At the end of the final home game of the season, the Vancouver Canucks gathered in a circle at centre ice. The three alternate captains — Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, and J.T. Miller — stepped into a spotlight in the middle and the microphone was handed to Hughes.
“On behalf of my teammates and the organization, I just want to thank the fans for an incredible year,” said Hughes. “Hopefully, we come out stronger next year. It’s a treat playing for you guys and we’re looking forward to it.”
It wasn’t a speech that will win any awards, by any means, but it seems somewhat notable that Hughes was the one chosen to speak and not Pettersson or Miller, given the Canucks are currently without a captain.
Hughes, however, downplayed the importance of him being the one to speak on behalf of the team. There was nothing to read into that moment, in his eyes.
“It’s just, we talked about it and they asked me to do it and I did it,” said Hughes. “It was important to do but that’s all that happened there.”
If you say so, Quinn. There has seemed to be a subtle shift from the Canucks towards pushing Hughes as a leader in recent weeks, however. But if Hughes says there's nothing to it, we'll have to take him at his word.
Incidentally, when Hughes says “they” asked him to speak, he means his teammates. The coaching staff had no input in that decision. Head coach Rick Tocchet wasn’t even aware that Hughes had spoken at all.
“I didn’t know about that…that’s good,” said Tocchet, who praised Hughes for his developing leadership abilities. “I don’t go in [the room] very often after a game but a couple of players tell me that Hughes is pretty vocal and he wasn’t three months ago, he was a little more quiet. I think he’s taken that personally, that he wants to be a vocal guy in the room.
“His personality — he’s not a big talker — but for him to get out of his comfort zone is huge for our team.”
When asked directly if Hughes could be the Canucks’ next captain, Tocchet said, “He definitely has the qualities.”
As much as this season has been hard on Canucks fans, it’s been even harder on Hughes, who desperately wants to get back into the playoffs.
“I’m a very passionate guy, you guys know that,” said Hughes. “It’s definitely hard.”
“He’s a very competitive kid,” said Tocchet. “He wants to win so bad, that’s what’s impressed me. He’s a hockey nerd, he loves hockey. He’ll probably go hang with his brothers — he might want to skate with the Black Aces for New Jersey because he wants to play so bad.”
Tocchet’s comment about Hughes being a “hockey nerd” was spot on, especially when it comes to his brothers, Jack and Luke Hughes. When he was asked about Luke, he rattled off a series of his younger brother’s accomplishments off the top of his head.
“I think Luke’s overripe — more than prepared,” said Hughes. “World Juniors three times, captain of World Juniors, assistant captain of Michigan, two Frozen Fours, most goals ever as a freshman defenceman, most points ever as a freshman defenceman…”
At that point, The Athletic’s Thomas Drance interjected, asking, “More than you?” and Hughes playfully clapped back, “Oh yeah, killed me. Pay attention! 39 points, I had 28. I had five goals, he had 19. He murdered [Zach] Werenski, me, [Owen] Power, he murdered all those guys. He’s more than ready.”
Hughes did say he would be heading to New Jersey to cheer on his brothers on the Devils in the playoffs but he’ll be keeping a low profile and try to stay out of the spotlight. He definitely won’t be taking a page from his good friend Brady Tkachuk and wear a Devils t-shirt during the playoffs as Tkachuk did for Matthew Tkachuk and the Calgary Flames.
“I won’t be doing that,” said Hughes. “I’ll be hiding. I’ll have a baseball cap on.”
Just as Hughes will be watching his brothers in the playoffs, I watched this game.
- If you can’t make the playoffs, the least you can do is make sure that the team your fanbase hates the most misses the playoffs. The Canucks had the chance to play spoiler for the Flames but couldn’t fully embrace the opportunity, giving up a point to the Flames with the shootout loss. Still, getting the shootout win kept the Flames one point behind the Winnipeg Jets for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference.
- Thatcher Demko was unreal in the Canucks’ net, making all sorts of highlight reel saves. His best save came early in the second period when he went full Snatcher Demko to rob Elias Lindholm with an incredible glove save on a shorthanded 2-on-1, but that save had plenty of competition: he made a whopping 41 saves plus three more in the shootout.
- The most heartwarming highlight of the game was seeing Cole McWard get his first NHL goal in just his second game. He showed some incredible poise at the point, patiently holding the puck until there was a jumble of traffic in front of the net, then threaded a shot through the legs of both Milan Lucic and Jacob Markstrom before unleashing an exuberant knee-sliding, ice-dusting celebration.
- “It took me a second to process that it went in,” said McWard. “Kind of just tried to throw it on net, then I saw it go in and heard the sound of the net —” there was a distinct thud as it hit one of the padded bags that holds the electronics for the in-net cameras “— I just kind of blanked out. I tried to have a good celly but I don’t really know what I did.”
- McWard’s parents were still in the city for his second game, so got to take in the goal. “I was like, ‘Did somebody tip it?’ because I saw it go in — we were sitting right behind the net,” said Patrick McWard. “For a second, we both just looked at each other and then were like [cheering sounds]...The whole weekend has been kind of surreal. It hasn’t sunk in, at least for me. The fans have been just fantastic, they’ve been so supportive, they’ve been friendly, and to have a packed house like this, it was incredible.”
- Fun fact: neither of McWard’s parents played hockey, even if they were both athletes. Patrick McWard played water polo, while Tina McWard played multiple sports, primarily softball, basketball, track, and soccer.
- The Canucks took a 2-0 lead with their 15th shorthanded goal of the season. It was an alert play by J.T. Miller — after Elias Pettersson got his stick on a pass, Miller didn’t even try to control the puck but just whacked it ahead to Pettersson for the breakaway. Pettersson had enough time to make like the French and have a nap, then fired ze missile into the top corner past Jacob Markstrom.
- The Flames got on the board quickly in the third period, putting some immediate pressure on the first shift. Hughes retrieved a missed shot but Miller went to the boards like a winger instead of staying central on the breakout and he wasn’t ready for Hughes’s pass. The turnover quickly turned into an odd-man situation and Elias Lindholm was wide open to go against the grain like he was gluten intolerant.
- Andrei Kuzmenko started the game in an unfamiliar position: on the fourth line with Sheldon Dries and Anthony Beauvillier. He majorly struggled away from Pettersson and shots on goal were 11-to-3 when he was on the ice at 5-on-5. In his first shift of the third period, Kuzmenko had two giveaways in short order in the defensive zone and that was his last shift of the game, as Tocchet benched him like he was Morgan Riddle.
- “He just wasn’t in tonight, defensively,” said Tocchet of Kuzmenko. “I love the kid. He’s got 37 goals but he’s got to understand you’ve got to play defence…I just didn’t feel the commitment to defence.”
- A terrible tripping call on Vitaly Kravtsov helped the Flames tie the game. Troy Stecher tripped on the back of Kravtsov’s skate while Kravtsov was just standing there doing nothing, just like he always does on the ice. Just before that penalty expired, Sheldon Dries couldn’t quite clear the zone and Noah Hanifin found Nazem Kadri open in front to beat Demko on the short side.
- I can’t help but keep raving about the play of Akito Hirose, who saved a goal midway through the third period when he picked off a Lucic pass to the backdoor. He played 19:43, including time on both sides of special teams and he continued to look sure and certain when under pressure. There’s simply no panic in his game.
- “There was one play where I was really impressed,” said Tocchet of Hirose. “Calgary was putting a big push on and he had the puck where I think most defencemen would have just rimmed it. He just waited and reversed it to his partner and released the pressure. Those are the little things that good hockey IQ players do. They don’t just throw it in the pile, they see the pressure, they take a breath, and then they relieve pressure. That was a really nice play because they had us hemmed in. If he doesn’t make that play, maybe they have extended possession time, maybe they score.”
- Hirose even got ice time in a frenzied overtime — Tocchet called it “river hockey” — with glorious chances both ways. One Miller shot went off the backboards and nearly hit Markstrom in the back and rolled in. Demko had to rob Kadri by going post-to-post after Markstrom maybe played the puck outside of the trapezoid and got away with it. It was wildly entertaining and would have been so much better if there were any real stakes in the game for the Canucks.
- Despite sitting on the bench for almost all of the third period and all of overtime, Kuzmenko was still first up in the shootout for the Canucks — ”He’s a good shootout guy,” said Tocchet simply. Kuzmenko showed incredible patience to outwait Markstrom and evade his jabbing pokecheck to put the puck upstairs where Mama doesn’t go anymore, ever since The Incident.
- No one else could score in the shootout, as Markstrom stoned Miller and Pettersson, while Demko was perfect against the Flames’ three shooters. Like Dua Lipa, he gave them nothing.
