How Quinn Hughes, Kevin Lankinen carried the Canucks (again): 3 takeaways

On By Littum

Vancouver – If this was the last time we see this version of the Vancouver Canucks play on Rogers Arena Ice, that seems like a realistic possibility given how close the club has come to trading various core players over the past eight days, said Quinn Hughes, At least Elias Pettersson, JT Miller and Company will have gone out on a winning note.

No, it wasn’t a very inspiring performance. As we have often seen from this team, the club defended well but generated little and were entirely dependent on Hughes to generate any sense of attacking momentum. Certainly Canucks Management, given its stance, has not changed its mind based on what it saw on the ice Saturday at Rogers Arena.

It was nonetheless a much-needed 2-1 victory over a very good Washington Capitals side and something of an effort on an effort in a game coach Rick Tocchet had called a “must win” after the club’s Thursday night loss at the Edmonton Oilers.

The club now embarks on a three-game road trip this week. Will the core be left intact on its return? This is where our attention shifts, given the noise surrounding this Vancouver team.

Here are three takeaways from the club’s home win on Saturday night.

Quinn Hughes shows

The level Hughes has hit this season is inappropriate, absurd and downright otherworldly.

Saturday night in Vancouver, the Canucks were somewhat soundly outplayed in the opening 20 minutes, but managed to get out of the first period thanks to some misses at the goal mouth from Tom Wilson, Matt Roy and Lars Eller and thanks to one of the most Absurd individual offensive effort you will see all season from a blueliner.

Hughes added another insurance marker in the second period, beating Charlie Lindgren clean from the point through layered traffic. It was a spectacular move-shot finish and both goals are testament to the work Hughes has put in to improve his technical prowess and his attacking mentality as a scoring threat.

There was something revealing and almost sad about Hughes’ dominant effort on Saturday. It revealed that Hughes is this team offensively. Not only does the club rely entirely on his ice time to generate shots and scoring chances, but from a bottom line perspective, he leads all Canucks scorers with 21 points. That’s an absurd margin, tied for the third-largest margin between a team’s leading scorer and its second-leading scorer with David Pastrnak and behind only Travis Konecny ​​and Nikita Kucherov—who lead their teams in scoring with 22.

Of course, it’s one thing for an elite forward to lead their team in scoring by a large margin. It’s another thing entirely when it’s a defender.

This is where we get to the sad part of this. The truth is Hughes is having a historic individual campaign, one of the best we’ve ever seen from an individual defenseman, not just in Vancouver — that part is obvious — but arguably in the NHL in the last decade.

That this club has largely squandered it through the first 48 games as a result of underperformance, petty squabbling and dysfunction is not only sad or regrettable. It is a direct hockey tragedy.

On a night when this particular iteration of the Canucks felt like it might be enjoying its last ride, it felt fitting that Lankinen stood tall and Hughes dominated.

Hughes and Lankinen have carried this team all year and Saturday night they carried this group again. Maybe for the last time.

Now, the Capitals pretty much looked out of sorts all evening, especially after the first period where they legitimately managed to generate a few looks. The Lankin, however, was quiet and composed and made some extraordinary stops—including two highlight reel stops on Wilson from the Point-Blank Range.

It was something of a stabilizing performance, the kind Vancouver hasn’t seen for many of the last month.

When Lankinen was finally beaten, it was out of a weird, goalmouth scramble where the Canucks goalie thought he had frozen the puck, but hadn’t quite. Even when the Capitals pushed for that goal, Lankinen seemed in complete control, the solid, reliable option the club needs right now.

The other Elias Petterson’s debut

It was the debut performance for 2022 third-round pick Elias Pettersson, affectionately called “D-Petey” by Canucks fans to distinguish himself from the club’s star center.

Pettersson didn’t play big minutes Saturday night, and his usage was especially restrained late as Vancouver tried to hang on to its two-goal lead and kill the game. What we did see, however, was rather auspicious.

This is a player who has long impressed the club internally as a result of his maturity. He’s a player who gets it, not only in terms of the preparation side, but also the physical side of how to impact the game as a big, defensive-minded defenseman.

Now that part of what Pettersson brings was not required on Saturday night. What we did see, though, were some nicely timed squeezes, some quality splits with a nifty stick and a controlled entry where he demonstrated the kind of sneaky wheels that will give him a shot at having a hybrid, transitional value – in addition to being a purely one-dimensional defenseman-once he gets comfortable at the NHL level.

(Photo of Kevin Lankinen, Elias Pettersson and Alex Ovechkin: Derek Cain/Getty Images)