Vancouver Canucks fans already knew their team wouldn’t have Quinn Hughes for their three-game homestand this week — when Elias Pettersson didn’t take the ice for practice on Monday afternoon, it was easy to assume the worst.
Hughes entered the NHL’s COVID protocol after traveling to the U.S. during the All-Star break. That means he’ll stay in the U.S. and quarantine for at least five days. Fortunately, Pettersson won’t be joining him in the COVID protocol.
“Pettersson was just feeling sick, almost like flu-like symptoms — non-COVID related — so we sent him home,” said Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau. “Hopefully he’ll be ready to have a pre-game skate with us tomorrow and play the game tomorrow night.”
That should have Canucks fans heaving a sigh of relief. As much as Pettersson has struggled to produce this season, having both him and Hughes out of the lineup would have made this a tough week.
Pettersson wasn’t the only Canuck missing from practice. Matthew Highmore tested positive for COVID-19 on a pre-practice rapid test and is currently waiting for the results from a PCR test to see if he has to enter COVID protocol. The Canucks have previously had players with false positives from rapid tests.
Tucker Poolman, meanwhile, is “feeling under the weather” according to Boudreau. Poolman was pulled from a game on January 27 when he was feeling ill and has since missed three games.
"Someone else has to step up and hopefully that's me."
Still, the biggest absence is Hughes and now the Canucks have to prepare for at least three games without their best player.
“He’s the best creator of our offence from the backend, so that’s going to be the challenge right there,” said Boudreau, describing the Canucks as “offensively-challenged.”
“I don’t think we’re ever going to replace Quinn Hughes, he’s that good, but hopefully we can find some way to create more stuff on the power play without him,” Boudreau added. “I don’t think we can but we will try.”
Boudreau suggested the Canucks will still try to play the same way but that the players will naturally adjust. Specifically, forwards that might blow the zone and looking for a long stretch pass from Hughes when he has the puck will know that play isn’t available anymore.
The biggest burden from Hughes’ absence will be on the shoulders of Oliver Ekman-Larsson, as the Canucks’ other left-side defencemen are Kyle Burroughs and Brad Hunt. Hughes has regularly played over 26 minutes per game since the coaching change, hitting a career-high 31:07 on January 29 against the Calgary Flames.
Those are some big minutes to replace but Ekman-Larsson has plenty of experience as a number-one defenceman playing heavy minutes in every situation.
“It’s obviously a huge disadvantage for us not having him in the lineup but, at the same time, it’s the way it’s been going this year,” said Ekman-Larsson. “We’ve been playing without some good players during the year here and it’s not gonna be any different this time.
“Somebody else has to step up and hopefully that’s me.”
"I feel like I've been playing some good hockey."
Ekman-Larsson has been playing solid defence this season but his usual offence has been absent.
The veteran defenceman has consistently put up 40-point seasons throughout his career and even in the last two COVID-shortened seasons was on-pace for 40 points if they had been full 82-game seasons.
This year, however, Ekman-Larsson has just 9 points in 43 games, putting up fewer points on both the power play and at even-strength. Why hasn’t he been able to produce points — has something changed in his game or it just his role with the Canucks?
“I think it’s a little bit of everything,” said Ekman-Larsson. “I’ve been in the same organization for my whole career and getting traded — you have to deal with that, I think it’s not something that just goes over by a night, I think that’s something that takes time to get used to.
“To be honest with you, I feel like I’ve been playing some good hockey over the season. I’ve been creating a lot of chances and shooting the puck a lot. Would I like to have more points? Yeah, of course. It’s a league that everybody keeps looking at the points…but you cannot forget about the other stuff that people do on the ice too and I feel like I’ve been playing some good defensive hockey and taking a lot of pride in that.
“I’m just trying to do whatever is best for the team and if that’s killing penalties, that’s what I have to do.”
With Hughes out of the lineup, the Canucks may need Ekman-Larsson to step up and produce offensively. It seems likely that Ekman-Larsson will step into Hughes’ spot on the first power play unit — he was already spending some time there before the All-Star break in a two-defenceman setup.
The Canucks power play is just 2-for-16 over the past six games — now would be an ideal time for Ekman-Larsson to break out and provide some of the same offence he did with the Coyotes.
