Quinn Hughes’ 4 Nations availability for Team USA ‘depends on the next 48 hours’
As part of Canada’s staff for the 4 Nations Face-Off, Vancouver Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said Wednesday there are contingency plans if the team needs to replace Sidney Crosby or anyone else. Team USA may need a plan to replace Quinn Hughes.
VANCOUVER – As part of Canada’s staff for the 4 Nations Face-Off, Vancouver Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said Wednesday there are contingency plans if the team needs to replace Sidney Crosby or anyone else. Team USA may need a plan to replace Quinn Hughes.
With a gloomier tone to his comments about Hughes than in his press conference the previous day, Tocchet confirmed the Norris Trophy-winning defenceman will miss his third straight National Hockey League game when the Canucks visit the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.
The 25-year-old from Michigan, one of the NHL’s most dominant and exciting players, did not skate Wednesday ahead of the team’s practice at Rogers Arena and remains a question mark for Saturday’s final pre-tournament game between the Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Hughes appeared to sustain a lower-body injury during Friday’s 5-3 road loss to the Dallas Stars. He managed to finish the game after a third-period visit to the medical room, but obviously was labouring on his skates and wincing in pain at the bench.
The issue appears to be unrelated to the hand injury that caused Hughes to miss the Canucks’ first four games after the Christmas break. Hughes has played with a brace on his hand since then and continued to perform at a world-class level.
Before Tuesday’s impressive 3-0 shutout of the Colorado Avalanche – just the Canucks’ second win in the six games Hughes has missed this season – Tocchet said “we haven’t even talked about 4 Nations, honestly.”
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“Well, it’s getting close,” Tocchet said Wednesday of the conversation about Hughes’ availability for the best-on-best tournament that runs Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston. “It’s a good question. It depends on the next 48 hours; I guess that’s really what it comes down to. So we’ll sit down with Quinn and talk to him.
“He’s not going to make the trip (to San Jose). It’s a day-to-day thing right now. He’ll stay back. Whether he skates (Thursday), we’ll talk about that later Wednesday). We want to make sure that he’s right.”
Asked if Hughes’ availability for Team USA could be determined by his availability to the Canucks on Saturday, Tocchet said: “It could be. It depends on how close (he) is to playing on Saturday. That’s really what it comes down to. But yeah, we’re going to have to have a hard, long look at this. Like every player, you’re concerned about safety and health and all that stuff.”
Hughes, whose 59 points this season lead all NHL defencemen and are 25 points more than his nearest Canucks teammate, was among the first six players named to Team USA last June.
Tocchet is an assistant coach on Jon Cooper’s Canadian staff. Crosby, Team Canada’s captain, briefly left the Pittsburgh Penguins’ game on Tuesday after getting sandwiched between New Jersey Devils Erik Haula and Luke Hughes, Quinn’s youngest brother, and is now being evaluated for an upper-body injury.
The middle Hughes, Jack, is also on the USA roster and Quinn, family-centric and extremely close with his brothers, is desperate to play alongside him in the showcase event.
A product of the U.S. National Team Development Program and the son of a coach, Jim Hughes, who runs a summer training program outside Detroit that attracts some of the NHL’s best players, Quinn Hughes has other close friends on the American team.
He has been asking Tocchet to play in games this week, but the Canucks are understandably being careful with their best player. Hughes is believed to be unhappy about the situation. But as the Canucks’ captain, he is also the last player who would put his own interests ahead of the team’s.
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“Well, I mean, he wants to play,” Tocchet said. “But, you know . . . he can’t play. I can be the bad guy; I don’t care. Like, he’s not going to play (Thursday). Would he try to gut it out? I think he’s a smart kid, too, (and) gutting it out, it’s not going to help our team. The kid’s got a big will to play, but he knows – he knows better than that.
“I don’t know, it’s a tough one. I know Quinn is a USA guy, loves his country, (wants to) play with his brothers. A lot of positives to it. But, like I said . . . he’s a smart kid, too, and he understands what’s at stake also.”
As an injured player, Hughes has been unavailable to the media since Friday’s game, which followed by an hour the blockbuster trade of Team USA forward J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers from the Canucks.
Three of the four players the Canucks acquired in that trade and one with the Penguins that was directly connected to it have helped re-energize the team and improve the atmosphere around the Vancouver dressing room in what has been a challenging winter.
Vancouver is 4-1-1 in its last six games and pushing for a wild-card playoff spot as well as third place in the Pacific Division.
The team has a practice scheduled for Friday in Vancouver, as well as the Saturday morning skate ahead of that night’s game against the Maple Leafs.
