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 the Canucks’ 2017-18 season, because it’s officially over. Brock Boeser blocked a Mark Giordano shot, dropped to the ice and crawled back to the bench in obvious pain. He didn’t return and was seen on crutches after the game, so it’s safe to assume he’ll be out for a while. Combined with all the other Canucks’ injuries, you may as well just cancel the rest of the season.
Let’s drop the gloves with the referees who let Boeser crawl to the bench instead of blowing the whistle and halting play with the Canucks in possession of the puck. What were they thinking?
Boeser blocks a shot on PP - can barely get to the bench#Canucks pic.twitter.com/TPLR30p9hk
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) December 18, 2017
I’ll drop the gloves with Alex Burmistrov on the opening goal, as he lost position on his man, Mark Jankowski, coming off the boards, leaving him wide open to score off the pass from Sam Bennett. Burmistrov struggled all game: scoring chances were 10-1 for the Flames when he was on the ice at even-strength according to Natural Stat Trick. http://www.naturalstattrick.com/
Ben Hutton gets the gloves dropped on the second goal, as he got beat wide by Giordano at the blue line, seemingly expecting the defenceman to pass the puck off instead of drive the net. Giordano’s shot beat Jacob Markstrom on the short side. Hutton was far from the worst Canuck in this game, but he completely muffed that play.
Have to drop the gloves with Jacob Markstrom. He was good in the first period, but got beat four times in the second period, including twice on the short side. The 3-0 goal shouldn’t have gone in, as Tkachuk beat Markstrom cleanly from the left wing. Arguably the 5-0 goal was stoppable too, a Sam Bennett shot that beat Markstrom under the arm.
I’ll drop the gloves with pretty much every Canuck on the ice for the 4-0 goal. Alex Edler and Derrick Pouliot should have gotten the puck out of the zone along the boards, while Henrik Sedin and Jake Virtanen got caught puck-watching, leaving two Flames wide open behind them. Giordano took the pass and deked to the backhand to beat Markstrom.
The Canucks power play gets a stick-tap for continuing to produce despite losing Brock Boeser. Alex Edler made a lovely play, holding on to the puck just long enough to open up a passing lane to Markus Granlund. He hit the crossbar, but stuck with the play and put in his own rebound. That’s his third goal in the last two games.
Jake Virtanen gets a provisional stick-tap for drawing two penalties and generally being very involved all game. The only problem: he also took three penalties, so was ultimately a minus-1 in penalties.
I thought Brendan Gaunce was decent in this game, so that’s enough for a stick-tap. Stick-taps are sometimes graded on a curve.
Stick-tap to Anders Nilsson, who faced almost a full game’s worth of shots when he came into the game in the third period in relief. He made 18 saves on 19 shots, as the Canucks collapsed in front of him. It was a fantastic performance in a game that didn't deserve it.
So yeah, I'll drop the gloves with my enthusiasm to watch the Canucks without Bo Horvat, Sven Baertschi, Chris Tanev, or Brock Boeser. That's a brutal blow, not just to the Canucks hopes for the playoffs, but to their hopes to even play entertaining hockey.
