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 everyone who endured that game. That was rough.
I’m dropping the gloves with Brandon Tanev for landing on Thomas Vanek’s leg in the first period, causing it to bend awkwardly and giving Canucks fans (and probably management) a scare that he might have injured his knee a month away from the trade deadline. He was fine, but still, don’t do that Brandon.
And some rare gloves dropped with his brother, Chris Tanev. He got victimized on the lone goal, as Patrick Laine pushed off him in front to create room in the slot. Not that he needs a lot of room with a release that quick.
I’ll drop some gloves with Derrick Pouliot on the goal too. It was his job to prevent the pass from getting out front and he did not do so. Pouliot struggled overall — the Canucks were out-attempted 19-9 when he was on the ice — and he had a bad giveaway down low to Mathieu Perreault midway through the first period.
Stick-tap to Bo Horvat, because it was nice to have him back. He seemed to get more comfortable as the game progressed, starting to look stronger in the second period when he started forechecking hard and driving wide off the rush.
Anders Nilsson gets the bulk of the stick-taps in this game. He was stupendous in net for the Canucks, making 35 saves, including a stunning stop on Perreault on a backdoor chance at the end of the second period. He lunged across with his blocker with great anticipation to take away what looked to be a sure goal.
Nilsson with a good save, but I do admit I giggled at him trying to snag the rebound in the air and whiffing on it pic.twitter.com/4kFOaF2dke
— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) January 22, 2018
Michael Del Zotto gets the gloves dropped. On that great chance by Perreault, Del Zotto was far too soft at the blue line, letting Nikolaj Ehlers blow by him along the wall to provide the setup. That was his worst mistake on the night, but he also had a couple bad giveaways. And yet he was second on the Canucks in ice time.
Stick-tap to Connor Hellebuyck, the Jets goaltender, not for shutting out the Canucks, but for his aggressive charge and dive to break up a Markus Granlund breakaway. I’m a big fan of that kind of aggressive goaltending, simply because it’s fun.
A tap of the stick to Brock Boeser, even if he didn’t score, extending his goalless streak to six games. He had a game-high 10 shot attempts, with 4 of them on net. Even with his drought, the way he keeps getting shots and scoring chances is encouraging.
Alex Biega gets a stick-tap, even if it’s frustrating that his insertion in the lineup comes at the expense of Ben Hutton. Biega always gets involved when he’s in the lineup and he had four shots on goal and was credited with five hits.
Stick-tap for Brandon Sutter, who drew a penalty with 1:30 left, giving the Canucks a chance to pull Nilsson and go 6-on-4 on the power play to finish off the game and look for a tying goal. Sutter had a decent performance overall matched up against the Jets’ top line, although he struggled on defensive zone faceoffs.
Dropping the gloves with the Sedins, who had a couple nice moments on the power play, but couldn't maintain their usual possession game at even-strength in the face of the Jets' speed. And even on the power play, they looked to pass a little too much instead of shooting on the chances they had to do so.
