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.
Anders Nilsson gets a consolatory stick-tap. He was very good in this game despite giving up three goals. It felt like almost all of the Flames’ 35 shots came from dangerous areas on the ice and Nilsson did everything he could to keep the Canucks in the game.
Tap of the stick for Jake Virtanen, who had a great game alongside Brendan Gaunce and Michael Chaput. Virtanen opened the scoring when Michael Del Zotto’s shot hit him in the skate, and he tucked it under Mike Smith, but he was flying all game.
I’m dropping the gloves with Travis Green, who couldn’t find a way to get Virtanen more ice time. He still finished with just 12:42 in ice time, though he wasn’t helped by the constant penalties. Honestly, with the way Virtanen was rolling early, I would have put him on the power play tout de suite.
Dropping the gloves with Nick Dowd, who had an inauspicious debut for the Canucks. He took an early holding penalty, didn’t get a single shot attempt, and went 0-for-4 on faceoffs. Also, the Canucks were out-shot 10-1 with Dowd on the ice at 5-on-5. I know Dowd didn’t have a chance to practice with the Canucks and work on any systems, but my goodness.
Michael Del Zotto gets the gloves dropped on the Flames’ first goal. He mishandled the puck off a faceoff, then compounded the error by diving to the ice for the puck, taking him completely out of the play. Troy Brouwer scored off a one-timer on the ensuing 3-on-1 rush. Del Zotto also didn’t look great on Sam Bennett’s gamewinner, ending up in Nilsson’s way while battling with his man at the side of the net.
Dropping the gloves with Mark Giordano for firing a clearing attempt into Sven Baertschi’s face. Sure, it was entirely unintentional and even went off the glass before hitting Baertschi, but still, the last thing the Canucks need right now is to lose another top-six forward for any length of time.
Stick-tap to the Canucks’ penalty kill, which bounced back after giving up two goals to the Philadelphia Flyers to kill off all four power play opportunities for the Flames.
Tap of the stick to Markus Granlund, whose assist on Brock Boeser’s goal was a pretty one. He took a pass from Daniel Sedin off his skate, then snuck a pass through to Boeser in front.
Brock Boeser scores on the PP to put the #Canucks up 2-1 pic.twitter.com/YigPBCZBAD
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) December 10, 2017
Give Boeser a stick-tap too. He just keeps getting points, even without Baertschi and Horvat. He now has 15 goals and 27 points in 27 games, leading all rookies in goals and second behind only Matt Barzal in points.
Even though he had an overall strong game, Ben Hutton gets the gloves dropped on the 2-2 goal, as he cleared the puck to the boards instead of getting the puck out of the zone when he had the chance. That led directly to Matthew Tkachuk tying the game on the backhand.
Gotta drop the gloves with Sam Gagner. On the gamewinning goal, Sam Bennett was his man, but he ended up chasing him around the zone instead of ever getting body position on him. Gagner needs to start producing some offence, because he's been a liability in the defensive zone all season.
