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Stick-taps and Glove-Drops: Canucks vs Blues, November 18, 2017

A strong bounce back performance, but not enough against the best in the West.
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. That’s right: two post-game articles for the price of one! That price is still zero dollars.

Tap of the stick to the Canucks for bouncing back from one of their worst games of the season against the Vegas Golden Knights to take one of the best teams in the NHL to overtime. The Canucks hung with the Blues all game and arguably should have won, with one of their goals called back in mildly controversial fashion.

A tap of the stick for Brock Boeser, who continued his point-per-game pace with his seventh goal of the season. With two Blues players bearing down on him, Boeser came out of the corner with possession of the puck, then ripped a shot through the legs of another Blue and past Jake Allen.

 

 

Jake Virtanen gets a stick-tap for a solid performance in his return to the lineup. He created some chances with his speed, including a wraparound attempt that would have been a goal without an alert Alex Pietrangelo getting his stick on the puck.

Have to drop at least one glove in a scrum with Boeser for not picking up Colton Parayko on the back check. To be fair, Boeser was at the end of his shift and looked dead tired, but Parayko was wide open to fire home the tying goal.

Dropping the gloves with Sportsnet for playing an Auston Matthews interview during the first intermission. There wasn’t a Canucks player they could interview during that time?

Stick-tap for Markus Granlund, who tallied his first goal in nine games, scoring off a shorthanded rush with some patience, a deke, and a five-hole finish.

 

 

Loui Eriksson gets a tap of the stick for his two-assist performance. After setting up Granlund for the 2-1 goal, he fired a hard shot on the power play that Allen couldn’t control, leaving a rebound for Sven Baertschi to whack home.

Alex Biega gets the gloves dropped on the Blues’ second goal. He left his man, Vladimir Sobotka, to throw a hit on Jake Virtanen's man. Sobotka, newly open, took the pass and fired it glove side on Nilsson.

Dropping the gloves with the referees for disallowing a Canucks goal for a hand pass. The issue? It was a Blues’ hand that passed the puck. Alex Steen grabbed the puck out of midair, then Bo Horvat picked it off, centred it to Thomas Vanek and Vanek put in his rebound. You could argue that Steen gained possession of the puck, which would cause the play to be blown dead, but he never touched it with his stick. I wouldn’t call that control.

Gloves dropped with Sam Gagner on the 3-3 goal. He was put on the wing with Brandon Sutter and Derek Dorsett, but he really doesn’t belong in a shutdown role. He proved it, by completely losing track of Joel Edmundson, allowing him to walk in from the point and hammer a one-timer past Nilsson.

 

 

I have sympathy for Derrick Pouliot, but he still gets the gloves dropped for getting owned 1-on-1 by Brayden Schenn in overtime. Schenn cut to the middle on Pouliot and beat Nilsson from between the hashmarks.
 

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