The Canucks Are Barely Surviving

The Canucks Are Barely Surviving

All right, let’s talk about the last four Vancouver Conucks games. Starting with game 12 against the St. Louis Blues. The Canucks were pretty banged up coming into this one. They were missing eight players from their main roster. Eight guys like Connor Garland, Neil’s Big Hog, Hoglander, Quinn Hughes, they were all out of the lineup with various injuries. And somehow it got worse. 30 seconds into this game, Brock Besser took a slap shot to the midsection, but we all know what really happened. The puck hit him right in the Brock. You’re supposed to deflect pucks into the net using the shaft of your stick, brother. You know this. No, but for real, this looked really painful. It doesn’t help that the shot came off the stick of his teammate, DPY, who should probably be renamed Dusher after this, but we’ll circle back on that. Besser left the game and didn’t return. How do we already have nine guys out with injuries? This is game 12. What’s going on? I’m really starting to question my worldview. Are curses real? Is jinxing real? Can I affect the outcome of a game from the comfort of my couch just by saying the word shutout? Are ghosts real? Is anything real? I get that we’re in space, but what is space? And what’s outside of it? Why is there anything at all? Anyway, the St. Penis Bruise, I mean, the St. Louis Blues open the scoring just a few minutes later. One- nothing bad guys. Also, I got to say, Shorty’s call on this goal was great. It was the classic he shoots, he scores soundbite we all grew up imitating. Shoots, he scores. And speaking of John Short House, take a listen to this. Broberg is back. Watched by Max Cone. Did you catch that? Listen again. Broberg is back. Watched by Max Cone. Shorty pronounces it Saon. Now, I’ve been telling you guys this for months. It’s not Sassin, it’s Sonone. We saw a little bit of a different side of Lucas Reichel in this one. Here he is deing around Blues forward Dylan Holloway. Not once, but twice, leading to an embarrassing little temper tantrum from Holloway. Wonderful. Then here he is leaning into a reverse hit that sent defender Cam Fowler on a one-way trip to Horizontal City. Beautiful. Still no points for the German center, but I like his game so far. The Canucks struggle on the penalty kill continued in this game. And yes, that does have a lot to do with how short-handed they are right now. But it’s also because their best penalty killer, Marcus MP3 Patterson, can’t stay out of the box. He took two of the three Kuck penalties in this game and St. Louis scored on both of them, including one that came off the stick of X-kuck Pew Sudter. Ouch. Kefir Sherwood was making great defensive plays as we’ve come to expect from him at this point, but he also scored three goals. Three, a hat-tick. In fact, he could have had four. And thanks to the play of Kevin Len, the Tank Lankin, despite being outshot 39 to 18, this one was tied 3-3 and headed for a shootout. Of course, Lankin wasn’t going to let anything get behind him, so it was really just a guessing game of which Kuck was going to win it. Sherwood almost did, but it was Jake De Brusk who sealed it. Canucks beat the Blues 4-3 in a shootout. Game 13 against the Minnesota Wild. Brock Besser was back after what happened in St. Louis, so that’s good. Vancouver’s 2023 first round pick Tom Vander continues to get better every game. I think he’s really starting to get comfortable out there. He looks confident and calm, which is pretty impressive considering this was just his third game in the NHL. I’m really excited about this guy. And then after failing to capitalize on the dozens of scoring chances he’s had so far this season, Drew the Do Connor finally scored his first goal of the season. He scored another one later, too, which is great because he really needs to get going. And even though Thatcher Demco made a handful of great saves, yes, I’m aware he gave up a bad goal, but it’s Thatcher Deco, dude. Chill. He’s an incredible goalie. He can let the occasional beach ball get by him if he wants to. Get out of here with that nonsense. The Conucks lost this one by a score of five to2. Now on to game 14 against the Nashville Predators. Queen Hughes was back after missing the last four games with a lower body injury. So that’s good news. Well, actually, it’s fantastic news. Hughes makes this team better by a large margin. However, he’s rarely out on the penalty kill, which in my opinion is Vancouver’s weakest point right now. I understand that some of their best killers are out of the lineup right now with injuries, but still, they’ve got to figure it out. The Conucks took a combined total of six penalties in games 12 and 13, which is fine, but they only killed three of them off. That’s terrible. It can’t be a coin flip every time they take a penalty. That’s not going to work. And unfortunately, that trend continued into this game as well. They took four penalties against Nashville and the Predators scored on half of them. That’s not good. Now, Vancouver did score two power play goals of their own, including Evander Kane’s first as a Canuck, which is great, but it could have been greater. This depleted lineup has to figure out how to defend short-handed cuz it’s not going to get any easier. Anyway, Tom Vander was fantastic in this game. Seriously, this kid was shining all night. Everyone talks about his skating and rightfully so, but what really stands out to me is his decision-making. Hockey is such a fast and unpredictable sport, so any player who can consistently make smart plays at top speeds while under pressure is extremely valuable. And the fact that this 20-year-old kid is already showing flashes of that in just his fourth NHL game is really exciting to me. Also, look at this rush. He’s just doing what he wants. Pure confidence. And for the cherry on top, rushes the puck into the national zone. Puts it in front. Chance for Besser scores. What a way to get your first NHL point. Tom Bander needs a nickname. 3-2 Canucks. Aander Kane scored his second goal of the game season and as a Canuck on a beautiful passing play between MP3 and Lena Carlson. 4-2 Vancouver. The Pres tied it up overtime. After a riveting battle of threeon-ree keepaway thanks to an incredibly skillful chop pass from Malias Person, Brock Basser buried his second of the game and the Canucks beat the Predators 4-3 in overtime. Now, before we talk about the Canucks most recent tilt against Connor Bdard, let me tell you a bit about the sponsor of today’s video, Manta Sleep. Manta makes sleep masks for people who actually want to sleep, like really sleep. Their masks give you 100% blackout and adjustable fit and ultimate comfort, even if you’re a side sleeper. I’ve been using mine every single night, and it’s been so helpful. It feels like shutting off the arena lights after a big win. Total darkness, pure bliss. If you’re ready to sleep like a goalie after a shutout, calm and unbothered, grab your Mantis Sleep Mask today and use my code NU10 for 10% off at checkout. Again, click the top link in the description of this video and use code NU10 for 10% off at checkout. Your future well-rested self will thank you. Okay, game 15 against the Chicago Blackhawks. Connor Garland was back in the lineup, which is great news considering he’s arguably been Vancouver’s best forward this season. And it looks like he didn’t miss a beat. He was hovering around the net all night. And while he didn’t tally any points, I’m just happy the Gargoyle is back home safe and sound. And look, I’m sorry if you’re getting tired of me talking about him, but Tom Vander was solid in this game as well. Honestly, you might want to get used to it because I have a feeling he’s here to stay even when the team gets back to full health. But we’ll see. He even picked up another assist on Evander Kane’s third goal of the year. By the way, that was Kane’s 10th shot of the game. 10th. He was the best forward for the Canucks in this one, which isn’t saying that much, but he was great. He’s not going to score every game, but as long as he’s buzzing around the net, good things will happen. Lucas Reichel had a chance to score on his former team, but Spencer Knight stopped him. Connor Bard had a chance to score on his favorite team, but Kevin Lankin stopped him. Lucas Reichel had a chance to score on his former team, but Spencer Knight stopped him. Connor Baddard had a chance to score on his favorite team, but Kevin Lankin and stopped him. Lucas Reichel had a chance to score on his former team, but fanned on the one-time. Connor Baddard had a chance to score on his favorite team, but he fell face first into the boards and died. Just kidding. He was fine. Archd Baines busted someone’s body open. For the first two-thirds of this game, it was a complete goalie battle. It was actually super entertaining. Both teams were getting their chances, but both goalies were standing tall. Len the Tank for Vancouver and Spencer Knight for Chicago. The Conucks, however, were out shooting, outplaying, and outchancing the Hawks during that time. And if it weren’t for Spencer Knight and this disallowed goal, this one probably would have been over a lot earlier. In other words, we got goali. At least that’s my explanation for the first two periods. As for what happened in the third and how the score went from this to this, I have no clue. And frankly, I don’t want to talk about it. Comment your score predictions for the next three games down below. If you get any right, I’ll shout you out in the next video. Thanks to these nuckheads for becoming channel members. If you want to become one, all you have to do is click the join button. Click the video on your screen right now to see what the Canucks were up to last week. Thank you for watching. Bye.

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In this video I break down the last four Vancouver Canucks games against the St. Louis Blues, Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, and Chicago Blackhawks and try to figure out what’s really going on with this team. It’s starting to feel like the Canucks might actually be cursed.

– Nuckhead

Skip to…
00:00 — Game 12 vs. St. Louis Blues
03:01 — Game 13 vs. Minnesota Wild
03:46 — Game 14 vs. Nashville Predators
05:47 — Game 15 vs. Chicago Blackhawks
08:17 — Outro

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