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.
A tap of the stick to the posts, which helped Jacob Markstrom overcome some bad luck. The Avalanche rang a couple posts hard on great scoring chances, which made up for the weird bounces that got behind Markstrom in this game. It’s hard to fault Markstrom for any of the three goals that got past him.
Big stick-tap to Bo Horvat, who led all forwards with 21:42 in ice time, dominated puck possession all game, and opened the scoring when Thomas Vanek sprung him on a rush. He created separation with a few strong strides, then snapped the puck past Jonathan Bernier.
Horvat scores on the break with the nice snap shot#Canucks pic.twitter.com/IUXBezkNBt
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) January 31, 2018
Tap of the stick to Michael Del Zotto for his perfectly-placed shot to make it 2-0 five minutes after Horvat’s opening goal. It came off some nice work by the line of Brendan Gaunce, Sam Gagner, and Jake Virtanen, with Gagner screening Bernier so that he wasn’t able to pick up the long shot.
I’m dropping the gloves with Loui Eriksson on Colorado’s first goal. After a penalty kill, Eriksson gave the puck away at the offensive blue line, leading to an odd-man situation when Troy Stecher came out of the box and immediately went for a line change. An unlucky deflection caught Markstrom leaning the wrong way and he gave up a rebound for J.T. Compher to finish.
Alex Edler gets a stick-tap for eating up minutes in this game. He played a game-high 28:01, with a lot of those minutes coming against the Avalanche’s top line. While he had a couple shaky moments, he was mostly very good. He knocked Nathan Mackinnon out of the game with a stiff shoulder check and had a key keep-in on the goal that sent the game to overtime.
I have to drop the gloves with Edler on the 2-2 goal, however, as it was his giveaway in the defensive zone that eventually led to the goal. With time to move the puck, he simply fanned on it, giving it away to Compher. The puck eventually came to Tyson Barrie, whose shot was stopped by an aggressive Markstrom, but pinballed in off Gabriel Landeskog, who Troy Stecher was unable to box out.
While he had some good moments early in the game, Jake Virtanen gets the gloves dropped on the 2-2 goal as well. He wound up looking lost in the defensive zone after the Edler turnover and never seemed to figure out where he belonged. That’s a big reason why Barrie was so wide open to take the initial shot and it led to a long sit on the bench for Virtanen. He played less than two minutes in each of the second and third periods.
Stick-tap to Travis Green for reuniting the Triple-B Line of Sven Baertschi, Bo Horvat, and Brock Boeser, but I’ll also drop one glove with him for not starting the game with them together. I guess Green was hoping for some residual chemistry from the 6-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings, but Horvat and Boeser were one of the few good things about the embarrassing loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
Tap of the stick to the Canucks power play, which looked very effective. It created numerous chances on four opportunities, eventually getting the game-tying goal after the Avalanche took a 3-2 lead with a power play goal of their own.
Good vision by Boeser to spot Hank down low and drive to the front of the net. Edler holds the puck well, too, before spotting Boeser. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/bL0kIv7Yeg
— Grady Sas (@GradySas) January 31, 2018
Daniel Sedin gets a tap of the stick for providing the finish, but the tying goal was a nice play all around. On a brief 5-on-3, Edler snagged a clearing attempt with his glove, then dropped the puck to Boeser. He stepped in, drawing a check up high, then fed the puck to Henrik, who set up Daniel at the top of the crease.
Stick tap for Sven Baertschi, who won the game in overtime with a laser of a shot into the top corner over Bernier’s glove. He took the pass from Brandon Sutter, backed up Compher, then ripped the shot where it couldn’t be stopped.
Sven Baertschi goes high glove cheese with a beauty of a shot to win it. Good celly, too. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/BqNVu0romr
— Grady Sas (@GradySas) January 31, 2018
Chris Tanev gets a stick-tap for his three-point night. He had an assist on the goals by Horvat and Del Zotto, then picked the secondary assist on Baertschi’s overtime game-winner. It was the first career three-point game for Tanev.
