Canucks at 2-10-1: Quinn Hughes' homecoming and a 10-game skid

The boos started in warmups. By the time Quinn Hughes touched the puck for the first time Sunday night at Rogers Arena, Vancouver fans were ready, and the building got louder when Drew O'Connor caught him with a solid hit behind the net.

For one period, the old captain's homecoming felt like it might turn into the night the Canucks finally snapped out of it. Vancouver outshot Minnesota 10-5 in the first, finished checks and played what may have been its best period of the season. Then the Wild cashed a power play when Maxim Shabanov tapped in a Kirill Kaprizov feed at 18:33, and the Canucks went to the room down 1-0 anyway.

The second period belonged to the Wild. Bobby Brink made it 2-0. Then, at 12:55 and again on the power play, Hughes carried the puck in, circled below the goal line and finished from the far side of the crease. It was 3-0, it was the game-winner, and it was the 500th point of his career. The final was 4-2. Vancouver has now lost 10 straight.

How a season turns into a skid

It did not start this way. The Canucks opened with a 6-5 overtime win in Edmonton and beat Calgary 4-1 a few nights later. They were 2-1-0 after three games.

Since then: 0-9-1. The skid has run through a six-game road trip, a 7-2 loss in Carolina, a 6-2 loss to the Rangers, a one-goal overtime loss in Florida and three straight home losses to Carolina, Detroit and Minnesota. Vancouver scored more than two goals only once in those 10 games and was outscored 45-20.

The season totals tell the same story. The Canucks are 2-10-1, 32nd in the league, with 60 goals allowed in 13 games and a minus-23 goal differential. Their penalty kill is last in the NHL at 64.4 percent, and it gave up two more power-play goals on Sunday. After that strong first period, the shots dried up. Vancouver had 10 shots on goal in the first and 17 for the whole game, while the Wild finished with 34.

"We're searching for answers. It's concerning," head coach Manny Malhotra said after the game, per Daily Hive.

The trade that started the reset

To understand why Sunday hit so hard, go back to last December. Vancouver was 11-17-3 when it traded Hughes, its captain and the 2024 Norris Trophy winner, to Minnesota. Hughes left with 432 points in 459 games for the franchise that drafted him seventh overall in 2018.

The return was built for a rebuild: three young players, center Marco Rossi, defenseman Zeev Buium and forward Liam Ohgren, plus a 2026 first-round pick. All three players were in the lineup Sunday. Buium logged 22:59 on the Vancouver blue line, and Ohgren set him up for one of the Canucks' best early chances. Neither found the net, and Rossi was held without a shot.

The rest of last season went the wrong way. The Canucks finished last in the NHL at 25-49-8 and set a franchise record by losing 11 straight from Dec. 30 to Jan. 19. Adam Foote was fired on May 19 after one season behind the bench. Daniel and Henrik Sedin were named co-presidents of hockey operations, and the team turned to Malhotra, a former Canucks forward who won a Calder Cup coaching the AHL's Abbotsford Canucks in 2024-25. He is the 23rd head coach in franchise history.

On the other side, Hughes is thriving. He played 26:10 on Sunday with a goal, an assist and three shots on goal, and he has 16 points in 13 games, 13 of them assists. Asked if the night closed a chapter, he said no, pointing to the 10 months he has already spent in Minnesota.

The goalie gap and the next stop

There is one bright spot in the crease. Leevi Merilainen made 30 saves on 34 shots Sunday and carries a .912 save percentage on the season. Kevin Lankinen, who was in net for the 6-5 opener in Edmonton, sits at .807. On Sunday, the goaltending was not what sank Vancouver; the shots and chances in front of Merilainen were.

The schedule now offers a chance to reset. Vancouver plays Tuesday in Anaheim, where the Ducks are 5-6-0 and just 1-3-0 at home, then visits San Jose on Thursday. Another loss would match last season's franchise record of 11 straight. Minnesota comes back to Rogers Arena on Nov. 21.

What it means on the board

• A losing streak by itself does not change the odds of the next game. What does carry over is how a team is losing, and for Vancouver that is a last-place penalty kill and thin shot volume.
• A 64.4 percent penalty kill puts opposing power-play units in play. Minnesota went 2-for-5 on Sunday, and opposing points props on top power-play players are the kind of market this shows up in.
• The Canucks put 17 shots on goal against the Wild, 10 of them in the first period. That is useful context for Vancouver shots-on-goal props and for the saves line on the other goalie.
• Merilainen's .912 versus Lankinen's .807 matters for totals and saves props, so the confirmed starter is worth checking before puck drop.

Follow the full slate on the NHL board and free picks, read the Wild vs. Canucks recap, or brush up on how a player prop works.

21+. Research and commentary, not betting advice.