Another slower night for Canucks prospects with only two games on tap for the event.

With Finland and Canada having the night off, that meant that only Quinn Hughes and Tyler Madden dressed and were up against Kazakhstan.

The Americans were leaps and bounds better than their opponent, outshooting them by a 66-13 margin. Both Canucks prospects played well in the 8-2 win.

It’s extremely hard to take anything away from a game like tonights’. The Americans ran away with the score early, dominated the puck, and danced circles around their overwhelmed opponent. With that in mind, you have to take everything that happened with a grain of salt.

Hughes continued to do his thing with effective puck control and shot assists galore. His ability to just take the puck out of the American zone, through the neutral zone, and into the offensive zone was fully on display. Kazakhstan just had no way to stop Hughes from doing what he wanted to do.

The 2018 1st round pick generated quite a few chances for himself by just skating with the puck, isolating specific defenders, and then just blowing by them. One of those first chances was this one:

Fellow Canucks prospect Tyler Madden just didn’t quite get the puck as the defender poked it away.

Later in the first period, Hughes picked up his first point of the WJHC tournament on Joel Farabee’s powerplay tally

Hughes kept doing his thing throughout the remainder of the game as the Americans cruised to the 8-2 win. His impact from an underlying number standpoint was noteworthy:

Tyler Madden picked up right where he left off from his last game.

Speed, tenacity, work ethic, and smart play have all been on display for the 2018 3rd round pick.

Madden continued to find the gaps in coverage to get shots or creating that space on his own through quick movements and dangles with the puck.

He was able to pick up his first goal, and his second point of the tournament, with this goal in the second period

Originally waved off by the referee, they went upstairs and confirmed that it was, in fact, a goal.

Not much happened with Madden for the remainder of the game, he did have a couple decent chance in the third period on a power play but his first shot was tipped out of danger and he missed the net on the second one. As Darryl mentioned above, the quality of competition is important context but he also stood out in terms of underlying data:

Players like Madden will be extremely important for the Americans to take steps forward against the stiffer competition in the coming games. Their depth will be a huge part of their success and so far Madden has been at the forefront of that group.

After the light day on Friday, the full schedule returns for a jam-packed Saturday:

All four Canucks prospects are expected to be playing tomorrow.