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Stick-taps and Glove-drops: Canucks vs Blackhawks, December 28, 2017

Quick kudos and critiques from tonight'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.

Stick-tap to the line of Brock Boeser, Sam Gagner, and Thomas Vanek, who provided all five of the Canucks’ goals and could have had two more, as Vanek was robbed with a ridiculous stick save and Boeser hit a post. They were the best line on the ice, even if they didn’t dominate possession like the Jonathan Toews line did for the Blackhawks.

A tap of the stick to Nikolay Goldobin, who was the only Canuck to get a point besides Boeser, Gagner, and Vanek. He did some solid work on a power play that he drew, then wound up for a shot from above the faceoff circles as the penalty expired, and Gagner tipped it in from the slot to make it 1-0.

Jacob Markstrom deserves a stick-tap for making 30 saves on 32 shots. There wasn’t much he could do about either Blackhawks goal, though he did make a save on a carbon copy of their first, a Nick Schmaltz one-timer from the low slot on the power play.

I’ll drop the gloves with Alex Biega, who got a little overzealous with his role as a fourth-line winger in this one, crossing the line with a hit from behind on Connor Murphy that likely should have been a 5-minute major instead of the 2-minute boarding minor he received. I kind of like Biega as an energy-line forward, but that was an ugly hit.

Stick-tap to Gagner for his blind, backhand pass from behind the net to Vanek for the 2-1 goal. He didn’t even look; he just threw it out front to where he knew Vanek would be.

 

 

A tap of the stick for Vanek, who returned the favour to Gagner with a great pass out of the corner after his slap shot got blocked. Gagner took the pass and snapped a shot just inside the far post to make it 3-1 early in the third period.

Boeser gets a tap of the stick for a blind backhand pass of his own that echoed Gagner’s from earlier in the game. Unlike Gagner, he took a glance out front first, but it gave Vanek his second goal of the game, making it 4-1. Boeser’s four-point night vaulted him over Matt Barzal in the rookie scoring race and into the top-20 in NHL scoring.

 

 

Another stick-tap for Vanek, both for his sick pass to Boeser for the 5-1 goal and because he deserves it for putting up 5 points. His pass was an excellent capper, as he drove to the net and looked like he would go for the hat trick, but instead made a sumptuous drop pass to give Boeser plenty of room to roof the puck.

 

 

Alex Edler and Troy Stecher get stick-taps for a quietly excellent night on the blue line. The Canucks out-shot the Blackhawks 11-4 with Edler on the ice 5-on-5, despite the pairing facing a steady diet of the Toews line. Edler was the Canucks’ most effective defenceman at exiting the defensive zone according to Darryl Keeping’s tracking. 

Stick-tap to Erik Gudbranson, who played one of his better games of the season, showing more physicality than he has in a while. He stopped one scoring chance by knocking his check directly into the goal and was credited with a game-high 5 hits. The Canucks were still badly out-shot when he was on the ice, but he did some solid crease-clearing work.

I have to drop the gloves with Gudbranson and his partner, Ben Hutton, for that final goal against, however. Hutton got caught puck-watching in the neutral zone, allowing Ryan Hartman to sneak in behind him, while Gudbranson failed to take the body coming back on Hartman, who swooped around him and whipped a quick shot past Markstrom.


 

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