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.
Stick-tap to the pleasant maroon colour of the seats in the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida. If the Panthers are going to have that many empty seats, I appreciate that they’re not a more garish colour.
Chris Tanev gets the gloves dropped on the Panthers’ first goal, even though it was mostly bad luck. On the penalty kill, he tried to knock a cross-crease pass away, but knocked it into his own net instead.
I’ll drop a glove each for Brandon Sutter and Michael Del Zotto on that goal too. The goal happened because Tanev got outnumbers 3-on-1 down low. That should never happen on a penalty kill. Del Zotto got caught in no man’s land trying to get in Denis Malgin’s shooting lane, while Sutter should have either come across to take Malgin or followed Aaron Ekblad to the back door. He did neither.
Dropping the gloves with Sven Baertschi, Bo Horvat, and Brock Boeser, who may have created a couple of the only good Canucks chances in this game, but got mostly shut down by the top pairing of Aaron Ekblad and Keith Yandle, and out-shot in their match-up against the top line of Evgeny Dadanov, Aleksander Barkov, and Nick Bjugstad.
Stick-tap to Loui Eriksson, who had a strong game with the Sedins. He led the Canucks with four shots on goal and six shot attempts. He would have had a shorthanded goal midway through the second period on a pass from Markus Granlund, but he got robbed by Panthers goaltender, Harri Sateri, who is on a ridiculous run right now.
Sateri with a big shorthanded save! pic.twitter.com/YF9x71If9b
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) February 7, 2018
Granlund gets a tap of the stick for finishing another shorthanded chance himself for the Canucks’ lone goal. Sutter disrupted a pass in the neutral zone, springing Granlund on a breakaway. He beat Sateri low on the short side with a quick snap shot. That's Granlund's eighth goal of the year and he's on pace for 12 goals for the season.
The @GranlundMa goal pic.twitter.com/eZZ8czWXUe
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) February 7, 2018
I’ll drop the gloves with Denis Malgin, who tried to interfere with Granlund’s breakaway by lifting his stick into Granlund’s nether regions. It led to a scrum along the boards and should have led to a penalty for the Panthers, since Granlund’s goal was scored on a delayed penalty.
Speaking of, I’ll drop a couple gloves with the referees, who were a little confusing with their penalty calls, whistling down Sven Baertschi on an innocuous play, while letting some blatant trips and hooks go. It was a baffling performance by the boys in stripes and the Canucks ended up on wrong end of it, giving up four power plays and getting just one themselves.
A tap of the stick to Jacob Markstrom, who had one of his best games of the season. If the Canucks had managed more than one goal, we’d likely be talking about how this is the first game of the season that Markstrom stole. He made 37 saves on 39 shots and looked more calm and in control than he has for a long time.
I’ve been one of his biggest defenders, but I have to drop the gloves with Ben Hutton. This was a rough game for Hutton in his return to the lineup after a couple healthy scratches. He was victimized by the shifty Florida forwards a couple times, including by Aleksander Barkov on the 2-1 goal. With Hutton expecting him to go to the outside, Barkov cut to the middle and went to the backhand to beat Markstrom.
.@Barkovsasha95 with the go-ahead goal on a breakaway. pic.twitter.com/18RCfzJbJA
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) February 7, 2018
Gloves dropped with Erik Gudbranson as well, as both halves of the Hutton-Gudbranson pairing struggled. The reason Barkov was in 1-on-1 with Hutton is that Gudbranson had an ill-timed and ineffective pinch down the boards. Another time, Gudbranson pulled a Luca Sbisa: with plenty of time and space to consider his options, Gudbranson held the puck, waited, then gave it away.
Henrik Sedin gets the gloves dropped for his uncharacteristic impatience when the Canucks pulled Markstrom for the extra attacker. Instead of looking for a better opportunity or trying to create an open lane for Boeser, he threw the puck into Thomas Vanek’s shin pads in front of the net. The puck was cleared and Barkov skated onto it and deposited it into the empty net to make it 3-1.
