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’ll drop the gloves with whichever member of the Canucks’ coaching staff is looking at their defence and deciding, “Ben Hutton is the problem.” Hutton has his flaws, but it’s baffling to see him back in the press box as a healthy scratch in favour of Michael Del Zotto and Erik Gudbranson.
Anders Nilsson gets the gloves dropped for not following Travis Green’s advice to “Stop the ****ing puck,” though that’s not as much advice as it is berating. Less than a minute into the game, Adam Henrique banked a puck from below the goal line off Nilsson’s stick and into the net for yet another early goal against.
I’m dropping the gloves with Michael Del Zotto, who was on the ice for four of Anaheim’s five goals. He was placed into a shutdown role with Chris Tanev for which he is completely ill-suited. He wasn’t at fault on every goal, but he was caught out of position a little too frequently and you can place some level of blame on him on at least two of the Ducks’ goals.
Del Zotto was partly at fault on the 2-0 goal, but I’ll drop the gloves with Sam Gagner and Derrick Pouliot as well, who seemed to get their wires crossed, giving Rickard Rakell a second chance for a one-timer from the left faceoff circle after fanning on his first attempt. Giving him two cracks from the same area of the ice is pretty inexcusable.
I’ll give the mildest of stick-taps to Nikolay Goldobin, because someone has to get a stick-tap in this game. I thought he had a decent game on a line with the Sedins, helping them generate a handful of scoring chances. He unfortunately missed the net with a backhand on his best chance, from around the same area of the ice he scored against the Kings.
The Sedins and Goldobin get the gloves dropped for their defensive efforts in this one, however. They were on the ice for a lot of Ducks scoring chances and shot attempts, a far cry from their usual strong puck possession, which they have generally maintained even while the Canucks have struggled.
I have to drop the gloves with Ryan Miller, who rudely robbed Brock Boeser on a great scoring chance in front. Sure, he probably feels pretty good about posting a shutout against his former team, but Canucks fans would have felt a lot better if he had been a little less spectacular on that particular scoring chance.
Nic Dowd gets a stick-tap for playing a pretty strong game in a shutdown role. The Canucks out-shot the Ducks 5-3 when he was on the ice 5-on-5 and he was effective on the penalty kill as well. After a rough start to his Canucks career, he might be settling in.
Gagner and Nilsson both get the gloves dropped on the 4-0 goal. Nilsson had the opportunity to control and either cover up or pass the Ducks’ dump-in, but instead left it for Rackell, who beat Del Zotto to the puck. It was Gagner, however, who got caught staring at the puck, allowing Antoine Vermette to sneak in behind him for the weak one-timer that beat a diving Nilsson.
Del Zotto gets a couple more gloves dropped on the 5-0 goal. First he got beaten to the outside by Josh Manson. Then, when Tanev covered for him, he was too slow getting back to the front of the net to take away either the pass or Derek Grant, allowing the Abbotsford-born forward to score his eighth goal of the season.
I’ll drop the gloves with any Canucks fans who complain that Alex Edler had too many shots blocked in this game, because it’s clear they didn’t watch the game at all. Edler had two shots blocked, but had eight shots on goal and helped create several scoring chances on the power play. And yes, he passed it to Boeser. Turn off the confirmation bias mode on your television.
