Stick-taps and glove-drops is a recurring feature after every Canucks game giving some quick kudos and criticism before the longer I Watched This Game feature. Feel free to leave your own stick-taps and glove-drops in the comments.
I’ll drop the gloves with the Tampa Bay Lightning for giving the Canucks false hope in their last meeting just five days ago. Letting the Canucks back into the game in the third period to make them think they could roll with the best team in the NHL was just plain cruel, like a cat toying with its prey. They made it completely clear in this game that they’re the superior team.
Stick-tap to Chris Tanev on the Lightning’s first goal. It may seem odd to tap the stick for the defenceman who kicked the puck to the player who scored, but it only happened because he was toughing out an injury from blocking a shot. A more mobile Tanev might have made a better play, but a hobbled Tanev could only stick out his skate to prevent the puck from going to his man. He left the game after the goal but returned for the second period.
I’ll drop the gloves with Michael Del Zotto instead. He let Nikita Kucherov skate past, waving his stick at him, and didn’t follow him to the top of the crease, where the puck came to him and he lifted it over Anders Nilsson’s blocker.
Erik Gudbranson gets the gloves dropped on the 2-0 goal, which came on a Lightning power play. Mikhail Sergachev’s point shot was tipped by Tyler Johnson and came to Yanni Gourde in front. Instead of taking the body on the 5’9” Gourde to clear him out of the crease, the 6’5” Gudbranson tried to clear the puck out of the crease instead and missed. Gourde tucked it around Nilsson on the backhand.
For the 3-0 goal, I’ll drop the gloves with both Gudbranson and Jake Virtanen. The Canucks’ defensive coverage coming back into the zone was a mess, but Gudbranson was on Adam Erne before he passed the puck to Andrej Sustr, then wasn’t on Erne when the puck came back to him for a one-timer. But Virtanen ended up standing in the middle of the defensive zone covering no one and filling no passing or shooting lane, so Gudbranson’s confusion was understandable.
A stick-tap to Markus Granlund’s ankle, assuming the stick in this instance is a magic wand of Cure Moderate Wounds. While battling along the boards with Ryan Callahan, the Lightning forward got his stick wrapped around him, then shoved him down, causing him to put his full weight on his left leg when it was not prepared to bare that weight. It didn’t go well for his ankle.
Granlund's ankle. It should not bend that way. pic.twitter.com/K7DJBTDHGh
— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) February 9, 2018
Dropping the gloves with Henrik Sedin on the fourth Lightning goal. Not only did he give the puck away behind his own net on an ill-conceived bank pass, but he also overreacted to his error by chasing the puck instead of picking up his check in front. That check was Steven Stamkos, who has a habit of shooting pucks into the back of the net. So he did.
A tap of the stick to Jake Virtanen, who was all around the puck in this game and had some good chances, even if he missed the net on most of them. He had a team-high seven shot attempts (tied with Alex Edler) and was credited with four hits.
Brock Boeser gets a tap of the stick for giving the fans what they want: a goal. While he and his linemates struggled at times with a tough match-up at even-strength, Boeser came through with a one-timer on the power play, ripping the puck from above the left faceoff circle and getting a friendly deflection off Sustr’s stick. He's up to 26 goals on the season, six more than Gourde in the rookie goalscoring race.
Brock Boeser scores his 26th of the season#Canucks pic.twitter.com/ojEdZP3teM
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) February 9, 2018
A tap of the stick to Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi, who combined for the Canucks’ second goal. Horvat neatly chipped the puck past Victor Hedman, then darted past him before feeding the puck to Baertschi through Stralman’s legs. Baertschi snapped the rolling puck short side on Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The comeback is on? #Canucks pic.twitter.com/yRUFBTGBnG
— Nick Bondi (@nickbondi) February 9, 2018
Alex Edler deserves a stick-tap for his two-point night. He assisted on both Canucks goals and led the Canucks in ice time with 24:02 despite missing the start of the second period after suffering an injury on an attempted hit on Kucherov. Edler is now just five points back of Mattias Ohlund for the franchise record in points by a defenceman.
While he wasn’t to blame for the loss, Anders Nilsson gets the gloves dropped on the final goal, a weak one-time by Hedman that slipped under his blocker. That one, at least, Nilsson should have stopped. He finished with 31 saves on 36 shots.
I’ll drop the gloves with Virtanen on that goal too. I know I already gave him both a glove-drop and a stick-tap earlier, but it was that kind of game for Virtanen. He took a bad penalty with four minutes left, hooking Sergachev on the forecheck, 200 feet from his own net. That effectively killed the Canucks comeback and led to Hedman’s power play goal.
