Heartbreaking News for Quinn Hughes and Team USA
Team USA got some bad news today regarding Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes' availability for the Four Nations faceoff final.
Tomorrow night we will get treated to arguably the most anticipated hockey game in many years with the Four Nations faceoff finale between the United States and Canada.
Both teams were without their top defensemen during the round robin stage as Cale Makar dealt with an illness for Canada and Quinn Hughes wasn't with Team USA at all due to an injury.
Since then, Hughes has been involved in rumors that he would be joining the team after Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy was removed from the roster with an injury.
In fact, there were reports that Hughes was joining Team USA as recently as yesterday.
Unfortunately, it seems as though the NHL has changed their mind as to whether or not Hughes is eligible to play in the game.
After all, the injury replacement rules for the tournament have not exactly been that clear.
That being said, we got a huge update from NHL insider Pierre LeBrun today who revealed that Hughes is not traveling to Boston, and will not join Team USA.
He specifically noted that Hughes was not medically cleared to join the team.
For what it is worth though, Hughes was spotted at Canucks practice today, wearing a regular jersey as a full participant.
This could lead to conspiracy theories as to why he really didn't make the flight for the game.
Losing Hughes is a big deal for the Americans as he leads all American born defenders with 14 goals and 59 points this season.
However, the Team went 2-1 in the round robin without Hughes, only losing to Sweden in a game that was effectively meaningless for them.
Will they be able to upset Canada a second time though? Tune in tomorrow night to find out.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Tom Wilson | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Alexander Ovechkin | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Brendan Gallagher | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Anthony Cirelli | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Josh Doan | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Pierre-Luc Dubois | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Dylan Guenther | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Victor Hedman | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jack McBain | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Dylan Strome | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jake Guentzel | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Brandon Hagel | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Michael Carcone | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Christian Dvorak | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Zemgus Girgensons | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nick Paul | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brayden Point | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Cam Atkinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| John Carlson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nick Desimone | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 56 | 39 | 14 | 3 | 81 | |
Capitals | 55 | 36 | 11 | 8 | 80 | |
Oilers | 55 | 34 | 17 | 4 | 72 | |
Stars | 55 | 35 | 18 | 2 | 72 | |
Golden Knights | 56 | 33 | 17 | 6 | 72 | |
Panthers | 57 | 34 | 20 | 3 | 71 | |
Hurricanes | 56 | 33 | 19 | 4 | 70 | |
Wild | 56 | 33 | 19 | 4 | 70 | |
Maple Leafs | 55 | 33 | 20 | 2 | 68 | |
Avalanche | 57 | 33 | 22 | 2 | 68 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||