How Do We Manage Hughes's Ice Time So He Doesn't Burn Out?

[butters]

The first step to managing his time would be getting some coaching experience, if you don't have some already. Then, parlay that experience into a coaching position with the canucks. That second step might be difficult, especially since you won't have much time to get there if you want to impact Hushes' early career.

[BabychStache]

1 hour ago, Down by the River said:

Hughes is one of those rare guys that skates fast while looking like he isn't trying to get anywhere any time soon. Bure looked like he was sprinting on ice. He was a beautiful skater too, but it didn't look effortless. That will bode well for Hughes' longevity. I think January/February is when the team will have to begin thinking about load management. February has been historically rough on the Canucks and if they start getting hemmed into their own zone on a nightly basis I think that's when you start worrying about Hughes. When he is wheeling the way he has been to start the season, he can do that for days on end. 

Good analysis. Reminds me of Scott Neidermayer in his skating. 

[BrockBoester]

2 hours ago, NUCKER67 said:

Luckily he's only 20, and probably recovers quickly. Let that wild horse run I say

Agreed

[tas]

28 minutes ago, BabychStache said:

Good analysis. Reminds me of Scott Neidermayer in his skating. 

agreed. the kid is like 5'9" and looks like he could glide from one end of the ice to the other in about 3 strides. 

[Wanless]

2 hours ago, Dr. Crossbar said:

The competition got more intense but he did admit to not having enough energy later in the season.

 

https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/canucks-elias-pettersson-improving-conditioning-ahead-sophomore-year/

 

"Still, Pettersson freely admits he hit a wall before the end of the Canucks’ 82-game schedule. When it came time to craft his workout plan for this summer, it was built with that fall-off in mind.

 

'I feel like at the end of the season a lot of teams were making a push to make the playoffs, so definitely they were tougher games at the end of the season,' he said. 'And also for myself, I felt like I didn’t have 100 per cent energy coming into every game, so that’s been a big thing for me. That I have better conditioning, I have more strength and power in my legs, and just trying to get stronger and faster.'"

Reading the post of mine again I'm surprised you knew what I was saying!

 

I don't disagree he was gassed. With a change of competition also comes a change of energy demands

[LowerMainLander18]

Luckily we have options to deploy Huggy differently than EP40 last season.

EP40, playing 1st line minutes last season as a Centre was burnt out due to having to play against other team's shutdown lines. 

They all tried to play physical on him every given night..

 

I think Huggy will still have to fight through some physicality from opposing forecheckers as well..

But he is a defenceman in 2nd pair thus far. I think situation could be a little different. 

We have options to shelter his minutes so that his matchups are less challenging than what EP40 had to go through last season.

Both Edler and Myers have had experience logging heavy minutes. 

 

Still I certainly hope we utilize him as best as we can to collect as many wins as possible..

And towards the later half of the season, perhaps cut down his minutes and deploy him situationally, should fatigue becomes an issue. 

[coastal.view]

2 hours ago, Bo fan said:

I suspect Green and Bomber are monitoring closely - I'm sure they don't want this young star burning out.  The signs will be there if he is tired and doing to much. Like Petey they need to learn what a grinding ordeal 82 plus games can be. I think Quinn is smart enough to put the brakes on and say - hey I need a break. He's a smart kid.

speaking of bomber

man he must have done a lot of assistant coach training in the off season

cuz he sure has this defense core playing a couple levels above last season

so many thought he was a lousy coach last season

they must be so pleased about how he improved himself for this season

 

[Pickly]

19 minutes ago, coastal.view said:

speaking of bomber

man he must have done a lot of assistant coach training in the off season

cuz he sure has this defense core playing a couple levels above last season

so many thought he was a lousy coach last season

they must be so pleased about how he improved himself for this season

 

Helps when you don’t have pairings like Gudbranson/Hutton and Biega/Del Zotto. 

[captainhorvat]

Let the coaches deal with it.

[Hairy Kneel]

I'd rest him a bit when we can. November has 16 games, maybe a game off from a heavy team.

January is always dog days, when injuries seem to crop up.

I don't think our team has good forsight in this regard. We'll probably run him into the ground like Tanev.

Edited October 30, 2019 by Hairy Kneel

[Kanukfanatic]

5 hours ago, Fanuck said:

Did they have 6'4", 215lbs behemoths trying to take your head off and/or ram you through the boards on a nightly basis while he was cross country running? 

 

Probably not.  That means he will skate even faster all year!!!   

[coolboarder]

It is always my philosophy that any rookies entering in the league should get second game of the back to back games situations a break from playing in second game of back to back no matter how good he is.   Maybe giving him the back to back games at end of the season to give him a taste of what it's like in March/April.   First reason: most college players or European league doesn't play 82 games schedule.  If there's a 10-game set of back to back games, then his year would be 72 games, that's just the first year and it should be that way, giving his body time to recover from the increase of the games.  On his second year, the restriction of the rookie is lifted.    The purpose of the restriction is to build up his stamina for the future and to prevent sophomore slump that is so common for most players.    If any rookie is in a long playoff run, then I would give him a limited restriction for first half of the schedule for any back to back situations in order for his body to catch up with time in the dry training in the gym due to short off-season.   Then lift the restriction so that he can play a full set of back to back in the second half of the schedule.

[King Heffy]

Treat him the same as every other player.  If it becomes a problem, maybe a maintenance day is in order, but that's for the coaches to figure out. 

[Dr. Crossbar]

19 hours ago, 6of1_halfdozenofother said:

Of course, there are ways that coaches can "soft-land" the rookies into the wall that they should experience (instead of letting them crash into it with unbridled enthusiasm).  But I think that knowing where their wall is and working to push it out for future seasons is the key, and in the long run, will build their ability to tackle their problems professionally.

 

And yes, the potential for injury is a definite concern, but even at his young age, Quinn Hughes looks to be a wily old coyote (not to be confused with the cartoon who keeps getting outdone by the Road Runner), and so he seems to be able to skate his way out of most situations that might flatten less capable skaters.

I agree in principle with what you're saying - especially on a life to work level - but Green doesn't really know where his wall is this season in the long run. So to large degree, you can only keep testing to see where that wall is game to game, week to week. 

 

I'm a bit surprised by how many people think Hughes's skating and skill will organically prevent him from injury or just overall fatigue/wear/tear with so many minutes. What I'm curious about is whether the 82 game-load will increase his conditioning in real time as the season unfolds enough to sustain the long haul.

 

I'm not 100% convinced his skating will be enough to sustain him. I think there needs to be conditioning element first that leverages his ability. 

[Dr. Crossbar]

14 hours ago, coolboarder said:

It is always my philosophy that any rookies entering in the league should get second game of the back to back games situations a break from playing in second game of back to back no matter how good he is.   Maybe giving him the back to back games at end of the season to give him a taste of what it's like in March/April.   First reason: most college players or European league doesn't play 82 games schedule.  If there's a 10-game set of back to back games, then his year would be 72 games, that's just the first year and it should be that way, giving his body time to recover from the increase of the games.  On his second year, the restriction of the rookie is lifted.    The purpose of the restriction is to build up his stamina for the future and to prevent sophomore slump that is so common for most players.    If any rookie is in a long playoff run, then I would give him a limited restriction for first half of the schedule for any back to back situations in order for his body to catch up with time in the dry training in the gym due to short off-season.   Then lift the restriction so that he can play a full set of back to back in the second half of the schedule.

I think it'll be easier to give him a game off on those back to backs if we can continue to build a cushion record wise with more wins. It's also important that we can win without him in the lineup for a game here and there. 

[Dr. Crossbar]

18 hours ago, Hairy Kneel said:

I'd rest him a bit when we can. November has 16 games, maybe a game off from a heavy team.

January is always dog days, when injuries seem to crop up.

I don't think our team has good forsight in this regard. We'll probably run him into the ground like Tanev.

I'd like to believe our team has good foresight in this regard but I'm really curious, because we do have foresight on our side after seeing Pettersson burn our last year. That's kind of why I created this thread. Even with foresight, will we actually run him into the ground? 

[Hairy Kneel]

25 minutes ago, Dr. Crossbar said:

I'd like to believe our team has good foresight in this regard but I'm really curious, because we do have foresight on our side after seeing Pettersson burn our last year. That's kind of why I created this thread. Even with foresight, will we actually run him into the ground? 

I think so. It's kind of our way. Play them ill they get hurt. And even after they get hurt. Tanev took some brutal hits early on in his career but I don't remember them giving him rest and recuperation time. Then lo' and behold who starts getting injured every year. 

I think there is foresight but the entertainment demand is too strong. I mean 16 games in Nov will show where we are with foresight, and Hughes game management. Nov is going to killer on all the players really, but the young guys are going to have to adapt to the pro level night in night out schedule. Good thing we have a deeper team this year.

[Dr. Crossbar]

1 hour ago, Hairy Kneel said:

I think so. It's kind of our way. Play them ill they get hurt. And even after they get hurt. Tanev took some brutal hits early on in his career but I don't remember them giving him rest and recuperation time. Then lo' and behold who starts getting injured every year. 

I think there is foresight but the entertainment demand is too strong. I mean 16 games in Nov will show where we are with foresight, and Hughes game management. Nov is going to killer on all the players really, but the young guys are going to have to adapt to the pro level night in night out schedule. Good thing we have a deeper team this year.

Well, I hope that doesn't happen. In some respect there are only so many options even with foresight. 

 

With the demand aspect, you're hitting on what I find most interesting. The question of whether his minutes can really be managed effectively or take games off given how the demands are so strong.

 

There's definitely demand from an entertainment standpoint but also from a need to win standpoint. Especially if we find ourselves clawing and fighting to stay above .500 or get on a roll where every game matters to get into the playoffs.

 

Pettersson was gassed last year but it was clear we relied and needed his offense to win. He had to play through fatigue. I don't think we're as reliant on Hughes in the same manner with everyone contributing on foward and D, not yet anyway, which makes foresight more of a viable option.

Edited October 30, 2019 by Dr. Crossbar
.

[Hairy Kneel]

4 minutes ago, Dr. Crossbar said:

Well, I hope that doesn't happen. In some respect there are only so many options even with foresight. 

 

With the demand aspect, you're hitting on what I find most interesting. The question of whether his minutes can really be managed effectively or take games off given how the demands are so strong.

 

There's definitely demand from an entertainment standpoint but also from a need to win standpoint. Especially if we find ourselves clawing and fighting to stay above .500 or get on a roll where every game matters to get into the playoffs.

 

Pettersson was gassed last year but it was clear we relied and needed his offense to win. He had to play through fatigue. I don't think we're as reliant on Hughes in the same manner with everyone contributing on foward and D, not yet anyway, which makes foresight more of a viable option.

I wonder if we have OJ or Rathbone that could spell off Hughes and still chip in on the PP?

[nuck-lifer]

 

Not against resting him on back to backs or when the coach decides, and have Fantenberg step up or whoever our spare is while we're relatively healthy.

The philosophy worked for the Raptors with Kawhi Leonard for different reasons and the NHL should adopt this as well.

Money plays such a big part of it by showcasing our stars to bums in the seats or fighting for a playoff birth,  but if our stars are not performing or getting hurt because they're exhausted that concept fails.

 

Benn and Stecher are a solid pairing as well and while we're healthy their minutes should be bumped.