As if Minnesota Wild fans weren’t anxious enough about yet another playoff journey getting underway, some late developing drama with Quinn Hughes isn’t helping anything. Hughes is reportedly battling an injury, one that has held him out of practice and has his status for Game 1 against the Stars in doubt.
Hughes missed practice on Friday, which is the second time that’s happened this week. That means he has yet to hit the ice ahead of Saturday afternoon’s puck drop in Dallas and the fact that nobody really knows what’s going on isn’t making things much better.
Wild head coach John Haynes gave a bit of a nightmare update on Friday, confirming that Hughes did not travel with the team as originally planned.
“Originally he was gonna fly with the team, but I just think with the illness, I think more rest for him and just not have him on the plane (made sense),” Hynes said, via The Athletic. “So he’s en route to Dallas today. Our expectation is for him to play.”
That’s the last thing anyone wants to hear but it doesn’t mean Hughes isn’t going to play. Despite his less-than-stellar update, Hynes is insisting Hughes will play which tracks with how locked in the Norris Trophy candidate has been all season.
Is Quinn Hughes playing today? Latest injury update for Wild vs. Stars Game 1
Ever since arriving in Minnesota, Hughes has been an absolute psycho when it comes to ice time commitment. He’s averaged 27:54 of ice time this season, peaking when he logged 32:02 against the Blue Jackets back in December.
That’s absolutely insane stuff, and a big reason why the Wild need to have him as healthy as possible for this series against Dallas. Trading for him accelerated Minnesota’s plans but his presence gives the Wild something they’ve never had against any team they’ve faced in the playoffs — an elite superstar to pair with Kirill Kaprizov.
The good news is that it really sounds like, even if Hughes is sick, he’s going to play. His ice time suggests this but so does Hynes continuing to reiterate that the expectation is for Hughes to play.
”I think mentally and physically, this little break is probably really good even though he’s under the weather and not feeling well. But I just think, mentally, sometimes just getting away from it is good, but our expectation is he’ll be ready to go [Saturday].”
It’s already going to be a wicked series against the Stars, one that figures to be one of the best of the entire playoffs. Not having Hughes would be a bummer not only for the Wild but for anyone hoping to see two of the best teams in the Western Conference go at it and get more of what we saw out of them when they met right before the regular season ended.
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