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. That’s right: two post-game articles for the price of one! That price is still zero dollars.
Tap of the stick to Chris Tanev, who didn’t miss a beat in his return from injury. Apart from letting Taylor Hall sneak in behind him for a breakaway at one point, he had a strong game. He was jumping up into the rush with confidence while playing over 20 minutes.
Stick-tap to the Canucks’ top two offensive lines, each of which had strong games despite the loss. The top line of Sven Baertschi, Bo Horvat, and Brock Boeser had some of the Canucks’ best shifts in the game and led the Canucks in corsi, while the Sedins had their highest ice time of the season as they pushed for the comeback.
A tap of the stick for Daniel Sedin, who came two points closer to 1000 with a goal and an assist. If he has a two-point night against the Rangers on Sunday, he’ll reach 1000 in front of Alain Vigneault, which was one of the five scenarios I suggested on Thursday.
Dropping the gloves with Travis Green, who benched Jake Virtanen for the majority of the third period in favour of putting Loui Eriksson with the Sedins. I thought Virtanen was playing just fine and he and the Sedins were making things happen; with Eriksson, the Sedins seemed to have a tougher time getting through the neutral zone. Virtanen
I’ll give Derrick Pouliot a drop of the gloves on the Devils’ first goal. He was in a good spot in front of the net, but when Taylor Hall is on the ice, you have to know where he is. Hall found some open ice at the side of the net and Pouliot didn’t spot him in time to take that space away.
I’ll give Henrik Sedin a tap of the stick on his brother’s goal. He drove to the net, taking Blake Coleman with him, so that when Daniel threw a centring pass in front, the puck deflected off Coleman’s skate and in.
Gloves need to be dropped with Ben Hutton on the 2-1 goal. He got caught standing still on the penalty kill and Will Butcher completely undressed him, then centred for Brian Boyle for the goal.
A tap of the stick for Boyle: it’s pretty fitting that Boyle got a goal on Hockey Fights Cancer Night.
Definitely dropping the gloves with Sven Baertschi on the Devils’ third goal. It started with an ill-advised pass after the Canucks’ power play ended, while the Canucks still had just one defenceman on the ice. That led to a breakaway for Taylor Hall and, when his shot hit the post, Baertschi was far too slow to get back on Damon Severson, who had an easy tap-in.
I hate to drop the gloves with Troy Stecher in his first game back, but he had a rough game. He and Michael Del Zotto just didn’t seem to click together and regularly got trapped in the defensive zone. The Canucks were out-shot 9-2 with Stecher on the ice at 5-on-5.
Tap of the stick for Brock Boeser, who didn’t score a goal but still tallied an assist to extend his point streak to six games. It was a slightly cheesy secondary assist, as he rung the puck around the boards to Daniel, who played a little catch with Horvat before the goal, but a point is a point.
Bo Horvat gets a stick-tap for his ninth goal of the season, making a strong move on the power play to pull the puck in front of the net and beat Cory Schneider under his right arm. That’s as close as the Canucks would come, but it was a great goal.
On the powerplay - Horvat with the nice move in tight and then roofs it#Canucks down 3-2 in third pic.twitter.com/osjoMIxa6n
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) November 25, 2017
