After suffering an embarrassing 3-0 shutout at the hands of the Nashville Predators on Friday, the Vancouver Canucks have gotten some positive injury news to the benefit of their offense and team as a whole.
Canucks captain Quinn Hughes, who has been out with an undisclosed injury since playing through it against the San Jose Sharks on Dec. 23, has returned to practice, as has Elias Pettersson. Hughes, 25, was originally considered "week-to-week" by head coach Rick Tocchet and was reportedly set to miss three weeks or less as of Tuesday.
Missing less than a week would be a truly remarkable turn of events for Hughes and the Canucks, though it would be foolish to believe the Canucks' captain isn't aware of the struggles plaguing his squad at the moment.
"It's nice to be back. Obviously, I hate missing time," Hughes said after practice on Sunday. "I don't know what it was before, 190 games in a row or something like that. Obviously, I want to take care of my body and be available, so we'll see how it goes."
The Canucks have lost two of their last three games in regulation since Tuesday's report on Hughes, so it is possible that Hughes is pushing himself a little further to try and get back to help his team.
After their latest loss to Nashville, the Canucks are 3-4-3 in their last 10 games, scoring a combined one goal in their last two regulation losses. It certainly does not help to have Tyler Myers and Carson Soucy running the top two power play units in the absences of Hughes and Pettersson.
The 18-12-8 Canucks have one game in hand on the Calgary Flames (18-14-7), who trail Vancouver by one point in the standings and also just lost to Nashville. The team that claims that final wildcard spot in the Western Conference could be anyone's guess, but the Canucks are too talented to leave any doubts.