Vancouver Canucks at San Jose Sharks

Hughes has goal, 4 assists as Canucks win 10-1, send winless Sharks to 10th straight loss

Brock Boeser had two goals and an assist, Anthony Beauvillier also scored twice in his 500th NHL game, J.T. Miller had a goal and two assists, Andrei Kuzmenko and Sam Lafferty each had a goal and an assist, and Pius Suter and Ilya Mikheyev also scored for Vancouver. Elias Pettersson had three assists, and Filip Hronek and Carson Soucy had two apiece. Thatcher Demko stopped 29 shots.

“We were ready to go from the get-go and we stuck with it,” Hughes said. “We weren’t too loose.”

The Canucks beat the Sharks for the sixth straight time and sent the Sharks to their 10th straight loss to start the season (0-9-1). San Jose is one loss away from tying the NHL record for most defeats to start a season, a mark currently held by the New York Rangers (1943-44) and the Arizona Coyotes (2017-18 and 2021-22).

Hughes’ five-point night tied Vancouver’s single-game franchise record for points by a defenseman, which was last done by Jeff Brown in 1995.

Canucks coach Rick Tocchet praised his players for playing hard despite the lopsided score, and seeing contributions up and down the lineup.

“It was nice to get some other guys playing a lot that don’t usually play this much, and also getting some offense from those guys,” Tocchet said. “Hopefully that’ll get them confidence down the road.”

Fabian Zetterlund spoiled Demko’s shutout bid with 3:48 remaining. Kaapo Kahkonen allowed six goals on 19 shots before leaving after taking a knee to the head from Kuzmenko as the Canucks forward scored to put Vancouver up 6-0 near midway through the second period. Mackenzie Blackwood came on and had 10 saves the rest of the way.

Vancouver put the game out of reach early, capitalizing on the Sharks’ penalties woes in the first period with goals on all three of its power plays — including two off an early double-minor high sticking penalty by Nico Sturm. It was just the second time the Sharks have allowed three power-play goals in the first period in franchise history.

Sharks coach David Quinn called the performance and his team’s winless record “embarrassing.” He said the team was mentally deflated after the early power-play goals. The nine-goal deficit was the largest in a home loss in franchise history.

“Just really, really disappointing,” Quinn said. “We took a big step back tonight. ... We’re going to find out an awful lot about individuals moving forward over the next few days.”

Boeser got the first goal on a one-timer from the left point off a feed from Pettersson after Marc-Edouard Vlasic failed to clear the zone 2:23 into the game. Boeser then created the second goal with a nifty assist, sending a long-range pass from his own blue line off the end boards right onto the stick of Miller, who beat two Sharks’ defenders down the ice and deposited a backhand past Kakhonen at the 4-minute mark.

Hughes made it 3-0 at the 8-minute mark on a wrist shot through traffic, and Boeser added his second of the period on another power play, batting the puck out of midair from in close after it deflected off Kakhonen to give the Canucks a 4-0 lead with 3:11 left in the first.

The Canucks scored four more in the second, and two in the third to extend the lead to 10-0 with 8:02 remaining.

“The one good thing is that this is about as low as it’s going to get,” Sharks forward Nico Sturm sad. “So I suppose that’s the only positive in this situation.”

UP NEXT

Canucks: Host the Dallas on Saturday night.

Sharks: Host the Pittsburgh on Saturday night.

VAN leads series 1-0