Quinn Hughes is back (hopefully)
Don’t look now, but Quinn Hughes is starting to regain his form.
Prior to Tuesday night’s contest, Hughes had gone pointless in his past three games, only registering three shots to go along with a combined minus-three rating. Fortunately, the 21-year-old blueliner was able to bounce back in a big way in the second half of their two-game series against the Maple Leafs, logging just over 22 minutes of ice time, and finishing the contest with one goal, two assists, three shots on goal and a plus-two rating.
Another game crying out for 19,000 fans in the building. Quinn Hughes deserves to have more than 80 people seeing this.
— Iain MacIntyre (@imacSportsnet) April 21, 2021
He seemed to have regained chemistry with partner Travis Hamonic, and many are hoping that this duo can continue their strong performance together for the remainder of the year.
This was just his second three-point performance of the season for Hughes, dating back to the February 2nd match-up against the Canadiens, but it appears that the former Calder Trophy runner-up is starting to show signs of his blueline-walking, quick-footed and explosive old self.
Of course, we all know that Hughes doesn’t need too much help offensively.
He continues to be amongst the team leaders in point totals this campaign, and, quite frankly, could probably light up the scoresheet in his sleep on most nights. But Hughes has also had his defensive struggles this year, with some of them being on full display at critical moments of a game (cue the poorly-timed powerplay pinch that led to the tie-breaking shorthanded goal).
He still has a long way to go to erase his current -17 rating, but many fans are hoping that he can continue to take encouraging steps towards rounding out his defensive skills, much like he did on Tuesday night.