WASHINGTON — We are not seeing Quinn Hughes at his best. But we may be seeing him at his finest.
Playing with one hand — the other one injured enough to require a sizeable brace that obviously restricts him — the Vancouver Canucks’ superstar captain was again his team’s best player on Wednesday night.
Hughes logged 27:13 of ice time against the Washington Capitals, assisted on the Canucks’ only goal, drove possession and had an 18-6 on-ice shots advantage at five-on-five as Vancouver outplayed one of the National Hockey League’s best teams.
You don’t always get what you deserve in sports (or life) and it felt unjust that the performance by the captain and his team ended with a 2-1 overtime loss. But it felt like a crime that Hughes was sent to the penalty box at 4:19 of the first period when he was mauled by Pierre-Luc Dubois after play was whistled for a hooking penalty against the Capital.
“I honestly don’t know,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said when asked post-game how Hughes was assessed a roughing minor that prevented a two-man advantage. “The ref just said: ‘You’re going to have a four-minute power play. . . (and) you’re going to have Quinn for the last two.’ And I said: ‘I’d rather have him for the four.’”
Or for all 64 minutes of Wednesday’s combative game.
Dubois — of course, it had to be Dubois — won it for the Capitals when he deftly beat Canucks goaltender Kevin Lankinen at 4:19 of overtime on what amounted to a breakaway after Vancouver skaters Tyler Myers and Jake DeBrusk followed teammate J.T. Miller into the corner to defend Aliaksei Protas.
The Canucks lost for the eighth time in 10 games, and saw their post-regulation record sink to 4-10, despite outshooting the Eastern Conference-leading Capitals 30-13 through 60 minutes.
That early fracas, which began when Dubois kneed Hughes as play stopped, was a key moment. With serial offender Tom Wilson also contributing a roughing penalty for Washington, Vancouver did get a four-minute advantage. But Hughes spent more than six minutes in the penalty box because there were no whistles. The Canuck should have manufactured one to get him back on the ice for the second half of the five-on-four.
“Obviously frustrating because, like, I’m in the box three minutes longer than Dubois,” Hughes told reporters. “I don’t know how that happens, but that’s just the way it played out.”
The sequence was important also because it illustrated that the Canucks, despite all the drama and disappointments attached to their 18-12-10 record, are still willing to scrap and battle for each other. Kiefer Sherwood and Miller were especially quick into the scrum when they saw whom the Capitals were targeting, undeterred that one of the assailants was Wilson, who clotheslined Sherwood.
“He’s playing with one hand and giving us everything he’s got,” DeBrusk said of Hughes. “We wouldn’t be where we are today without him, so anytime anyone goes after him, obviously guys come flying in.”
“He’s pretty remarkable,” Sherwood said. “He continues to elevate his game and our team’s game, and you see how important he is. You can make a case that he should be up there for the Norris and the Hart because he’s so valuable for us. He makes us a really dangerous team every single time he steps out on the ice. And he’s able to keep his cool when guys are going after him. He didn’t get wrapped up in that (tonight); that’s more for us to defend his back.”
Hughes said the Canucks were “invested.”
After falling behind in the final minute of the first period when Dubois outjumped Brock Boeser for a high puck in front of Lankinen and flipped it past the goalie, the Canucks dominated much of the final 40 minutes. Shots in the middle period were 21-5 for Vancouver.
With Hughes not in the penalty box, the Canucks power play tied it 1-1 at 19:23 of the second period when Conor Garland scored on the rebound from Sherwood’s deflection of Hughes’ point shot.
On a third-period power play, Miller missed Boeser with a cross-ice pass on what looked to be a two-on-zero, and rookie Canucks callup Jonathan Lekkerimaki was stopped on a point-blank rebound by Capitals goalie Logan Thompson, who stopped 30 of 31 shots and was the game’s first star.
“I just thought we were connected,” Tocchet said of the final 40 minutes. “We spent a couple of days really evaluating our team a little bit and how we want to play. And I thought everybody kind of bought into how we have to play with our — the identity. There was a lot of guys doing a lot of good things.”
“These are the ones we’re okay with,” Miller said. “It sucks being on the wrong side of overtime a lot, but if I score on my slapshot (earlier in OT), it’s a happy group in here. But it’s a long road trip, and we can live with performances like that. That’s a really good hockey team we just outplayed.”
But still, the Canucks lost, as they have nine times in the first half of the season, by making a big mistake at three-on-three.
Lankinen had already stopped Jakob Chychrun on a breakaway in overtime when he was stared down by Dubois, who was unimpeded from the blue line to the net after Myers and DeBrusk wandered to the corner.
“Yeah, it’s tough,” DeBrusk said. “You know, you just feel like it’s your fault. I can’t be diving down there and we see another point slip away. Obviously, they’re a top team in the East for a reason. I don’t think they were necessarily at their best tonight, but that was a game that we could have had.”
Despite winning only twice in 10 games, the Canucks are only one point below .500 in that span, 2-3-5.
Healthy again, goalie Thatcher Demko could start Friday against the Carolina Hurricanes. That game should also mark the return of centre Elias Pettersson, who missed his sixth contest with an upper-body injury but has been cleared to play.
“That’s just the way things are going right now,” Sherwood said of the loss. “I know I keep saying it, but if we play like that, we’re going to come out on the right side of a lot more games. We’re going to trend in the right direction.”
“They’re a good team, but we’re a good team, too,” Hughes said. “We’ve battled through a lot of adversity this year. I don’t think we’ve had our full lineup yet this year, but guys are playing really hard right now. Yeah, we’re a good team, too, so we expect to get two points against a team — any team.”
By taking points in 28 of 40 games, the Canucks continue to cling to the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. They play on consecutive nights in Raleigh and Toronto, starting Friday, and end their five-game tour next Tuesday against the Winnipeg Jets.
