After a surprise scare to start Saturday, Vancouver Canucks fans got more reassuring news regarding Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson after Saturday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken.
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Canucks’ top two scorers, who missed Saturday’s game due to last-minute injuries, are not expected to miss too much time, as the injuries aren’t considered serious.
Everything appeared to be normal for the Canucks until around 11:30 a.m. on Saturday when Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet announced that neither Hughes or Pettersson were available for their game against the Kraken. It was made unclear as to what the injuries were for both players, and at the time Tocchet also didn’t know the severity of the injuries, but we’ve now received more clarification that they’ll both likely be looked at on a day-to-day basis.
The Canucks were hurting without their two star players, especially when they’re also missing defenceman Filip Hronek, as they blew a 4-1 lead in the final five minutes of Saturday’s game against the Kraken and lost 5-4 in overtime.
According to Sportsnet’s Joey Kenward, this was the first time that the Canucks had been without both Hughes and Pettersson since March 26th, 2019, which was the game before Hughes’ NHL debut.
Hughes has built off of his 2023-24 Norris Trophy-winning season quite well so far in 2024-25, as he’s started off the year with eight goals and 34 assists for 42 points in 34 games.
Pettersson hasn’t had quite as good of a year for the Canucks, as he’s had a slow start with only 10 goals and 18 assists for 28 points in 34 games.
The Canucks will look to bounce back from their current stretch of four losses in five games when they visit the Calgary Flames on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Vancouver currently sits in fourth in the Pacific Division with a 17-10-8 record, good enough for the first wild card spot in the Western Conference.
