Welcome back to Instant Reaction — the series here at CanucksArmy where we give you our instant reaction to the game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below! Wyatt Arndt is in the press box tonight and will be bringing us The Stanchies later tonight. The Statsies — CanucksArmy’s analytics-based post game report by Mike Liu — will be posted tomorrow morning.
I’ll be honest with you. Saturday night’s edition of Instant Reaction was going to be about Quinn Hughes reaching seven goals in 17 games. The working title was “Quinn Hughes said he wanted to score more and he wasn’t kidding.”
Then the Canucks imploded, picking up a loss to the Seattle Kraken. Rick Tocchet and Ian Cole brought the fireworks post game, which meant we had to pivot on the title and subject matter of Instant Reaction just a bit.
Tonight, after Hughes scored his eighth goal of the season, I thought for sure I could use that title. Then I remembered that out of nowhere, Prince Harry dropped the puck tonight. He and his wife Meghan Markle took in the game, cheered when the Canucks scored, and yes, as our new title suggests, watched as Quinn Hughes became the NHL points leader with a two point effort.
Here’s People’s explanation of why the two were in town:
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are in Canada ahead of the next Invictus Games, which will be held in Vancouver and Whistler in 2025. Harry, a former captain in the British Army, founded the international adaptive sports tournament for wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans in 2014.
Harry’s moment on the ice comes 21 years after his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, made her own ceremonial puck drop (also at a Vancouver Canucks and San Jose Sharks game!). The late monarch visited Vancouver while on an 11-day tour in Canada in honor of her Golden Jubilee at the time.
Let’s get into the hockey…
…Soon. First, the puck drop nobody knew was going to happen, which is way more impressive in the digital world we currently live in. It must be easy to sneak around Vancouver when everyone who sees you is just trying to figure out whether you’re Daniel or Henrik.
Tonight wasn’t the most convincing win for the Canucks, but they did what they were supposed to do: Beat the basement-dwelling San Jose Sharks.
After not a great start for either team (you expected that more from San Jose than Vancouver) Quinn Hughes opened the scoring with an absolutely outstanding goal to match his career high of eight. In game 19!
Look how perfect this shot was as Hughes went far side on Mackenzie Blackwood:
Here was Hughes’ second point of the night, his 30th of the season, which puts him alone at the top of the NHL points leaderboard.
3-1 Vancouver is your final as Prince Harry has a new favourite player. Here was his reaction to JT Miller’s goal:
What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below!