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. That’s right: two post-game articles for the price of one! That price is still zero dollars.
I’m dropping the gloves with the hockey gods, who had it in for the Canucks in this game. The bounces all went against the Canucks early, as well as late, and also throughout the middle.
I’ll at least give the hockey gods a single stick tap for letting us know early what kind of game we were in for. Markstrom didn’t allow a goal on the first shot, at least, saving Brent Burns point shot, but the rebound bounced off Tomas Hertl’s leg and into the net.
A tap of the stick for Loui Eriksson, who was arguably the Canucks’ best forward in his return from injury. He drew two penalties, played a strong cycle game with the Sedins, and tied Alex Edler with a team-high five shots on goal.
Dropping the gloves with the horseshoes Aaron Dell clearly had shoved down his pants. The Sharks’ backup netminder was very good, but he also was extremely lucky: at one point he made a save on Alex Edler with his back turned. On another occasion, Sam Gagner couldn’t get all of his shot with an open net on a rebound and lofted it directly into Dell’s glove.
Stick-tap to Derrick Pouliot, who turned some heads with his excellent performance in this game. He made smart plays on zone exits, pinched down the boards effectively to keep offensive zone shifts alive, and skated the blue line very effectively. Shot attempts were 30-12 for the Canucks when he was on the ice at 5-on-5, leading the Canucks in corsi percentage, and shots on goal were 18-4.
You better believe the Canucks’ power play is getting the gloves dropped. Sure, one of the three (!!!) shorthanded goals they gave up was into an empty net and the other was a bogus penalty shot, but they still gave up three shorthanded goals.
Dropping the gloves with Timo Meier for butt-ending Michael Del Zotto in the face away from the play. That’s lousy in any situation, but particularly scummy when your team is up by three goals in the final minutes of the game. That ought to result in a suspension.
I have to drop the gloves with the referee who gave Chris Tierney a penalty shot with 13 seconds left. The penalty itself was questionable, but Tierney had a clear-cut breakaway after Edler’s pseudo-hook and got a great scoring chance on which he hit the post. It was an inexplicable call that no one on the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast could explicate.
