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.
I’m dropping the gloves with Jacob Markstrom. 31 saves on 33 shots is normally a pretty nice night’s work for a goaltender, but the two goals Markstrom allowed should have been stopped and one was truly dreadful. The dreadful one stood up as the game-winner: a Kyle Brodziak shot from a terrible angle that had no business going in.
I have to drop the gloves with Troy Stecher on the first Blues’ goal. Even if Markstrom should have made a save on Patrik Berglund’s backhand, Stecher is the one who lost position on him along the boards and ended up chasing him into the slot. He didn’t get a lot of help — Nic Dowd or Nikolay Goldobin could have stepped in to help — but Berglund was Stecher’s man.
Brock Boeser gets a tap of the stick for reaching 20 goals before Christmas. Last season, Bo Horvat led the Canucks in goalscoring with 20 goals; Boeser has reached that total in just 34 games. The kid is good.
Brock Boeser with his 20th goal of the season to tie the game at 1#Canucks pic.twitter.com/OTZAHYrIRn
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) December 24, 2017
A stick-tap for Thomas Vanek, who did a lot of the work to create Boeser’s goal. Vanek picked the pocket of fellow 26 Paul Stastny, then sent a lovely pass against the grain to a waiting Boeser after a touch from Sam Gagner. Boeser could only smile at Vanek after he scored into the wide open net.
A tap of the stick to Jake Virtanen, who had another great game using Boeser’s stick. He was put into a shutdown role with Nic Dowd and Brendan Gaunce, playing mainly against the Blues’ leading scorer, Brayden Schenn, and dominated in those minutes. When Virtanen was on the ice against Schenn at 5-on-5, the Canucks out-attempted the Blues 7-2 and only allowed one shot on goal. Virtanen finished the game with eight shot attempts, four of them on goal, and a team-high +9 corsi.
I’ll give a stick-tap to Nolan Baumgartner, for navigating the pairings with seven defencemen in the lineup. None of the defencemen played at forward, instead rotating through an array of pairings, with only Alexes Edler and Biega sticking together as a pairing all game. That can be tough to keep straight, but they made it work.
A gentle stick-tap for Nic Dowd, who avoided taking any penalties in this game. The Canucks’ newest acquisition has seemingly spent more time in the penalty box than on the ice. It’s a low bar to clear, but he successfully stayed out of the box, and also did a solid job in a shutdown role against the Blues’ top line.
