Good Defence Wins Games. Good Offence Wins Games. Without either, the L-thing happens - hard.

Lost Bo Watch - Game 4 Report

Dear Bo,

We miss you! Terribly. More terribly than the last game where we missed you terribly. And the one before that. Get well soon, ok - like really, really soon, ok?

Thanks, NucksNation

PS - Can you bring Baer and Sutter with you on the way to the rink on Friday?

There’s a silver lining in every blowout loss at home. And the imperceptible shimmer of a shiny lining from this game is somewhere... and we’re going to find it. And if Westy were here now instead of cowering under a beach blanket in some tropical hockey bar, he’d say: “The Nucks are Winning the Cup - and here’s the proof! 80 proof - at least.”

But he isn’t here. Only you, me and the bad thoughts the injury faeries have put in our collective unconscious. While the painful memories of Blowouts Past dance in our heads, we need to remember there’s been worse home blown outings.

That SJ ‘99 game is a little worrisome, since the Sharks will be here on Friday to chew up what little puck luck and confidence the team has squirrelled away in a dusty corner of Bo’s unused locker.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Right now we’re here to enjoy the moment by reliving the horrible moments of tonight’s icetastrophe.

1st Period

If you recall the last game’s winning strategy was to let in a softie on the first shot - to set the tone. But that is Marky’s patented move. Nilsson has to find his own. Maybe work one up off the back of his own D - on say...the 2nd Preds shot.

And who better to stick it to us than our former Subban’s big brother.

Tone setting? That’s got some Smashville twisted twang right there.

Anyhow that’s out of the way, we can get back to grind it out, close game hockey and let our power play take care of the rest.

Taking care on the power play can involve some careful things that are key to keeping your man advantage an advantage.

This next play by Josi, (the bastard!) cleverly nulled our man advantage with a Karlssoneque pass to our former BC boy, RJ. He skates past Goldy for the breakaway

For those crying on the Tweetery greenery for Green to play Goldy, they’ll be asking why Green didn’t teach him solid defence in 2 minutes. Or less.

Nucks down 2-0. Thankfully, the period ended before Nilsson’s confidence could be shattered. We’ll get to that later.

2nd Period

Oh look. It’s later already. When things are looking grim, what do you do? Get all the grim and flukey things out of the way in one game. Worked last game, why not now?

A hard shoot-in from center ice not right on net can end up in the net with an unlucky flick of the mitt. Dammit!

Down 3 zip in the 2nd. You’re probably thinking bad things. The NM gamethread was filled with bad words. At least words aren’t things. Thing is, the 2nd period was the Nucks happy game breaking period just a few short weeks ago. Fine. Long agonising weeks ago.

It’s another Nucks power play - the inhale was heard round the gamethread - breathless we wait for the wrong way break away. At least we caught our breath and Hank caught a record. And Burmistrov get his second goal of the game season. Woo! OK!

If you could choose which games to achieve a milestone, perhaps this wasn’t the one to choose first, but pass it to Hank, another milestone it is. Congrats!

Down 3-1 on the night of big bad bounces when even the refs, surprisingly, were over-turning Nucks goals isn’t so bad.

But, the 40 second Nucks comeback was quashed by the Preds with a power play of their own. Damn! Is this the same team we beat in Smashville? Ours isn’t, that part we know so well.

Period ends with the Nucks down 4-1.

But what if....by some freak of flukey shots we could get our own goal from center ice? Wouldn’t that be nice?

Do any of the Nucks D-men need a new car? Or do we just sign this guy - already has his player interview skills nailed.

3rd Period

Could the Nucks at least make this rout into a game? Play the Preds hard and only lose by 3? Could Westy stop by with a copy of the tattered and beer-stained Westy Playbook of Destiny?

If you answered Yes to any of the above questions, you have failed the rhetorical question section of the recap. If you answered No to all of the above questions, you have failed the rhetorical question section again - but have the satisfaction of getting the right answer to a TV Quiz re-run show you’ve watched more than a few times.

Sometimes in the desperate moments caught in the bone-gnashing clutches of the Injury Faeries it’s every player for themselves. Screw the system. Frustration was mounting after the 5th Preds goal. Not just in the gamethread. And not just everywhere else.

And then Nilsson got burned again. He did what everyone at home wanted to do, if they had a big goalie stick in their hands. Break stuff!

Because blowouts don’t count unless they’re puffed up, the Preds got another goal. Broken plays, broken sticks, broken spirits. Something must be done.

So Virt gets some snarl and takes his 2nd penalty of the game. And season. Roughs it up with Subban. Sets the tone. Except it’s late 3rd, Nucks down by 6 goals - they’re tone deaf.

Without Double D to rile up the team, who will? If it’s to be Virt, then he needs to stoke the band earlier in the game when they can be stoked.

And finally we arrive at the silver lining. You’ve waited long enough to see it.

Here it is:

This game is over. Done.

Just another loss to add to the rapidly expanding L-streak. We can be thankful the league doesn’t implement a negative points system when a team loses by more than 3 goals.

We can analyse the stats. In the usual perverse NM fashion. In some ways Nilsson’s numbers look better than Marky’s from last game. .852 SV% vs .782 SV% and Nilsson faced TWICE as many shots. He stopped 41 of 48. Why couldn’t he stop...say...46 of 48?

Why? Because it’s a team game. And this depleted team isn’t the full team that could play a full 200 foot game a month ago. Someone please shrink the rink by Friday. 50 foot game might give us an edge.

Pouliot, thanks to his off-the-back play was a -5 on the night. Most everybody else was playing in the minus zone. Not Brock. He was even. Little mini silver lining.

In case you haven’t suffered enough - here’s a video recap of the worst home loss in years. But before that - here’s an extra bit of pain from the Faeries - they took Tanev off the ice. No word on his placement in the Injury Faery food chain.

After this type of loss, there’s only one guy to face the press. For probably the 800th time in his career.

Meanwhile over in the Green room, while there was hint of irritation, Travis took the presser with some confidence and urgency.

5 questions of vital fake importance:

1. Is this the bottom of the losing trough?
2. Does the trough even have a bottom?
3. Will the team grow stronger and play better feeding off the adversity like the Faeries feed off the flesh and bone of our players?
4. Can the league require half of other teams’ rosters to be AHLers when they play us?
5. Will Ten be the last NMer standing in the SPW pool of doom?

This is what it’s like when your marginal roster gets more marginal during a rebuild. And could get worse before it gets better and we pick Dahlin 5th next June.

Let’s throw this game in the dumpster fire and get ready to ignite the NM gamethread on Friday night when the Sharks circle the rink. Can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to that. No, really. I can’t. NM has strict editorial rules that forbids hundred word whinges and whines in the wind of fluffed-up fart metaphors.

See you on Friday! Keep your spirits bright and your sarcasm sharp. We’ll need it.