughes (16) and Filip Hronek (15) became one of three defencemen pairs in NHL history to each register 14+ assists through the first 13 games of a season and the first since 1991.92.
• Elias Pettersson, Quin Hughes, and J.T. Miller are the first teammate trio with 20 points each in their team's first 13 games of a season since Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson, and Jason Spezza did it in 2005.06 for the Ottawa Senators.

QUINNTASTIC

• Quinn Hughes joins Bobby Orr as the only defencemen with 20 points and a plus/minus rating of +15 or better through the first 12 games of a season. He is the seventh player in NHL history to complete this feat amongst all skaters.
• Hughes is ranked t-3rd for fastest defenceman to reach 20 points in a season (12 GP). Only three defensemen have done it faster, Paul Coffey (10 GP, 1988.89), John Carlson (11 GP, 2019.20) and Bobby Orr (11 GP, 1974.75).
• On Nov. 6/23 vs EDM, Hughes recorded his fifth multi-point game of the season, giving him the most amongst all defencemen this season.
• On Nov. 2/23 at SJS, Hughes (1-4-5) set a new career-high for points in a single-game, he tied the single-game franchise record for points by a defenceman, a record also held by Jeff Brown (1994.95). He is the fifth defenceman in the past five years to accomplish this feat and ninth active defenseman to post five points in a contest.
• Hughes became one of four players, and the second Canuck, since 1985 with 4+ goals and 10+ assists through the first 10 games of a season. The other players include Morgan Rielly (2018.19), Nick Lidstrom (1997.98), and Paul Reinhart (1989.90).
• Hughes recorded a three-point period (1-2-3) for the third time in his career on Nov. 2/23 at SJS, matching Brent Sopel and Dennis Kearns for most by a Canucks defenceman.
• On Oct. 31/23 vs NSH, Hughes reached 250 career points in 292 career games ranking him t-5th for the fewest games from the start of a players NHL career to reach this milestone in a Canucks uniform. Other notable names include Pavel Bure (207) and Elias Pettersson (270).

82 Stat Update

• Canucks defenseman Filip Hronek has 13 assists during a 10-game point streak, which is tied with Doug Halward (1982-83) for the third-longest by a defenseman in Vancouver history. Ronnie has 16 points in 15 games.

TACO TALK

"Really good game. 200-foot game by everybody. 2 and 1 on this road trip - pretty pleased with the effort tonight.

The last five, six, seven games [Garland’s been] one of our better forwards. He’s done a nice job, I really think that line actually has been one of our better lines the last three, four games. They were our best line in #%#!*^ so good for them”

Coach Taco

2 out of 3 wins in the scary eastern provinces isn't too bad. Even if CoTU will troll us for another decade.

Nucks are back home for an extended single game series. Against our old Bo's team on Wednesday night. The actual night, not the recent future type. Then Nucks hit the cold road again for a game in Cowtown on Thursday and Saturday play Seatown in Gastown(ish). Both teams - not making it up - rank far below the 2nd place team in the Pacific. That 2nd place in the Pacific team is... the Tough Taco Nucks. Yay!