‘He’s impressive every night and has obviously taken another step this year. Probably one of the top two or three players in the league.’ — Conor Garland on Quinn Hughes
Quinn Hughes can be as good in front of a sea of microphones as he is on the restrictive time-and-space NHL ice.
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The dynamic Vancouver Canucks captain can easily articulate the demanding nuances of the NHL game in great detail and mirrors his stature as a competitive and complete Norris Trophy winner.
Hughes is on another productive, proactive and leadership path to earn a rare second-straight nod as the game’s most elite defenceman.
And that’s something worth talking about.
However, Hughes didn’t hold court Tuesday. After all, trying to speak with a mashed-up mug isn’t easy, so he got a pass. But he did manage four shots and 13 attempts in a 4-3 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues.
Hughes took a high stick to the face against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday. It drew a four-minute power play and led to his brief first-period exit, a number of stitches, and then retuning with a full face shield.
He would then execute a highlight-reel, no-look backhand opening goal through a mass of bodies to pick the short side on a startled goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
It was the 50th goal of his young career and vaulted Hughes into 10th place for goals by franchise defencemen. Award voters should take note, but not because Hughes is trying to gain their favour. He’s just trying to improve.
“My goal isn’t the Norris, it’s the process,” the 25-year-old Hughes stressed before training camp. “If I’m competing and attacking the way I want every game, good things will happen.
“Consistency is the sign of a great player. (Cale) Makar has been up for the Norris four of the last five years and that’s consistency.”
None of this surprises Conor Garland.
The mighty-mite Canucks winger knows what it’s like to be targeted and wear a face shield. And he knows what occurred Sunday won’t deter Hughes to keep doing this thing and adding new elusive elements to his repertoire.
His new level of creativity in the offensive zone — wheeling and dealing and coming out of the corner Sunday to score after leaving Brandon Hagel with no alternative but to stick it to Hughes was significant.
As for that full-face shield, no big deal. Hughes will carry on, just like Garland did when he had to don a shield.
“Plenty of times and I’m sure everybody has worn a bubble at some time in their career,” said Garland. “It’s an adjustment but I’m sure he (Hughes) is fine. I mean, he didn’t get shot. He had stitches to the mouth and came back just like himself.
“He’s impressive every night and has obviously taken another step this year. I don’t think anybody was surprised (Sunday). He has the puck the whole game and probably one or the top two three players in the league.
“It’s fun to watch. We’ve just to make sure when he’s pushing the pace that we are as well.”
Those early career critiques of Hughes being too small and too vulnerable have long faded away, but not a comparison to Bobby Orr which seemed so ludicrous and now makes sense when you considered when and how they played.
Orr captured three-consecutive Hart Trophy awards as league MVP, and eight-consecutive Norris Trophy honours, at a time when defenders weren’t as adept at turning aside the game’s greats.
Fast forward and these four key improvements have laid the foundation for Hughes to be regarded as a modern-day Orr clone:
- Defending: Wasn’t going to physically intimidate opposition forwards, but learned to use retreating speed, good angles and an active stick to nullify rushes.
- Shooting: First had to learn to get shots to the net and then build strength so they carried velocity and accuracy.
- Deception: Started using a juke move against a defender at the blue-line — faking a shot, bolting left and down low and shooting high to the far right side — and it contributed to a career-high 17 goals last season. He’s on pace for 22.
- Wheeling: Supreme speed has allowed Hughes to not only gain the offensive-zone, but cause matchup problems by holding on to the puck to wheel into scoring areas or find a teammate for a sweet feed.
Hughes has already served notice as a Norris Trophy contender by sitting second in blueliner scoring with 32 points (7-25) and is just four back of Makar, who will likely be his challenger and has played three more games.
Hughes is a generational talent and will garner Hart Trophy votes as league most valuable player. He finished seventh last season.
As for the Norris Trophy, you have to go back a ways to find the last back-to-back winner of the prestigious blueliner award.
In the modern era, Nicklas Lidstrom set the standard. His first of two three-year runs as the obvious Norris Trophy favourite started in the 2000-2001 season.
Then after a lockout season, he strung tougher three more consecutive honours and has seven in his trophy case. Nobody has gone back-to-back since those fabulous feats.
So, in retrospect, none of what we’re seeing today should be that surprising. Especially if you took stock of what a former NHL player and NCAA coach saw in Hughes many years ago.
When University of Michigan assistant coach Jeff Tambellini got his first good look at the Wolverines rookie defenceman, he couldn’t help but draw a comparison to an NHL legend. The answer seemed odd then, but not now.
“People always ask me who does he (Hughes) play like? You’re not going to want to hear this — and I’m not saying he is — but he plays like Bobby Orr,” Tambellini, a former Canucks winger, gushed to this reporter in advance of the 2018 NHL Draft.
“I’ve never seen a guy possess the puck and skate his own problems away. He’s so deceptive coming up the ice and has such a mind for the game. He baits forecheckers and his details are off the charts.”
They’re even better now. Imagine that?