Hughes' injury worse than Canucks thought and Boeser's hurt too
The Vancouver Canucks could use some good news right now.
Instead? More bad news.
Quinn Hughes’ injury is worse than we first thought and the team’s list of injured players is piling up.
The Canucks’ best defenceman missed Saturday’s home opener with a mysterious “lower body” injury.
“It’s day-to-day, it’s not a long-term thing,” Bruce Boudreau said after the game.
Less than 48 hours later, the prognosis is worse, as Boudreau described Hughes’ injury as “week-to-week” today.
As if the news couldn’t get worse, Brock Boeser will also be missing tonight’s game. After taking yesterday’s practice off with what Boudreau called a “maintenance day,” the Canucks coach today revealed that Boeser is out with an injury too, and should be considered “day-to-day.”
Boeser has four assists in six games this season but doesn’t have a goal yet. The 25-year-old declared in training camp that he would score 30 goals this season, but missed all of the preseason with a hand injury.
Injuries are piling up for the Canucks, particularly on the back end, ahead of their seventh game of the season tonight, at home to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Defencemen Tucker Poolman (injured reserve), Travis Dermott (week-to-week), and Riley Stillman (day-to-day) are all out, while Guillaume Brisebois has been called up from Abbotsford, and will likely play the 11th NHL game of his career.
Hughes and Dermott are week-to-week.
Stillman and Boeser are day-to-day.As confirmed by Coach Bruce Boudreau at morning media.
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) October 24, 2022
It leaves Vancouver’s defence pairs in shambles, as shown below by Sportsnet 650’s Brendan Batchelor.
Looking like these d pairs for the #Canucks for tonight
OEL-Myers
Rathbone-Burroughs
Brisebois-Schenn @Sportsnet650— Brendan Batchelor (@BatchHockey) October 24, 2022
*Update: Hughes has been placed on injured reserve, Poolman is on long-term injured reserve, and Noah Juulsen has been called up from Abbotsford, the Canucks announced this afternoon.
The Canucks are healthier and have more depth on forward, but Boudreau shook up his lines at Sunday’s practice, shown below by Chris Faber of Canucks Army.
New line combinations from #CanucksĀ practice according to jersey colours:
Mikheyev-Horvat-Miller
Hƶglander-Pettersson-Podkolzin
Kuzmenko-Ć man-Garland
Pearson-Lazar-JoshuaBig changes here today.
— ššµšæš¶š Faber š„š (@ChrisFaber39) October 23, 2022
The biggest change sees J.T. Miller moving to the wing. No Canucks player has had a more disappointing start to the season than Miller, who was the team’s leading scorer last season. Miller has three points in six games, but far more concerning has been his defensive play, which has been concerning, to put it mildly.
After a particularly poor defensive effort in Saturday’s game, Luke Schenn appeared to confront Miller on the ice.
The line changes present a big opportunity for rookie centre Nils Aman, who gets promoted from the fourth line to play with skilled players in Andrei Kuzmenko and Conor Garland.
“Other than Petey, I’m thinking Aman right now might be our second best player,” Boudreau said after Saturday’s disappointing loss to Buffalo.
The Canucks are desperate for a win, following a home opener that saw them get booed by their own fans, and multiple people throw Canucks jerseys on the ice in disgust. Vancouver is the only team in the NHL without a win. They rank dead-last in winning percentage (.167) with an 0-4-2 record.