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Stick-taps and Glove-drops: Canucks vs Sharks, December 15, 2017

Quick kudos and critiques from tonight's game.
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 the Canucks as a whole for their excellent response to Wednesday’s embarrassing effort. Their first period was arguably their best period of the season, firing 22 shots on goal, including ten shots in the first five minutes.

Tap of the stick to Markus Granlund, who responded to his heart-to-heart with Travis Green by scoring two goals in the first period. They were Granlund’s only two shots of the game but he made them count. Both came courtesy of the power play, even if the second goal technically came after the penalty ended.

 

 

Daniel Sedin gets a tap of the stick for his three-point night, assisting on all three of the Canucks’ goals in regulation. He was arguably the Canucks’ best player, tallying 6 shots on goal and creating multiple golden scoring opportunities with his brother. He tipped Henrik’s slap pass to Granlund for the first goal, fired a tough shot on net on the second, then set up Brock Boeser with a lovely backhand pass for the third.

A tap of the stick to Henrik Sedin, who also had a three-assist night. He and Daniel were outright dominant in this game, looking like the Sedins of yore. Henrik’s slap pass to Daniel on the first goal was perfectly placed and his heads-up pass to Granlund off a rebound was vintage Sedinery.

I’ll drop the gloves with Nic Dowd, who took yet another minor penalty, which is the only way he’s made it into the box score in his first three games with the Canucks. He has not done much to endear himself to Canucks fans so far.

Alex Biega gets a stick-tap for providing some much-needed energy in his first game since November 22nd. He was seemingly everywhere in this game, with a game-high nine shot attempts, six of them on net, to go with five hits in just over 18 minutes of ice time. He also led the Canucks’ defence in corsi and scoring chances were 18-6 for the Canucks when he was on the ice at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Brock Boeser gets a stick-tap pretty much every game, because he always finds a way to produce points. He came through on the power play from his office in the left faceoff circle, ripping a wrist shot past Martin Jones on the blocker side after hitting the post off the rush a moment earlier. That brings his point streak to five games and gives him 17 goals and 30 points in 30 games for the rookie scoring lead.

 

 

A tap of the stick to Alex Edler and Derrick Pouliot, who were hard-matched against the Sharks’ top line and shut them down at even-strength. Pouliot showed an unexpected physical side with four hits and Edler assisted on the game-winning goal in overtime. Edler finished with 28:57 in ice time, a season-high for the Canucks, while Pouliot was second in ice time with 23:32. Nice game all-around for that pairing.

I have to drop the gloves with Alexander Burmistrov, whose hit on Logan Couture away from the puck was unnecessary and reckless. Couture left the game and didn't return, while Burmistrov was lucky to only get a two-minute penalty for interference.

Stick-tap for Jacob Markstrom, who was superb despite the three goals against. He finished with 34 saves on 37 shots and even got an assist on the game-winning goal after his pokecheck on Brent Burns led to a rush the other way.

Sam Gagner gets the final stick-tap of the night for his excellent backhand finish in overtime after Edler sent him in alone on Jones. Gagner is so entertainingly exuberant in his goal celebrations that it’s a real shame he doesn’t score more often.