Quinn Hughes got the spotlight in Vancouver on Sunday night, and he was every bit the player the crowd remembered. The former Canucks captain scored, added an assist and logged a game-high 26:10 of ice time as the Minnesota Wild skated away with a 4-2 win at Rogers Arena, handing Vancouver its 10th straight game without a victory.
The reaction to Hughes came fast and never really let up. Boos rolled down from the Rogers Arena crowd from the opening puck drop, and while there were cheers during the video tribute, they were quickly drowned out once the game resumed. Hughes also reached a notable benchmark in the process, becoming the second-fastest American defenceman to record 500 regular-season points.
The Wild got on the board first on a power play late in the opening period when Maxim Shabanov scored at 18:33 off feeds from Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy. Bobby Brink then stretched the lead to 2-0 at 5:54 of the second period, and Hughes made it 3-0 at 12:55 with his own power-play goal, set up by Joel Eriksson Ek and Maxim Shabanov.
Vancouver finally cracked the scoreboard in the third. Max Sasson scored on a breakaway at 6:24, with Filip Hronek and Elias Pettersson picking up the assists. Brock Boeser added another at 16:53 off passes from Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk, but the Canucks never got closer than that.
Kirill Kaprizov closed the scoring at 3:38 of the third period, finishing a play started by Hughes.
Leevi Meriläinen was one of the few bright spots for Vancouver, stopping 30 of the 34 shots he faced. Even so, the Canucks struggled to generate much at the other end. They had 10 shots in the first period, then managed only seven over the final 40 minutes and just four in the third.
Afterward, Manny Malhotra was blunt about where things kept breaking down. On the neutral-zone issues, he said, "It's a number of things," said Malhotra.
"Lack of execution through the neutral zone. It's a lack of support through the neutral zone, which means we just stop skating.
There's a lot of watching going on, especially in the second period. And when you watch in this league, pucks tend to come back into your zone."
He also pointed to the group’s inconsistency when it came to creating offense. "It's related to that lack of consistency in our effort," said Malhotra.
"When we were direct in the first period, and we were applying pressure in the O-zone. Obviously, you create looks.
You're able to get, number one, you're able to get pucks back to be able to shoot the puck. But again, when you come off of those things, and you're not applying the same pressure, you just don't get the same looks."
Luke Schenn described the same problem from a different angle, saying, "A lot of the time when you're hemmed in your own zone for a bit, it feels like you're just trying to survive," said Schenn. "Then you get it to the neutral zone, and you're just trying to chip it in and get a line change.
So that probably could have something to do with it. I mean, obviously, we don't create a ton.
So that probably starts in the D-zone, neutral zone. I mean, it's all connected.
So tough to pinpoint."
There were a couple of individual notes buried in the loss. Elias Pettersson became the second forward in franchise history to record 500 blocked shots, while Boeser scored his fourth-career goal against the Wild. Schenn led all Canucks with five hits.
The loss leaves Vancouver still searching for traction, and the schedule doesn’t slow down. The Canucks are next in action at Anaheim on October 27 at 7:00 pm PT.
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