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.
Tap of the stick to the Canucks as a whole, who had no quit despite going down 2-0 early to the Lightning, who are the best team in the NHL.
Dropping the gloves with Michael Del Zotto on the Lightning’s first goal. He made a good play to disrupt the zone entry, but then lost the puck in his skates. After that, he went to the front of the net, picking up his check, Chris Kunitz, but didn’t move with him when he stipped up between the hashmarks. When Del Zotto did get there, he put his stick between Kunitz’s legs instead of checking his stick, and Kunitz was able to tip Anton Stralman’s shot past Jacob Markstrom.
Gloves dropped for Bo Horvat for blowing the zone early and not getting back in time to prevent Victor Hedman stepping up and getting a wide open scoring chance at the left faceoff circle. He snapped the puck through Markstrom’s legs to make it 2-0 less than 6 minutes into the game.
Markstrom gets gloves dropped on Hedman’s goal as well. If he dropped straight into his butterfly, he would have made the save. Instead he threw his left pad up first, and the puck beat him five-hole. Markstrom made some good saves in this game and the Lightning are a great team, but that was a shot he could have stopped.
I’ll drop the gloves with Mikhail Sergachev for his end-to-end rush on the power play, blowing past Alex Edler at the blue line to create a breakaway. That’s a very rude way to remind Canucks fans that the Canucks could have picked him in 2016.
Don Cherry gets the gloves dropped for denying the well-attested science of climate change during Coach’s Corner, calling people who accept scientific facts “left-wing pinkos” and “cuckaloos.” Look, if you think cold weather disproves global warming, that’s fine, but you should probably keep it to yourself, because it makes you sound like an idiot.
Can’t drop the gloves with anyone on the 3-0 goal. It was just a nice play by the LIghtning off the rush, creating an open shot for Yanni Gourde, who popped the cap off Markstrom’s water bottle with a fantastic shot.
Have to give a stick-tap to Bo Horvat, who was one of the Canucks’ best forwards in this game, even if he couldn’t find the back of the net. Horvat created a breakaway off a Sven Baertschi pass midway through the third, but got robbed by Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was superb in net for the Lightning. The Canucks out-shot the Lightning 12-4 with Horvat and Brock Boeser on the ice.
Boeser did get an assist on the Canucks’ opening goal, but I’m giving Thomas Vanek the stick-tap. Boeser cut back along the boards, then got the puck to Troy Stecher in the middle. He drew in the defence then fed Vanek, who faked a shot, dropping Vasilevskiy into his butterfly, then went around the net for an ever-rare wraparound goal.
Troy From Richmond driving his souped up Audi through the offensive zone to help set up Vanek for the goal pic.twitter.com/9jhK6xWL2f
— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) February 4, 2018
Boeser gets a stick-tap for his goal, however. What a play. He drove hard through the middle of the ice, created some space with his diagonal movement, then ripped the puck blocker side on Vasilevskiy. Boeser had five shots on goal and looked dangerous on the power play, but the Lightning clogged up his shooting lanes.
Boeser with a dandy of a goal - just rips it.#Canucks pic.twitter.com/7JBatgmBin
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) February 4, 2018
Stick-tap to Chris Tanev, who was excellent for most of the game. His best play came as the lone man back on a 4-on-1, playing it perfectly and deflecting the eventual shot high and wide.
But Tanev gets the gloves dropped too. He bobbled the puck at the blue line, giving Cory Conacher a breakaway. He tried to lift Conacher’s stick, but got the stick in Conacher’s face instead, giving the Lightning a double minor, half of which became a penalty shot on which Conacher scored to make it 4-2.
Alex Edler gets a tap of the stick. He played a team-high 24:43, led the Canucks with seven shots on goal, and had another five shots blocked. He played big minutes against the top line for the Lightning and, while he was on the ice for three goals against, honestly played well in those minutes.
