[Article] Canucks fans unite to defend Quinn Hughes against eastern media bias

[RWJC]

Canucks fans unite to defend Quinn Hughes against eastern media bias

 

Noah Strang

Oct 23 2023, 1:03 pm

 

Vancouver Canucks supporters continue to live up to their fanatic reputation.

 

The latest controversy across Canucks Twitter — or should it be called Canucks X now? — involves the national media’s perception of captain Quinn Hughes.

It all started when two sets of rankings were published. The first came from The Athletic’s Dom Luszczysyn, who presented his tier list of NHL players. Across all defencemen, he had Hughes in the 3B tier alongside Dougie Hamilton, Alex Pietrangelo, and Shea Theodore.

 

 

Another ranking put out by ESPN had Hughes ranked as the 60th best player in the league, behind Seth Jones and numerous other defencemen.

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/38672360/nhl-rank-2023-2024-top-100-players-rankings-predictions
 

Canucks fans have taken an issue with these rankings. They have decided to use social media to voice their feelings and let national media members know that Hughes is being underrated.

 

 

Hughes himself has now weighed in on the rankings debate.
 

In a conversation with Thomas Drance of The Athletic, Hughes said…

 

link to rest of article:

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canucks-fans-defend-quinn-hughes-media-bias

 

 

 

[Rob Eh]

If Bobby Orr played for the Canucks, they'd have him that low too.

I've seen the eastern crybabies on X. They cry about the start times when their teams play here and admit they don't stay up for the pacific time zone games.

That doesn't stop them from becoming 'experts' on our team though.

[Bob Long]

The eastern dinks will just double down, and also write stories about us being a toxic fan base.

[Rekker]

Imagine if Hughes played for the Leafs?! The media would be engraving his name on the Norris already. 

[Ghostsof1915]

Might be for the best. That way other teams underestimate Vancouver.

[Ballisticsports]

Ahh let them have their fantasy rankings

We can use their list at contract times

[JeremyCuddles]

I mentioned this on Reddit as well. I think it also doesn't help that Hughes plays for a pretty dogshit franchise as far as winning goes. If he were on any good team I think he'd have more recognition. The problem is we flat out haven't done enough to build around our studs and because of how bad we are he is getting overlooked. Petey gets a decent amount of respect, in some ways more than I think he deserves. But for some reason Hughes is vastly overlooked. Maybe it's cause he always looks so sad and not like an alien.

[Pears]

1 hour ago, Rekker said:

Imagine if Hughes played for the Leafs?! The media would be engraving his name on the Norris already. 

Nah the statue would already be going up outside Scotiabank Arena. 

[RupertKBD]

I make a lot of effort not to be a homer, (I believe I've argued with enough of you over the years to back that up) but there is only one defenseman in the league that I would trade straight up for Hughes....

 

....Cale Makar.

 

As good as guys like Hedman, Fox and Dahlin are, I'd rather have Hughes.

[Rekker]

45 minutes ago, RupertKBD said:

I make a lot of effort not to be a homer, (I believe I've argued with enough of you over the years to back that up) but there is only one defenseman in the league that I would trade straight up for Hughes....

 

....Cale Makar.

 

As good as guys like Hedman, Fox and Dahlin are, I'd rather have Hughes.

That's a very good point, and very well said. I 100 percent agree.

[Jaimito]

 

[RWJC]

1 hour ago, JeremyCuddles said:

I mentioned this on Reddit as well. I think it also doesn't help that Hughes plays for a pretty dogshit franchise as far as winning goes. If he were on any good team I think he'd have more recognition. The problem is we flat out haven't done enough to build around our studs and because of how bad we are he is getting overlooked. Petey gets a decent amount of respect, in some ways more than I think he deserves. But for some reason Hughes is vastly overlooked. Maybe it's cause he always looks so sad and not like an alien.

Fair point - winning brings recognition. We haven’t accomplished much as a team, but paradoxically in contrast that should also enhance the perception of how valuable QH and EP are in spite of our record, no? 

The eastern media bias/ignorance is a real thing.

Edited October 24, 2023 by RWJC

[JeremyCuddles]

54 minutes ago, RupertKBD said:

I make a lot of effort not to be a homer, (I believe I've argued with enough of you over the years to back that up) but there is only one defenseman in the league that I would trade straight up for Hughes....

 

....Cale Makar.

 

As good as guys like Hedman, Fox and Dahlin are, I'd rather have Hughes.

There's only 2 D in the league I consider over Hughes. Makar like you said and Dahlin. Dahlin has a physical and defensive edge over Hughes. But Hughes has game breaking talent. I don't think we fully realize how special Dahlin is out West like they don't appreciate Hughes out East. If we take contracts into account, I only take Makar over Hughes. Slightly more, but slightly better player and is right handed.

[Tusk]

1 hour ago, RupertKBD said:

I make a lot of effort not to be a homer, (I believe I've argued with enough of you over the years to back that up) but there is only one defenseman in the league that I would trade straight up for Hughes....

 

....Cale Makar.

 

As good as guys like Hedman, Fox and Dahlin are, I'd rather have Hughes.

Thats a bad trade...Unless they were also taking Garlund and the rest of the OEL cap

[Alflives]

1 minute ago, Tusk said:

Thats a bad trade...Unless they were also taking Garlund and the rest of the OEL cap

Benning! 

[Tusk]

14 minutes ago, RWJC said:

Fair point - winning brings recognition. We haven’t accomplished much as a team, but paradoxically in contrast that should also enhance the perception of how valuable QH and EP are in spite of our record, no? 

The eastern media bias/ignorance is a real thing.

As long as the referees are held accountable this year, the east will get to know Hughes, Petterson, Millar, Boeser, Demko, Kuzmenko. our PP cant be defended against this year.

[Cromeslab]

Nice to see Hughes fly under the radar,seasons end may tell a different tale.The bias is real.

[NucksRuleYou]

Fuck Toronto and fuck the east! Hughes is the best and the haters can suck it!

[DownUndaCanuck]

Lots of top defencemen have come out of the gates flying so it's hard to separate them all now, but watching Hughes run the show and control the play like he never has before is a different beast so he could really take off. Makar has looked strong so far, Fox alright, and plenty of other guys look good, but Hughes is one of the few guys who is a PPG and solid +/- rating.

[wai_lai416]

Lol why are ppl up in arms over rankings?? Does it make the player play better or worse?? Who gives a f where a player is ranked?? Who cares if writers give recognition to Hughes and ep or not? Just like people here would rank Myers as the worse player in the league. Who cares

[RWJC]

10 minutes ago, wai_lai416 said:

Lol why are ppl up in arms over rankings?? Does it make the player play better or worse?? Who gives a f where a player is ranked?? Who cares if writers give recognition to Hughes and ep or not? Just like people here would rank Myers as the worse player in the league. Who cares

Because similar rankings are how annual trophy candidates are considered and there’s longtime been a question of equal representation in terms of the western teams against the eastern, with media mostly based in the east. 
 

“The winners of the NHL Awards are chosen through a voting process. Selected members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association (PHWA) cast their votes to decide the winners in various categories.”

Edited October 24, 2023 by RWJC

[wai_lai416]

16 minutes ago, RWJC said:

Because similar rankings are how annual trophy candidates are considered and there’s longtime been a question of equal representation in terms of the western teams against the eastern, with media mostly based in the east. 
 

“The winners of the NHL Awards are chosen through a voting process. Selected members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association (PHWA) cast their votes to decide the winners in various categories.”

Lol who cares about the trophy.. seriously Hughes have 0 chance at the Norris unless makar breaks his leg and is out for 50% of the season.. or Hughes goes karlsson and breaks 100 points.. there are a quite a few defenceman scoring at similar clip as QH or slightly lower but they all are better than Hughes defensively. Most of the players that are ahead of Hughes right now generate more high danger chance than against. Hughes is slowly getting better but until that reaches like 55% closer to the top guys that play first pair I don’t see him ever reaching top 3 in Norris let alone winning it. Also most of them plays like 60-70mins more on the PK than Hughes with the exception of karlsson and are good at it while keeping pace offensively. 
 

I’d love to see Hughes win one day.. but being in the league same time as makar fox etc ain’t going to help his chance

Edited October 24, 2023 by wai_lai416

[RWJC]

16 minutes ago, wai_lai416 said:

Lol who cares about the trophy.. seriously Hughes have 0 chance at the Norris unless makar breaks his leg and is out for 50% of the season.. or Hughes goes karlsson and breaks 100 points.. there are a quite a few defenceman scoring at similar clip as QH or slightly lower but they all are better than Hughes defensively. Most of the players that are ahead of Hughes right now generate more high danger chance than against. Hughes is slowly getting better but until that reaches like 55% closer to the top guys that play first pair I don’t see him ever reaching top 3 in Norris let alone winning it. Also most of them plays like 60-70mins more on the PK than Hughes with the exception of karlsson and are good at it while keeping pace offensively. 
 

I’d love to see Hughes win one day.. but being in the league same time as makar fox etc ain’t going to help his chance

Hmmm, I guess Petey should just stop scoring then while McD is still playing? Nux and basically any team below the top 5 should just forego competing because it’s futile?

 

I get your points. Happily disagree. 
Players like QH and EP are driven to prove their worth. Where they play shouldn’t be a deterrent to that recognition, but unfortunately it’s often remarked how it is a factor in most consideration. 

[wai_lai416]

10 minutes ago, RWJC said:

Hmmm, I guess Petey should just stop scoring then while McD is still playing? Nux and basically any team below the top 5 should just forego competing because it’s futile?

 

I get your points. Happily disagree. 
Players like QH and EP are driven to prove their worth. Where they play shouldn’t be a deterrent to that recognition, but unfortunately it’s often remarked how it is a factor in most consideration. 

that logic makes 0 sense what does EP scoring or not have to do with anything? players are playing the game for the SC?? or they are playing for individual trophies? 

 

we keep talking about eastern bias this eastern bias that.. looking at the winners of individual trophy.. the western conference have won more trophies than the east in the last 10 years. 

[PhillipBlunt]

Hughes is the man!