Quinn Hughes spent most of Sunday evening at Rogers Arena being told what the Vancouver Canucks fanbase thought of him. Then the tribute video played during the first television timeout, the booing broke into whistles and applause, and a portion of the building stood up.
Don Taylor would like to know who those people were.
“This is the video tribute, and there’s people standing up,” the Vancouver radio host said on the Donnie & Dhali show, before explaining why he found it baffling.
“The guy was, in terms of being a captain and a leader, arguably the worst in Canucks history,” Taylor said. “He clearly didn’t have any time for the organization in the city.”
Quinn Hughes this season:
| Category | Total |
|---|---|
| Games | 13 |
| Goals | 3 |
| Assists | 13 |
| Points | 16 |
How did Canucks fans react to Quinn Hughes?
The boos started in warmups and continued through the anthems, every puck touch and his goal, with chants of “quitter”, “Quinn Hughes sucks”, “one-year rental” and “he’s not signing” cycling through the night. One supporter held up a sign reading “And I thought I had commitment issues.”
The tribute video was the exception, and even that was only partial. Daily Hive described the response as a “Standing U” on the grounds that it never became a full standing O.
READ MORE: Quinn Hughes got one more round of boos after the game
Taylor’s verdict on Hughes as a leader isn’t shared by the men who played under him. Luke Schenn, still with the Canucks, took the opposite view entirely.
“He definitely deserved the cheers,” Schenn said. “I don’t know if there’s really much reason to be negative as far as what he’s done for the organization. Obviously they’re booing him, but at the end of the day I think everyone is proud that he was once a Canuck.”
Hughes himself took the warmer reading of the evening.
“The passion with the fan base is what makes it special to play here,” he said. “So for me, it was cool to be back here, and exciting.”
Asked whether he had noticed the people standing, he kept it to two words. “Yeah, I saw.”
He scored to reach 500 career points, set up Kirill Kaprizov for a fourth, and the Minnesota Wild won 4-2. Vancouver have now lost ten in a row.
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