VANCOUVER — Growing up in Boston, Connor Garland said one of his favorite athletes was Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez.
“He has said that every time they need to win, he finds a way to make his game work,” Vancouver Canucks winger Garland explained Saturday night. “It’s the same thing with Hagi – when we need to win, he has that feel. You don’t want to call a game in January a must-win game, but tonight we needed it. He just found a way ways to perform at your best.”
“Huggy” is what Canuck teammates have called Quinn Hughes since he arrived in Vancouver for his rookie season 5 1/2 years ago.
It’s an abbreviation for “huggable bear.” But the defenseman has become more like one of the Canucks’ spirit bears – the rare white bear is sacred to West Coast Aboriginal cultures and, according to legend, was created to remind everyone that the world was once covered in ice. cover.
The Vancouver Canucks have never had a creature like this on the ice.
With most everyone around him failing this season, Hughes is playing better than he was last year when he first brought the Norris Trophy to the Canucks’ curio cabinet.
Head coach Rick Tocchet has said multiple times recently that he’s concerned Canucks captain Hughes is taking too much responsibility for the team’s disappointing season.
“I take responsibility for the chaos that we’re going through,” Hughes told Sportsnet on Saturday night. “You know, I want to be the reason we get out of this and be successful. We’ve lost some games the last few weeks and it’s been embarrassing to lose some games.”
Just like Thursday’s 6-2 game in Edmonton. The previous game against Buffalo was a 3-2 win. The previous week was 5-1 and 6-1 against Los Angeles and Winnipeg respectively.
But on Saturday, as the Canucks were trying to survive the turmoil of the past two months and somehow stay in the National Hockey League playoffs, Hughes came on and scored a win, scoring two goals to help Vancouver A 2-1 win over the mighty Washington Capitals was one of the few truly good nights at Rogers Arena this season.
Hughes got a lot of help from his teammates on Saturday, especially defensive partner Filip Hronek, goaltender Kevin Lankinen and embattled center JT Miller. But Haji is still Pedro.
“It’s pretty impressive when he knows we need one tonight,” Garland continued. “He comes in and delivers and that’s what the best players do. We’ve had some conversations the last two days and you know, it’s the toughest part of the season, everybody’s tired and everything seems packed. . It’s a challenge on your body, but what he does in that area is inspiring to the rest of our team.
“I had a FaceTime call with him yesterday on a walk and he’s having treatment (an off day) and recovering at home. So, it’s great for the young guys coming in and the players who haven’t had the consistent performances they want to have. “It’s a good lesson for them to know what they need to do every night.”
“He’s probably one of the best players in the league right now,” Lankinen said. “Not just the defensemen, but all the players, there’s a lot of good players in this league. So it’s really cool to witness what he does every day. You know, game after game, he leads us on the ice and Taking over games. No matter what happens (to the team), he can still put out his best performance, which is really impressive.”
It’s impressive that Lankinen was so impressed with Hughes, who has spent the past two seasons playing behind guard Roman Josi in Nashville.
Lankinen left the Predators for a chance to play more games elsewhere, and he certainly found that opportunity in Vancouver.
in his 31Yingshi In his best game of the season, playing seven more games than he did all of last year, the Finnish Four Nations goalkeeper stopped 32 of Washington’s 33 shots and kept the Capitals in goal until Ranky Ning got the puck out from under him and Pierre-Luc Dubois swept it into the goal. The net opened with 7:29 left in the game.
A minute later, Lankinen made a point-blank save on Dubois and got a key block from Miller on a one-timer from Jacob Chickrun.
“Obviously the results (were important), but I thought, especially in the second period, we really took it to them,” Hughes said. “We play at a high pace. We stick to our staples. Sometimes, we’re simple. I mean, we beat a really good team.”
But performances like this also add to the mystique of many of the Canucks’ underdogs.
Hughes has been the guy who is always positive, pushing the game and doing whatever he can to save the team.
As usual, the defender created his own space and shooting angles in both goals on Saturday.
Niels Hogland passed the puck to Hughes for the first goal and to Brock Boeser for the second. And, importantly, the Canucks have net traffic on both sides. But for all that, Hughes’ goal was largely Hughes being Hughes, making something out of nothing.
Vancouver struggled in the first 10 minutes, but the Americans broke through Capitals forward Brandon Duhaime’s point guard and attacked at an angle at 12:23 of the first quarter. Then he hit a backhand backhand to give the team a 1-0 lead. Linus Karlsson’s screen shot the ball into the top corner behind Washington goalie Charlie Lindgren.
Hughes’ second goal – 14thth In 44 games – it won’t require as much of his physical gifts, but just as much mental strength. The Vancouver captain walked the blueline with the puck until the shooting lane opened up next to Dubois, at which point Hughes put the Capitals away on Canucks’ Elias Pettersson and Pius Suter. Tom Wilson and Matt Roy brought wrist shots past Lindgren in front of and behind the net.
In a close, hard-hitting, structured game, Hughes was the X-factor. He’s just different.
“He was really good last year, but I thought he got better over the summer,” Hronek said. “We actually want to help him more. He works really hard and gives his best every night, so we need to help him.”
Maybe this game can be a turning point for Vancouver, but we’ve made that mistake multiple times. The Canucks defeated the Oilers 3-2 last Saturday and seven days before that, defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-0 on Hockey Night in Canada.
But those are the Canucks’ only three wins since Jan. 2.
What we can guarantee is that Hughes will be a world-class player again when the Canucks head into the howling trade winds for a three-game road trip starting Monday in St. Louis, Nashville and Dallas.
“These are some of the best games I’ve ever played in my career,” Hughes said. “But just saying, it’s a very tough league, a humbling league. So for me, I just try to focus every day. I try to stay healthy and do the best I can and be a Good leaders, look what happens.”
He just needs the Canucks to follow up.
