Hughes tallies four assists as Canucks beat Lightning 6-2

Quinn Hughes is back!

First Period

Less than two minutes into the game, Conor Garland dropped the gloves with Darren Raddysh. Garland fared pretty well in the bout with the 6’1 Lightning defenceman. That’s Garland’s fifth career fight.

Be sure to go and vote for the winner of the fight over at hockeyfights.com!

The Lightning were all over the Canucks early in this one, registering eight shots before the Canucks got their first shot on goal. Scott Sabourin nearly opened the scoring seven minutes into this one when he found himself with far too much time and space in the low slot in front of Kevin Lankinen. Sabourin hit the crossbar, then put his second attempt off target.

Lankinen was busy in this one. So busy that I had to remind myself that it was the Lightning — not the Canucks — who played less than 24 hours ago.

With 34 seconds left in the first, Tampa Bay opened the scoring in this one, as Nikita Kucherov blasted home a one-timer to make it  1-0 Lightning. 

Evander Kane  likely should have been lower here.

Some context from Kevin Woodley:

And some more context from Jeff Paterson:

Neither of those seems good.

Second Period

The Lightning kept up the pressure to kick off the second, and on their 15th shot of the game, Jake Guentzel deflected a point shot past Kevin Lankinen to make it 2-0. 

At this point of the game, five minutes into the second, the Canucks had three shots.

The Canucks got their first power play chance of the game shortly after the Guentzel goal, and while they got set up and were snapping the puck around pretty well, they got just one shot on goal. They didn’t have to wait long for their next power play attempt though, and this time, they wasted little time in putting the puck into the back of the net. Jake DeBrusk banged home the rebound after a confident maneuver from Elias Pettersson to get the Canucks on the board.

That’s four goals in six games for DeBrusk, and five points for Pettersson in his last three games.

With five minutes left in the frame, the Lightning got their first power play chance of the game. The Lightning’s power play — somewhat surprisingly — ranks 27th overall in the NHL. Of course, the Canucks’ PK sits dead last in the NHL, so it was a solid matchup. The Canucks killed this one off, but the officials really wanted to let the Canucks PK get some reps, and called Elias Pettersson (the defenceman) for a weak hooking penalty.

This time, Kevin Lankinen was the Canucks’ best penalty killer, absolutely robbing Jake Guentzel of what would have been his second goal of the period. The Canucks managed to kill that penalty off and trailed by a goal heading into the third.

Third Period

The Canucks announced that Conor Garland would not return for the rest of the game after departing five minutes into the second period. Not good!

Scott Sabourin took a penalty, putting the Canucks back on the power play just under five minutes into the third. Once again, the Canucks’ power play wasted little time. This time, it was Brock Boeser firing a hard pass toward the net front looking for a stick in front. The puck went off Kiefer Sherwood’s stick, then off a Tampa defenceman’s skate and into the back of the net to bring the Canucks even.

2-2.

The Canucks kept up the momentum at 5v5, and birthday boy Linus Karlsson gave them their first lead of the night less than a minute after Sherwood’s power play goal:

3-2 Canucks. 

The Canucks didn’t stop there, trying to take advantage of a Tampa Bay side that, for the first time all game, was starting to look like a shorthanded team that played the night before. After Quinn Hughes danced at the blueline and got a shot through traffic, Drew O’Connor deflected the puck past Jonas Johansson to give the Canucks their third goal in 1:40 of play.

4-2 Canucks. 

All of a sudden, the ice was tilted in the Canucks’ favour.

The Bolts weren’t going to go away quietly, and appeared to pull within one with just under eight minutes to go. The Canucks challenged that there should have been a stoppage in play 30 seconds before the goal, and they were successful in that challenge, preserving their two goal lead.

The Canucks added an insurance tally as yet another point shot was deflected past Johansson.

That’s Mackenzie MacEachern’s second goal of the game. His two goals are the most goals he’s scored in an entire NHL season since 2019-20, when he scored seven goals in 51 games with the St. Louis Blues. Also, that’s four assists for Quinn Hughes.

CORRECTION: MacEachern’s first goal is now being credited to Linus Karlsson. So instead, MacEachern has now tied his goal total from the 2020-21 season. He had one goal and one assist through 21 NHL games that season. He is now up to four points in five games with the Canucks this season.

Marcus Pettersson added an empty-netter to put the icing on the cake in this one.

6-2 final.

What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game?