Canucks Break Records Despite a Week of Losses
It’s not lost on anyone that the Vancouver Canucks haven’t seen the best days lately. However, despite coming out of the week losing three out of four games and losing several players to injuries, the Canuck still found success. Two players were able to stand out and set records even with a generally upsetting weak of games behind them. Even while being dangerously close to falling out of playoff contention, the Canucks are finding ways to shine.
On Saturday’s game against the New York Rangers, forward Kiefer Sherwood earned his 384th hit of the season, setting a new NHL record for most hits by a player in a single season. The record-breaking hit was on his former Canucks teammate Carson Soucy. Sherwood has a lead of over 100 hits between him and the next two players on the leaderboard this season, Luke Schenn and Mathieu Olivier. Sherwood continued to rack up hits throughout the game, making his grand total of hits this season 395 with 12 games to go in the regular season.
Another star player, coming as no surprise to any Canucks fan, was defenseman Quinn Hughes. Also during Saturday’s game against the Rangers, Hughes recorded an assist on the opening goal scored by Dakota Joshua. This made Hughes the fourth-fastest defenseman in NHL history to reach 200 points on the road. Hughes is only beaten out by record-holders Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey, and Ray Bourque.
It was an outstanding game for Hughes as he also recorded the fastest max skating time across the NHL for the 2024-2025 regular season so far. During the game, Hughes hit a skating speed of 24.56 miles per hour, outskating Carolina’s Martin Necas who had a max skating speed of 24.49 miles per hour in December of last year. Hughes outskated Necas by more than one mile per hour, setting a new record for the season.
The Canucks have faced a lot of unfortunate setbacks this season, especially in the last few weeks. There have been many upsetting losses, and several players have gone out with injuries. However, despite these difficulties, players are still finding ways to shine despite the losses. As they continue their close battle for the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference to earn a spot in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, these little victories keep morale high across the franchise.
