VANCOUVER — It wasn’t the concept of leadership that spurred Quinn Hughes to assert himself within the Vancouver Canucks. It was the other L-word: losing.
“It wasn’t even that I had to push myself,” Hughes explained Sunday of his evolution last season. “I’m just so sick of losing that if this is what we have to do or this is what I have to do. . . that’s easy compared to losing and the toll of the season. Looking at the schedule (last season) and we have, like, 30 games left but we’re out of the playoffs, that’s really hard. I would say anything is easier than having that toll on you. So if I need to speak up or do whatever, that’s easy.”
He needs to speak up. Hughes said he needs to step up, too.
Four years ago, in the first game of his rookie season in the National Hockey League, a 19-year-old Hughes was sent out with defence partner Chris Tanev, Hughes’ Obi-Wan Kenobi, for the season-opening faceoff in Edmonton against Connor McDavid.
Seeing who they were matched against, Hughes asked Tanev before the draw if they would stay out for the shift or quick-change. Tanev told them they were staying. Hughes said, “OK, let’s go.”
Hughes had an assist in the game — the start of a 53-point season that would see him finish second to Cale Makar in Calder Trophy balloting — but was beaten by McDavid on the winning goal late in the third period.
That season was the last time Hughes made the playoffs, the only time since 2015 the Canucks have qualified for the Stanley Cup tournament.
On Wednesday, Hughes will probably be on the ice again against McDavid at Rogers Arena to start his fifth NHL season.
He’s not a kid anymore. Hughes is now the Canucks’ captain. On Saturday, when the Canucks play Game 2 in Edmonton, he turns 24.
It took Hughes until his third NHL season, in 2021-22, to break 35- and 45-year-old points and assists records by a Vancouver defenceman (76 GP 8-60-68) and only one more season after that to eclipse them again.
The dynamo from Michigan had 69 assists and 76 points last year — despite a six-game pointless streak in April — and finished ninth in Norris Trophy balloting. But none of this mattered to Hughes because the Canucks missed the playoffs for the seventh time in eight seasons.
“I’m 23, 24,” Hughes told Sportsnet. “I feel like I’m just starting to understand the game. Last year and in previous seasons to start, I’ve struggled. (I had) injuries the last two camps, and right now I feel really fresh — knock on wood. Just mentally, I feel like I’m 40 games into the season right now. My mind is sharp.
“I’m a young guy, but. . . I really want to win. I don’t want to be watching my brothers in the playoffs every year. I’m like, yeah, we need to elevate within the group. It’s too hard to trade or get guys or this or that, so the only way we’re going to get better is guys within the group getting better. So how does that happen? You push guys.”
The quiet big brother to New Jersey Devils Jack and Luke Hughes, Quinn was named the Canucks’ 15th captain on Sept. 11. He began the press conference by acknowledging the 9/11 anniversary and noting that his grandfather was a fireman in New York City.
Even by Hughes’ all-world standards, he has played at another level during the pre-season. He looks more confident and aggressive with the puck, bolder in the offensive zone, more determined to get to the net to try scoring himself rather than always looking pass-first. And of course, experience and hockey IQ has made him a far better defender than he was four years ago.
“Like, I’ve always told you, when I’m 27 or 28 or 29, I feel like I’m going to be at my best,” Hughes said. “But I feel like I’m just coming into my zone right now as a 23 year old, where I can be a really, really good player this year.
“Winning is everything. Personal success, you can do whatever you want to do. But if you’re watching guys in the playoffs, I mean, that’s the worst thing. Everyone always says culture, but what does culture really mean? I think it’s really just pushing to get the best out of guys within the group.”
And that’s what Hughes plans to do. It’s what everyone in the Canucks’ leadership group has agreed to do. Points don’t matter. Wins matter.
The Canucks have a stronger lineup than they did a year ago, having acquired another blue-line ace in Filip Hronek in February, then signing defencemen Ian Cole and Carson Soucy and depth centres Pius Suter and Teddy Blueger in free agency. The penalty killing, team speed and grit have been upgraded. Vancouver also has a healthy Thatcher Demko in goal.
There is little doubt that new coach Rick Tocchet’s systems, his emphasis on defending and being harder to play against, has raised the floor for the Canucks. They can’t possibly be as bad as they’ve been at the start of the last two seasons.
But now they’ve got to prove that the ceiling is higher, too.
And they need to start well.
Last year, the Canucks began 0-5-2 and were 4-9-3 after a month. They never came close to catching up in the standings. The year before, they were 6-14-2 before December.
Almost everything GM Patrik Allvin and Tocchet have done since the end of last season has been intended to get the team ready and better equipped for Wednesday night.
Ironically, now that the start is upon them, the Canucks are trying to downplay it. This makes sense; you can’t treat Game 1 of the regular season like it’s Game 7 of the playoffs because what happens if you lose? After the difficult opener against the Stanley Cup-capable Oilers, Game 2 is even harder, back in Edmonton.
Then the Canucks travel to Philadelphia and Tampa, Florida and Nashville.
“We’ve been talking about it for weeks, months: ‘We need a better start, we need a better start.’” Cole, who has been on nine straight playoff teams, told Sportsnet at the start of training camp. “I think that it’s almost got in guy’s heads, like we need to start 15-5.
“It can’t be, like, if we lose the first two games, then we’ve got to win this many games and you start doing math. There’s no benefit to that. It doesn’t do a thing for you. This macro view is not beneficial to what we need to accomplish. Let’s win the first game. And after that, let’s go win the second.”
Veteran defenceman Tyler Myers said: “I think you can get too fixated on a lot of things. No matter what starts we’ve had the last couple years, we’re in a really good place as a group right now with the way we’ve prepared.”
And winger Conor Garland: “The stories will be all about the start. But I think we’re a solid hockey team. I think there’s a focus. Everybody’s focused and we understand what we need to do and how we need to play, which I think is most important. Maybe the prior years, we didn’t really have an identity, I would say. But now we know how we’ve got to play. We’ve got to be a hard team to play against that plays fast and competes each and every night. Make teams earn their wins. I think maybe we didn’t do that in the past where you’re letting in five goals and it’s hard to win. Just be a hard team to play against.”
Chances are the Canucks will be hardest to play against this season when Hughes is on the ice.
“I think we’ve done everything we can to put ourselves in a position to be successful on Wednesday,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to go 3-0 to start the year, and it doesn’t mean we’re going to go 0-3. I just think that we’re in a good spot and we should feel confident about our game.”
Hughes does.
