Canucks star Quinn Hughes’ bug likely bumps him from Arizona game


Notebook: Vancouver’s No. 1 defenseman is still feeling the effects of a stomach virus that ripped through the team

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Quinn Hughes’s bout with a stomach bug meant no Las Vegas trip for him, and it may also keep him out of the lineup Thursday in Arizona.

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Several Vancouver Canucks players have been dealing with a stomach virus since last week, when captain Bo Horvat had to leave a game vs. the St.Louis Blues.

Horvat said he was ill for about 48 hours. He did not have a recurrence of COVID-19, the team said. The stomach bug virus has made its way through the Canucks’ dressing room. Brad Richardson missed practice on Saturday and also Sunday’s home game vs. the Vegas Golden Knights.

Then several other teammates, along with Hughes, fell ill, with Hughes feeling so poorly on Tuesday that he stayed home and didn’t travel with the team to Las Vegas, where the Canucks faced the Golden Knights on Wednesday.

“Still sick. Still not feeling much better today,” head coach Bruce Boudreau said Wednesday of Hughes’ status.

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Boudreau said he was hopeful, though apparently not optimistic, that Hughes would feel better by Thursday morning, in which case the club would try to fly him to Arizona. The Canucks face the Coyotes in Glendale on Thursday evening.

“We could always use Quinn Hughes,” Boudreau said.

In recent days, health officials have said an outbreak in BC of norovirus has been linked to a crop of oysters harvested off the east coast of Vancouver Island. The vomiting and diarrhea symptoms felt by players match those of norovirus, though the team hasn’t said what virus is the cause of the team’s outbreak.

Asked Wednesday whether bad oysters might be to blame, Richardson said he wasn’t sure.

“Oh, let me see. Did I have oysters? I don’t know. I was at dinner when it happened. So it kind of hit me before the main course, but I don’t know if it was oysters or not, to be honest,” he said.

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Rathbone unlikely to play

Bourdreau said defense prospect Jack Rathbone was unlikely to play on this brief road trip.

Kyle Burroughs has recovered from his rib injury and was scheduled to be in the lineup Wednesday to play Vegas.

Rathbone was called up under emergency conditions on Tuesday because with Burroughs still being on injured reserve, Tucker Poolman once again suffering from migraines and Hughes being ill, the Canucks had only five healthy defencemen.

But activating Burroughs to face Vegas gives the Canucks a full complement of defensemen. Unless another blueliner becomes unavailable for Thursday’s game, dressing Rathbone against the Coyotes would require a full recall from the American Hockey League, and the Canucks only have two of those left to use.

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While Rathbone played nine NHL games at the beginning of the season, he hasn’t practiced with the Canucks under Boudreau so the coach thought it wouldn’t be fair to throw him into action unless he had no other choice.

That said, it’s clear that Rathbone is likely to play at some point in the final three weeks of the season.

“He’s bigger than I thought he was,” Boudreau said. “I‘m anxious to see him play.”

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