Princes are back in the building!

Good teams don't lose 3 in a row. Especially to a historically bad team. But still... it wasn't an easy win to begin.

Not only did the Nucks have the pressure of breaking a losing streak. And the pressure of NM auditors checking every play for Taco Toughness. The Nucks had to perform at an upper class level under the gaze of the Royals. Or ex-Royals... but still media celebs.

To start the 1st, the pressure seemed too much. Nucks received an early PP, but their entries created some scary flashbacks.

20222/23 canucks special.

Twitch

The game remained 0-0 after 10 mins... with the shots favouring the Sharks 12-3. However, the NHL re-telling of the count later favours the Nucks, so who knows?

Like early in the last game, Nucks weren't as sharp as we've seen.

Remember those crisp on the tape passes in the early season?

Me neither

jimmi

Then ever so slowly the Nucks crept back into the game and got out of the 1st with a quite regal not quite lead. Still nutin' nutin' after one.

In the 2nd, that period the Canucks owned for most of the past month, but for the last few games. That period the Nucks made another payment on their season subscription.

The royal box was all aflutter when Huggie scored with a laser - skating down the promenade confusing everyone including the Sharks goalie. 1-0 Nucks for the 1st lead of the game.

Sharks thought they had the 1st lead earlier in the period, but pushing Demmers out of position to get it - a certain foul in NM parlance - was confirmed by CoTU after Taco's challenge.

Late in the 2nd Hogz - who had an assist on Huggie's goal - got tangled up on the boards and took down LeBank. Refs immediately called a 5 min major. Confirmed as a slew foot by CoTU. Hogz got a match penalty. The Royals - fine, the former Royals understood the severity of the call and will likely be calling the exchecker of SJ to protest.

Not only did the Nucks kill off a minute of the penalty, Josh got the puck out of the danger zone. Laff and new Beau went up ice. Laff won a board battle, passed to Beau and Laff tucked the dribbling puck past Blackwood for the GWG. But we didn't know that yet.

The gamethread duo noted the play of the Sharkies PP.

Man how much does it suck to be the sharks right now? Gifted a maybe questionable major and get scored on short handed...eesh, it must be like being a canucks fan down there right now. No sympathy... fuck em.

Twitch

2-0 Nucks after 2.

In the 3rd, the Sharks were allowed to continue another 3 minutes of their power play. That's not cricket! And worse, scored on a rebound from a shot that appeared to strike Sir Chaos in the nether regions. 2-1 Nucks with most of the period to go.

To be fair, Myers was getting compliments from the NM duo of Chaos on ice followers earlier in the game.

Meyers looking like a super tall quinn hughes there.

Twitch

Instead of sitting back and letting the Sharklets back into the game, the Nucks played Tough Taco style. More O-zone pressure and soon the dynamic duo - not the gamethread one - the Nucks Dynamic D-Duo went to work. Made time and space where there was none. Huggie put a shot on net and JT put the rebound in the net.

Good win. A near Tough Taco win. It's a one game win streak. Yay!

LONG LIVE THE NEW KING!

With his 2 points Quinn is the 1st NHL player this season to reach 30 points. 30 points in 19 games... who does that sound like... oh right that 70s phenom, Bobby Orr who was the 1st to 30 points in '74-'75. Only other D to achieve that was Al MacInnes in '90-'91.

Huggie is elevating his game to a place we have never seen from a Nucks D. With his partner Ronnie they are the best in the league on the opposition blueline.

Millsie noted their feet feats:

“They’re playing on another level right now and I’m just trying to stay out of their way... When we're out there with them, they're doing all this stuff and we don't know where to go half the time. But they're unbelievable. They create havoc. They beat one guy and then somebody else tries to do somebody else's job on defence, and then holes open up everywhere. They make us all look good. They create so much with their movement.

“They're just starting to feed off each other. They're only going to get better, which is scary.”

JT

ROYAL ROG REEL

It's the interesting combo of Shortie and Ray. Still better that most on-air teams in hockey.

GAME STATS

Gamethread stats:

Twitch: 102(ish)
jimmi: 101(ish)
82wino: 2 at time of posting (his counting team will claim 4)
Some might say we're padding the stats... but we get bonus points for multi-gifs. It's a rule. Or a guideline. Or a cheat. Or whatever.

TACO TALK

I thought there were some really good parts of the game...

We worked on some stuff yesterday, didn't like how we were without the puck last game... thought we were better tonight.

Felt the guys had a good effort tonight.

Got a fist bump from him [Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry] Don't know if you're allowed to... but pretty cool to get a fist bump, right.

Good redemption win. A prince of a game one might say in hushed whispers.

Now the 2 game homestand is over and Nucks are back on the road. The road to the top of the mountain. Rocky mountain time in Colorado on Wednesday.

Can our Tough Taco players can elevate their game higher still? We'll find out soon enough.