SHOT ATTEMPTS DO NOT GOALS MAKE. Or not enough.

Monday night in the ROG at dinner time. Not a great recipe for a winning meal.

This looked like a playoff game. But... we're not ready. Despite the media pumping up the game as a possible Nucking clincher for a playoff spot. Nothing quite like clinching pressure.

Doesn't matter.

To change things up, Taco paired Huggie with Myers instead of Ronnie. Why? We don't know. Possible D'xperiment? Maybe Taco will explain later.

Staring contest on ice? Chesscapades? Or as the Nucks found out later... frustrations on ice.

LA opens the scoring on poor coverage and DeSmith must make Taco's worst type of goalie movement. Post-to-post. 1-0 LA.

The Nucks tieing goal was much prettier. Laff carries the puck to the net, make Tailbut fall down and pots a sweet power forward goal.

1-1 after 1. It's anybody's game.

Grindy-Chess-Grindy-Staring contest restarts in the 2nd. Neither team is giving up much. Seems like high event, but no scoring events.

Jeez have we ever made a shot actually on net?

Twitch

High event hockey game — just none involving putting pucks on net.

Rob

And then the Nucks puck luck takes a turn for the worse... a turn for...

Carson Hamhuis

Twitch

Nucks can't clear... Saint Soucy takes a tripping penalty and before he can rest and repent in Myer's cottage, LA 6-on-5 puts a puck towards the net...and it goes off Soucy's skate past DeSmith.

2-1 LA and the Nucks are deflated. Or tired. Or something. Minute later, LA presses and has their way again around the Nucking net... Huggie and Ronnie are playing part-time goalies, but not great part-time goalies as the chaos puck gets in the paint. Laff can't get there in time. But Kopi can and puts it in the net.

This is how quickly LA smells blood and attacks. 3-1

Westy

Taco said LA 'owned the blue paint'. 3-1 LA after 2.

We are trying to beat the Kings at their own game. It doesn't work.
They are grinding and scrambling, and we are doing the same.

Atty

The Nucks made a big pushback in the 3rd. When it was too late. Taco pulled DeSmith with 4 minutes left. And good things happened. On Brock's 1st shot of the game he tagged Kopi's skate and the puck deflected past Taleboat. Too little too late. LA wins 3-2.

B-b-but...

We won !!!! the 3rd period

'82wino

Oh well.... the Kings are frustrating to play when they have a lead. Best to not let them get a lead. Nucks didn't get their 1st shot of the 3rd until mid-period. Frustrating.

The Nucks outhit LA 46 to 26. That's great they played the body, but still had trouble playing through them to get into Taco's fav colour of paint.

Frustrating. That would be Huggie paired with Myers. Or at least watching it. Not much chemistry there. And worse for Huggie, until the 6-on-5 EN push, he seemed to be passing to 3rd and 4th liners who weren't ready for a Huggie pass. Quinn did pick up a point on the Brock pinball goal, so that's good.

ROG ROUGH REEL

Shortie is back on the air to call this high-no-event game.

GAME STATS

SHOTS

TACO TALK

Taco didn't talk long. He suggested the Nucks weren't tough enough in the paint. At either end. He was asked about his D'xperimental deployment. He responded they wanted to try something different... thought it would be the 'best way to go' for this game. Which it wasn't.

You can watch cranky Taco here at NHL.COM.

Three game win streak is over. Nucks are back to being humble underdogs having not clinched a playoff spot. That's not so bad.

Nucks get a few days off to rest up and watch lotsa tape and face an easy game on Thursday. Against a not easy-out Stars team. Enjoy the final home game stretch!