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Stick-taps and Glove-drops: Canucks vs Canadiens, December 19th, 2017

Quick kudos and critiques from tonight's game against the Montreal Canadiens
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 Brock Boeser, who somehow didn’t miss a game after fears that he would miss weeks after blocking a Mark Giordano shot. He didn’t just show up: he led all Canucks forwards in ice time with over 20 minutes, had a game-high 11 shot attempts, including five on net, and finished the night with two points: a goal and an assist.

Anders Nilsson gets a big stick-tap for his unreal save on Max Pacioretty a minute into the game, diving back with his glove to take away an open net.

 

 

Unfortunately, Nilsson gets the gloves dropped for the rest of the game. He didn’t have a chance on a couple Canadiens shots and made some nice saves, but he still gave up six goals on 31 shots. At the very least, he should have had Nicolas Deslaurier’s second goal, a one-timer from distance that found its way through the five-hole.

Thomas Vanek gets a tap of the stick for his excellent game, scoring a hattrick entirely from Carey Price’s doorstep and adding an assist. He opened the scoring when a Derrick Pouliot point shot hit him in the gut and dropped to the ice at his feet for the tap-in.

I’m dropping the gloves with Daniel and Henrik Sedin. They were fantastic offensively and generally carried the play when they were on the ice, but their inattentiveness defensively cost the Canucks two to four goals, depending on how charitable you feel. The Canadiens went up 2-1 when neither Sedin picked up Deslauriers heading to the back door, and each of them stopped skating on the backcheck on two late Canadiens goals.

A tap of the stick for Alex Biega, who was flying in this one. He had seven shots on goal and was credited with six hits, to go with a lovely assist on Vanek’s second goal of the game. Biega kept the puck long enough that it seemed certain he would shoot before snapping a quick pass to Vanek to deflect past Price.

 

 

I’ll add a stick-tap for Loui Eriksson on that goal, as it was his excellent work along the boards that freed up the puck for the scoring chance to occur.

I dropped the gloves with them already, but the Sedins get stick-taps too. Daniel had a game-high eight shots on goal and the two twins created chance after chance for their linemates. Daniel scored the 3-3 goal with some help from Tomas Plekanec, who deflected the puck off his skate right to Daniel as he fell backwards into Carey Price, taking him out of the play. Daniel kicked the puck up to his stick and had the easy tuck-in.

I’ll drop the gloves with Brendan Gaunce and Markus Granlund. On the Canadiens' 4-3 goal, neither player made enough of an effort to get into Jeff Petry’s shooting lane, giving him a clear sightline on net to blast a slap shot past a screened Nilsson. That’s not textbook penalty killing at all.

While I thought he played pretty well in his return to the lineup, I have to drop the gloves with Erik Gudbranson, or at least give them a threatening shake after a faceoff. I didn’t like his gap control on Jonathan Drouin for the 5-3 goal and he passed up an opportunity to throw a hit on the play. Instead, it turned into a defensive mess, as Henrik and Pouliot got their wires crossed, leaving Paul Byron wide open as a scrambling Nilsson couldn’t get to his feet.

I have to give Brock Boeser one more stick-tap for his ridiculous shot to bring the Canucks within one. Carey Price charged out to cut off the angle and it simply did not matter.

 

 

Let’s end this on a positive note with another stick-tap for Thomas Vanek, who deserves it for his hattrick. It was a classic case of getting to the front of net and good things happening. On the third goal, Boeser threw the puck in front and it took a fortuitous bounce off a Canadiens’ player right onto Vanek’s stick and he made no mistake.