Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes, usually quiet and reserved, was even more quiet and reserved following the Canucks’ brutal 6-0 loss to younger brothers Jack Hughes, Luke Hughes, and the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night.
You might think it is fun and games playing against your two younger brothers for just the second time in the NHL, but Quinn was not asked about that after the game. He probably would not have cared to discuss it, either. Not after a 6-0 loss in front of the home fans at Rogers Arena.
The Canucks captain was focused only on the Canucks, but you could hear the frustration and the calculated restraint in his voice postgame.
“It’s easy. It probably starts in practice (with) everyone being sharp and getting ready for this road trip.”
Canucks captain Quinn Hughes
Hughes said the Canucks’ performance was “not good enough” on Wednesday night. In what ways? “Pretty much every way.” That is as simple as it gets from Hughes, who is already laid back as it is. Seven words to respond to two questions.
As an offensive maven, some of Hughes’s frustration is undoubtedly sourced from the Canucks’ continued power play struggles, as they went 0 for 4 and allowed a shorthanded goal to Devils forward Dawson Mercer to concede a 2-0 lead early in the second period. Timo Meier added another tally for New Jersey just 1:32 later, effectively killing any chance of a comeback at 3-0. “Probably somewhere in the second period there,” is where Hughes felt the game was lost.
“I mean, anytime you don’t score on a power play… you know, you’re obviously trying to score,” Hughes assessed bluntly. The viral clip of Elias Pettersson, which has been viewed over 800k times on Twitter and counting, firing a shot into Jacob Markstrom’s chest with all kinds of time and space probably doesn’t help either.
Even the four-game win streak that preceded this two-game losing streak hasn’t helped the Canucks. They’ll play each of their next three games on the road, and sometimes settling into that routine can help a team get out of their own heads by giving them less time to think. According to Hughes, that “doesn’t matter.”
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