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The Stanchies: Quinn Hughes body language debates rage on in Canucks’ loss to Avalanche
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Photo credit: © Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
The Stanchion
Dec 3, 2025, 01:35 ESTUpdated: Dec 3, 2025, 02:24 EST
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The Colorado Avalanche are currently the best team in the NHL, and it’s not even close. They don’t just beat teams, they murder them. They hang teams up by the ankles outside of their ramparts to let other people know what lies in store for them should they attempt to best them in a game of stick and puck.
Which is why it was a glorious moral victory for the Vancouver Canucks to merely lose 3-1 to the Avalanche, instead of the assumed double-digit outpouring of offence many had predicted.
That’s right, only losing 3-1 to Colorado is about as good as the vibes get from this game, so clutch onto that moral victory of despair and let’s just jump right into this game, shall we?
I don’t need to wax poetic about the Canucks getting punted to the curb, right? Like, I had a giant analogy between season five of Breaking Bad and Tuesday night’s game but at one point in this article I am going to be posting a clip of an exhausted Jonathan Lekkerimäki finally getting the puck out of his zone with an odd-man rush chance in front of him…only to dump the puck in and go for a change because he has nothing left in the tank after watching the Avs skate circles around his team for a full minute.
That’s a highlight from this game. That is something I am going to show you. It was, no joke, probably their third-best scoring chance in the final period.
Which isn’t to say the Canucks aren’t trying, mind you. It’s just they aren’t very good. And Colorado, as mentioned in the pillage and plunder theme earlier in the article, is, well, the complete opposite. Even with an illness running through Colorado’s lineup, at their lowest output, the Avalanche are still capable of making your team look like they got registered in the wrong division.
“I think there’s been a mistake, we’re a men’s over 40 team and it appears we got put into the division with all the 22 year old players that used to play junior hockey.”
And if ever there was a game where sharing beers in the parking lot while you ruefully laugh at how fast those little shits on the other side of the ice were, it would have been this one.
Because Colorado, and I don’t know if you’ve picked up on this yet, play hockey like a nerd who has min-maxed his character to get every single ounce of performance out of it.
And Vancouver, which, again, I don’t know if you’ve picked up on this, is a bit like Frank Seravalli in an online feud: out of their depth and just sort of hoping the embarrassment goes away in due time.
OK, now let’s dive into this.
Best if only
The game plan for the night was literally “Wouldn’t it be SO Vancouver to win this game?” and, to be honest, that was probably the right choice. I assume the strategy for defending Nathan MacKinnon involved the Canucks asking the league whether tasers are illegal to carry in an NHL game, and once that was kiboshed, the team just sort of leaned on the “wouldn’t it be HILARIOUS if we won this thing?”
Maybe you catch the Avs underestimating you, maybe you get a quick couple of goals, and maybe Kevin Lankinen give you one of those prime early season 2024 starts, allowing you to ride out the victory and start leaking reports that, ok, just to clarify, when we said our veterans are available, we didn’t necessarily mean to trade, you know? Maybe this is a playoff team after all?
Or maybe Jim Rutherford rides off into the sunset at the end of the year and the Canucks tag in Dale Tallon, thus beginning another cycle of hell and torment where you get told “I think this old man knows what he’s doing ok, let him cook” before we meet up in 3-5 years for the next geriatric approach where they’ve tried nothing and are all out of ideas?
Anyways, here’s Linus Karlsson scoring a goal:
To the Canucks credit, that’s a delightful little goal right there. That’s the kind of goal you find at a local artisan’s market that you probably show off to your friends, while you brag about supporting local businesses to flaunt your moral superiority in life.
What makes this play even better is that it’s a nice rush goal! It’s not just thoughts and prayers from the point; it’s an honest-to-god tic-tac-toe goal where Aatu Räty finds Arshdeep Bains, who then feeds one of the bright spots of the season in Linus Karlsson, who pulls off a slick move in tight in the blue paint.
Quinn Hughes doesn’t get an assist recorded on this goal, but he gets a knowing look on the play due to another Josh Allen spiral from his own end that starts the play in earnest.
And speaking of Linus Karlsson, he strikes me as a guy I’d want to see again next season. Bottom six players are meant to come and go, capturing our imaginations with short-lived hot streaks or bold singular moments of success; they are that basil plant you buy from Safeway, where you promise this time, THIS TIME you are going to plant it in soil when you get home, where you will nurture it and feed off of it for months.
But like most basil plants, they whither and die in short order, so you find yourself buying a new plant the next time you want to dress up your frozen pizza because company is coming over. Such is the cycle of life, players come, and players go.
So what I am saying, and stay with me here, what I am saying is that Linus Karlsson? I think the Canucks should plant him and nurture him and live off of him for a couple of seasons. I don’t know what it is, but I just like his game. Don’t let him whither away; let’s see if he can gut out a few more years here.
Because not only does he have solid hands for scoring, he also battles like a demon in either crease:
The guy gives it his all, and for a team that has been soft on defending the area around their net this year, that sort of thing stands out.
And perhaps inspired by this effort, the Canucks almost pulled off the perfect start to the “Wouldn’t it be an absolute lark if we managed to beat the Avalanche” strategy when Drew O’Connor got a bit of a lucky bounce when the puck jumped by Sam Malinski, setting himself up for a breakaway:
Now, I would normally crack a joke about Drew O’Connor being unable to score on breakaways, and we’d all make a Tyler Motte joke and have a grand old time. But this dude is one of the Canucks’ best 5-on-5 scorers at the moment, currently sitting in second place with 10 points, which is very much a “that’s good but also bad?” Troy Barnes’ moment of reflection.
Best setting goals
Hey, if playing Quinn Hughes for an entire power play isn’t going to get him to 40 minutes in a game, surely putting him on the penalty kill as well will help us get over the hump.
Unfortunately, both teams only took one penalty apiece, so we have no way of knowing if this penalty kill from the captain is the start of a new Adam Foote approach, or just a part of the “wouldn’t it be downright knee slapping if we defeated Colorado?” singular game plan. What we do know is that Quinn ended the night with his usual 30 minutes of ice time (29:33 to be exact), so all is right with the world.
The Avalanche DID come close to scoring on the power play, however, when they tried the backdoor pass that has been an Achilles’ heel for the Canucks this season, only to be denied by one Kevin Lankinen:
Lankinen then followed that up with several more saves, though none quite reached the Quinn Hughes Insanity Index to be officially recorded as a game changer:
To go back to the moral victory pool, Lankinen is probably pretty happy he only let in three goals from the Avalanche. He didn’t steal the game for Vancouver, but he also wasn’t the reason they lost, which is all you can ask for from your backup-goalie-but-is-also-kind-of-the-starter-because-Demko-being-day-to-day-means-he’s-gone-for-another-year-isn’t-he?
Best swinging for the fences
I think there are two ways to try and achieve a successful “I just had a thought, wouldn’t it just be the absolute bees knees if we somehow took down the Avalanche tonight?” strategy. One is to play trap hockey, which I honestly don’t think Adam Foote is capable of. I just don’t think he has that DNA in him.
The other way is to play so bold that you can trigger the “they don’t know any better!” play call, where you just sit back and admire their moxie for trying to keep up with the Avalanche.
And it was using this strategy that allowed the Canucks to counterattack Colorado into a Kiefer Sherwood breakaway:
And to again counterattack the Avalanche, this time generating a Jake DeBrusk breakaway:
I mean, even if the Canucks scored on both of those chances, I feel pretty confident that Nate would score as many times as was needed to win the game, but at least the first period had a few scoring chances, damn it.
To quote Adam Foote:
I kind of assume he just means physically the team was on the ice watching the other team win, but whatever, life is short, let’s all meet compete is in our nature with compete.
Best bad decisions incoming
Kevin Lankinen seems like a fine chap, but I do question his choice of ties and rebounds. There are times when it just feels like he pops a puck into a dangerous area out of spite, such as here:
Now, I will say that yes, the puck was tipped slightly, so maybe that threw Kevin off, which led to the rebound being a bit more egregious than normal. That’s if we’re being very gentle in our commentary, so sure, let’s go with it.
The other problem, however, is PO Joseph covering MacKinnon and skating away from the centre of the net for reasons. Bees?
Nate is faster than 99% of the players on this stupid earth, so I just feel like centring yourself near your net and not overplaying your hand is probably the right way to go here. And again, let’s be super forgiving due to that slight tip on the shot that led to a rebound that PO might not have seen coming. Even with that, you have to play MacKinnon better than that.
And I say that knowing Nate can make even the best defenders in the world look silly. But that’s all the more reason you can’t just give him freebies by losing your net and giving up shooting lanes.
Best lone power play
The Canucks failed to score on their chance with the extra man, with the best chance belonging to Brock skating down Scott Wedgewood and just missing wide, followed up by Kiefer Sherwood shooting a one-timer in the general area of Linus Karlsson:
It still feels at times like the Quinn Hughes show does not involve Elias Pettersson at all on the power play? I think we’re in a bit of a time period where Quinn Hughes is trying to do too much, so we see him dingle, we see him dangle, but a lot of the times it just ends with the fluttering wrist shot into traffic.
Best back and forth
The Canucks had a solid mix of defensive highlights and lowlights in the second period, so first up here is Brock Boeser choosing to initiate the swarm defence, as he double teams Martin Necas, which allows Artturi Lehkonen to get a free look on net from the slot:
That’s how the majority of the Canucks’ miscues have played out this season: the Canucks overload one player, leading to a wave of open players for the opposition to exploit.
But we always show the miscues, so here’s Jake DeBrusk doing a brilliant job of shutting down Cale Makar and getting a zone exit:
And we also had Fil Hronek, the one dude who seems to really understand the Foote system, shut down Martin Necas with ease on this rush:
Hey, sometimes it’s nice to point out when the Canucks make smart defensive plays. It’s not the sexiest clips you’ll see, but they still put dinner on the table.
I think that makes sense.
Best example of Canucks Nation
I just enjoy that, even as we watch this terrible season, Canucks fans are smart enough to know something worse could be right around the corner.
So while you ponder Dale Tallon, here is Vancouver trading scoring chances with the Avalanche:
You’ll notice that the Avalanche chance looked far more dangerous, which is kind of how this game played out. 31 shots for Colorado to Vancouver’s 21, 11 high danger chances for the Avs to the Canucks four.
Which, yeah, isn’t too surprising considering how good the Avs are.
I mean, they were RIGHT there. The Canucks were RIGHT there.
But alas.
Best questionable effort
Gabe Landeskog would then find Brock Nelson all alone in front of Kevin Lankinen to make it 2-1 near the end of the second period:
I didn’t love this goal? To me, this is a perfect example of how the season is going for Vancouver. This is a team that plays overly aggressive, but can’t afford to make a single mistake; otherwise they lose.
And on this goal, it feels like Quinn Hughes should be playing it like a two-on-one; that’s the safer choice here. But instead, he points at Nelson, motioning to Max Sasson to get on his horse to chase him down. This then “frees up” Quinn to close the gap on Gabe, giving up the centre of the ice, which the Avs captain gladly accepts. Gabe makes a quick pass, thus avoiding Quinn, and Max Sasson, who took a couple of strides off, somehow lets a man who possibly fought in the Civil War skate right by him for the breakaway goal.
Which is surprising, given that Max Sasson has arguably one of the best bursts on the team. But whether it was fatigue or a mental lapse, he just sort of glides for a couple of strides, and that’s all it takes for Nelson to keep ahead of him.
Again, if Quinn Hughes plays this as a two-on-one, it’s probably a safer play, but to quote Mr. Todd Bertuzzi, it is what it is.
I honestly file it away as Quinn Hughes once again trying to do too much, and I can only imagine the frustration is mounting for him. He is becoming his own worst enemy in that regard.
Best at least it was quick
The best way I can describe the Canucks defence on the Avalanche’s third goal of the night is that it was like those Dawn commercials from back in the day. You know those ads where they put a drop of soap in the oily water, and the grease just flew away in a giant circle? That’s essentially what the Canucks did, with Nate Dawg playing the role of the soap:
Things that happened on this goal:
  • David Kämpf makes an aggressive play along the boards and takes himself out of defending the Avalanche rush.
  • Kiefer Sherwood skates back and takes the world’s biggest curl route and ends up double-teaming Gabe Landeskog down low in the corner.
  • Brock arrives in time to stop and cover neither the point nor Nate.
  • Marcus Pettersson goes full Tyler Myers with the diving poke check, commits himself to the corner with Gabe, whether he wants to or not.
  • Tyler Myers takes away the backdoor play, giving us our first solid piece of defence on this play.
  • But eventually it ends with MacKinnon getting a one-timer chance in the slot with nobody covering him. This is bad.
Good teams break you down and make you look foolish; that’s how the system is designed to work. This was truly a night when the superior team worked only as hard as it had to control the game away from Vancouver after an even first period.
Meanwhile, the Canucks best scoring chance to close out the second was Drew O’Connor finding Jake DeBrusk down low for a tipped shot that went wide:
Cool.
Best putting it completely on the table
Best dying gasps
The Canucks made sure to be “right there” in the third period by pushing back slightly in the third period.
Max Sasson, fresh off his controller disconnecting on the Avalanche’s second goal, generated the kind of rush the team needs to see more of from him:
His speed is his biggest weapon, and anytime you can drive to the net with that much pace, it’s a good thing for a team that struggles to score at 5-on-5.
You also had Sam Malinski break his ankles trying to defend Quinn Hughes, only to watch as the ensuing shot sailed high and wide:
And then you had a variety of point shots, which I can only describe as having the energy of a Sears Catalogue:
Yes, those are things that exist. No, nobody really wants them.
Best body language heat check
The biggest talking point after the game, once again, remains Quinn Hughes’ body language.
And we’ll get into the clip Bik posted in a moment, but this is something that has been going on all season. We have heard the rumours that the team talked to Quinn about his posturing, and we have seen it with our own eyes; at the very least, he is giving off the vibe of someone who is extremely frustrated.
But recently, we’ve seen it kind of seep more and more into his on-ice play. Don’t get me wrong: Quinn is playing 30 minutes a night. He is probably trying to play too much hero ball, and who knows what injuries he may be dealing with, but we are seeing a trend where he just looks despondent at times on the ice. Against the Sharks, it was on the power play where he just didn’t make a play a couple of times to try to get the puck back. And in the clip Bik posted, you can see Quinn just sort of disengaged from everything happening around him.
So while it’s true we don’t know 100% what is going on with the Canucks captain, all we can do is try to piece it together from what we’re seeing. And from what we’re seeing, Quinn Hughes looked frustrated last season, and it has only gotten worse this season. Which makes the question “where is Quinn going to sign his next contract with?” a shadow that, while not as damaging as the Elias Pettersson vs. JT Miller divorce of last year, is still turning into the biggest talking point of the season.
We hear so little from Quinn Hughes; all we are left with is conjecture.
And hey, maybe the bar was set too high. Not every player can be perfect all the time; everyone is allowed to make mistakes.
But I would say that before this season, I haven’t seen Quinn Hughes give up on plays like this. Even last season, when his body was broken in half, you could see him always going all out to make the right play. And whether it’s fair or not, when you’re the captain of the team, that’s sort of your deal; you have to be the guy leading by example – unless you’re Mark Messier and are just there to pilfer money.
As it stands, it just feels like something is off with Quinn, and Occam’s razor points the finger at his contract situation as the elephant in the room.
Which should be an interesting problem for Dale Tallon to solve, am I right?
I’m so sorry.
Best because you have to
As promised, here is a prime example of a successful shift from the Canucks in the third period; wait until Colorado gets tired from skating in your own zone for several minutes, then dump the puck and go for a line change:
Best from bad to worse
Evander Kane ended up leaving the game due to getting a cut on his arm:
And Brock Boeser looked like he got a bit of a stinger near the end of the game as well:
I would say with Brock, it’s probably a minor issue, as he did return to the game after this shift, but it’s also the Canucks where injury reports don’t really mean anything. Technically, day-to-day can mean forever, so I guess they aren’t wrong.
Best one last shot
With the goalie pulled, you can expect two things from the Canucks.
Quinn Hughes trying to play hero ball and shooting from the point after dangling around a dude:
(We’re going to have to talk about the rapidly diminishing returns on Hughes trying to play hero ball so much, but we will save that for another game.)
And Brock Boeser scoring/almost scoring on a six-on-five:
This is where Adam Foote can proudly claim they were “right there” even if, yeah, they weren’t.
Still, Brock almost scored, so that’s neat.
Best you’re stuck with them forever
And that was it for the game. Even the Avalanche seemed bored by the game near the end of it. Just a simple case of good vs. not so good.
Next up is a four-game home stand for the Canucks, in which I assume we will be talking about many of the same things as we did tonight.
Please don’t forget you signed a contract; you are legally required to read all of these articles after every game.

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