Boston Sunday Globe

Hughes brothers sharing the ice

- Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.

Tuesday night in Vancouver, all three Hughes brothers — Quinn

Hughes with the Canucks, and Jack and Luke Hughes with the Devils — suited up in the same game for the first time in their NHL careers. They finished a collective 2-4–6.

Quinn (0-2–2) and Jack (1-2–3) had faced one another in NHL play. Luke (1-0–1) was the newcomer, having joined the Devils backline corps last spring after two years at Michigan. All three were first-round picks.

The Hugheses thus became the ninth family in league history to have at least three brothers suited up in the same game, making them this season’s winners of the unofficial, coveted, and highly suspect Stastny, Stastny, and Stastny Trophy. Other than the Quinns and Stastnys (Peter, Anton, and Marian), whose names appeared together in a league-high 251 game sheets, the families also to ice at least three brothers in the same game:

■ Plager (Barclay, Bill, Bob), 135 games

■R Sutter (Brent, Brian, Darryl,

Duane, Rich, Ron), 95 games*

■ Staal (Eric, Jared, Jordan, Marc), 19 games**

■ Cook (Bill, Bud, Bun), eight games

■ Boucher (Billy, Bobby, Buck, Frank), nine games***

■ Bentley (Doug, Max, Reg), eight games

■ Broten (Neal, Aaron, Paul), two games

* — No more than four Sutters ever played in the same game. The total of 95 represents games in which at least three played.

** — No more than three Staals ever played in the same game.

*** — No more than three Bouchers ever played in the same game.

Goaltendin­g is a big job

The NHL staged 13 games last Saturday, including Boston at Toronto, which pitted 6-4 Linus Ullmark in the Bruins net vs. 6-3 Joe Woll for the

Leafs.

There is no height requiremen­t, or restrictio­n, related to being an NHL goalie. But the growing reality, shall we say, is that it’s no country for short men. If your growth rings maxed out at 6 feet or you’re standing tippy-toe to get to 72 inches, then learning to master the knucklebal­l could be a better path to big-time pro sports.

Consider: Of the 26 goalies who started on Saturday, a field that ranged from 6-1 Igor Shesterkin (Ranger) to a trio of 6-6ers, including Jake Oettinger (Stars), Anthony Stolarz (Panthers), and Jacob Markstrom (Flames), 18 measured a minimum 6-3. All that, keep in mind, before propping up on their big-boy skates.

Shesterkin and seven others, all 6-2, comprised the short list of short fellas.

“They got little baby legs,” Randy Newman once said, though not necessaril­y with height-challenged puck stoppers on his mind, “and they stand so low, you got to pick ’em up just to say hello.”

In the desert, Coyotes are hot

Hold on, it looks like there’s legit signs of life in that dinky-rink operation in the Arizona desert.

The Coyotes, here at the Garden for Saturday’s matinee, last Monday welcomed the Capitals into their itsy-bitsy Mullet Arena (5,000 seats) and pinned a 6-0 defeat on Ovechkin & Sons.

The win, their fifth in a row with Connor Ingram in net, meant the Coyotes clicked off consecutiv­e wins against the last five Cup champions, the Golden Knights (2-0), Lightning (3-1), Avalanche (4-3), Blues (4-1), and Capitals.

Prior to puck drop on Saturday, the Coyotes stood 13-10-2 and owned the No. 1 wild-card spot in the Western Conference, along with a plus-11 goal differenti­al, tied for ninth in the league. Yes, those Arizona Coyotes, with one trip to the playoffs since the spring of 2012.

Ingram, backup last season to Karel Vejmelka, has emerged as the No. 1, recording a blistering .968 save percentage in that five-game Cup champion beatdown. Once a Tampa Bay draft pick (No. 88 in 2016) out of WHL Kamloops, he ultimately made his NHL debut with Nashville, and was plucked off waivers a year ago in October by the Desert Dogs.

A back end reconfigur­ed by GM Bill Armstrong has been a huge help. Sean Durzi, acquired in trade over the summer from the Kings, has been a minutes monster on defense. Ditto for Matt Dumba, ex- of the Wild, who couldn’t find a rich, long-term suitor in the July UFA market and signed on for a year at $3.9 million. In those five wins, the Coyotes on average yielded five goals and a tick under 31 shots per game.

Now, if they only could build a rink big enough to hold an adult skate.

Sports are in their blood

Abigayle Poitras, younger sister of Bruins rookie Matt Poitras, has signed on as a blue liner with Merrimack College for next season.

“Part of her thinking,” said Matt, “was that I would be nearby, whether that’s Boston or Providence, right? It’ll be great having her around.”

Meanwhile, older brother Adam Poitras, a standout lacrosse player at Loyola Maryland, is headed to Las Vegas after tidying up graduate courses in the spring. He was chosen second overall by the Las Vegas Desert Dogs in the National Lacrosse League’s draft.

“He’s been thinking about med school options, too,” said Matt, “but he wants to give lacrosse a try.”

Matt shared his brother’s love for lacrosse, particular­ly the indoor game, but opted to give it up 5-6 years ago to focus on hockey.

“Great sport, lacrosse, and I miss it,” he said. “But two sports can be tough on the body.”

Loose pucks

Can’t let a mention of the Stastnys go (“Allez Nords!”) without a reminder that the Bruins will be back in Quebec City on Oct. 3 for a preseason matchup with the Kings, whose team president and ex-QMJHL star, Luc Robitaille, was among the lead voices in organizing it. The game will be played in the state-ofthe-art Videotron Centre and not the hallowed Colisee, where the Stastnys electrifie­d the old barn upon arriving from their middle-of-the-night escape from Czechoslov­akia at the start of the 1980s . . . Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo on defending John Tavares:

“Great player. Very good around the net front, and also has great vision to enable the guys around him to put the puck in the back of the net with tap-ins, always a challengin­g player to play against. Growing up, he was obviously on my radar to watch, you take a lot of pride to be able to play against guys like that during your time in the league. I try to approach it as a fun opportunit­y, a good challenge for myself, and [the Leafs] have plenty of those guys that create a good challenge for you.” . . . One-third of the way through the season and ironman Phil Kessel remains an unsigned UFA, despite continuing buzz that he is about to sign on somewhere. Detroit was high on the Kessel rumor list until Patrick Kane signed with the Red Wings . . . Alex Ovechkin

began the weekend with five goals, a pace that would land the Big Russian Machine short of 20 goals this season. His career low for a full season: 32.

Now 38 and approachin­g 1,400 games, No. 8’s game is looking as gray as his salty beard. He opened the season needing 73 goals to pass Wayne Gretzky’s all-time mark of 894 . . . The NHL has decided to send its draft gathering out with a bang, and will hold its giant hockey hoedown one last time in June (28-29) at the Las Vegas Sphere, the mesmerizin­g entertainm­ent center brought to life by MSG’s James Dolan.

Post-2024, the draft will continue each year, but with personnel of each of the Original 32 clubs headquarte­red in their individual control hubs. Technology makes it all possible, ergo, the human factor of vulcanized communion will be gone for good . . . In the spirit of the Bruins’ 100-year celebratio­n, how about a night on Causeway Street this season that takes us all back a century, when the action in the building (then the Boston Arena) was first and foremost about hockey. Just for one night, kill the music and the flashing lights and the constant in-arena cacophony that leaves patrons headed home with mass-onset tinnitus. Dim the lights at intermissi­on, leave the organ music to Ron Poster, and let the crowd of some 18,000 to talk amongst themselves. Sure, crazy, but it worked OK for decades before noise and action became instrument­s of in-arena addiction.

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