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Stick-taps and Glove-drops: Canucks at Stars, February 11, 2018

Kudos and critique's from today's game.
Daniel Wagner
Daniel Wagner
Stick-taps and Glove-drops
Stick-taps and Glove-drops

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.

Let’s give the entire team a tap of the stick, as they followed up a rough stretch with one of their best games of the season. It’s a reminder that when things go right for this team, they can still compete with the rest of the NHL, but they need a lot of improvement in order to do it consistently.

Stick-tap to Reid Boucher, who set the tone for the Canucks early in the game. He opened the scoring a couple minutes in by jumping forward off a faceoff, lifted Dan Hamhuis’s stick behind the net, and tucked the puck in on the wraparound. Boucher added another goal on a deflection in the second period and finished with seven shots on goal and also drew a penalty. Pretty fantastic game for the Comets call-up.

 

 

Tap of the stick for Jake Virtanen, who poked the puck away in the defensive zone, then created a breakaway with his powerful skating stride. He deked to the backhand and tucked the puck five-hole on Ben Bishop to make it 2-0.

 

 

The Sedins get a stick-tap each for the 3-0 goal, as they busted out some wizardry. Henrik Sedin lofted a backhand pass over Jamie Benn to Daniel, who sent Thomas Vanek in alone with a one-touch pass on the bouncing puck. It was a classic Sedin setup.

 

 

Stick-tap to Thomas Vanek for the finish as well. He stepped over the blue line and unleashed one of his patented don’t-give-a-damn slap shots, blasting it past Bishop’s blocker. Vanek had six shots on goal in just over 13 minutes of ice time.

Tap of the stick to Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat for teaming up on the power play to make it 4-0. Alex Edler recovered from a failed drop pass to force the puck into the offensive zone, centring for Boeser, who surprised everyone with the drop pass. Horvat took the puck and ripped a shot just inside the post.

 

 

Stick-tap to the line of Loui Eriksson, Brandon Sutter, and Darren Archibald, who were matched up against Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, and Alex Radulov and kept the Stars’ top line in their own zone for much of the game. When Eriksson, Sutter, and Archibald were on the ice together, the Canucks out-shot the Stars 10-3, with Archibald providing four hits and a strong forechecking presence.

Let’s give another stick-tap to Virtanen, as he picked up his second point on the 5-0 goal, driving wide, then circling behind the net when an opportunity for a shot didn’t present itself, smartly sending the puck to the blue line instead. Derrick Pouliot's point shot was then tipped home by Boucher. Virtanen led the team in corsi, with the Canucks out-attempting the Stars 19-10 with him on the ice at 5-on-5.

 

 

Erik Gudbranson deserves a stick-tap, if not for his goal, a long, unscreened wrist shot that had no business getting past Kari Lehtonen, who came in to replace Bishop after Horvat’s goal. Instead, he gets the tap for a solid game on the top pairing with Alex Edler, who came out on top of their matchup with the Stars’ top line. Gudbranson had three shots on goal and blocked five shots.

 

 

A tap of the stick to Jacob Markstrom, who stopped all 30 shots he faced, posting the second shutout of the season (and his career). It's notable that he and the Canucks came out with this kind of effort and performance after his comments after the last game that were perceived as him calling out his teammates. If you're going to speak that way, you have to be able to back it up and he came through.