ST. PAUL, Minn. — There are two things Brock Faber didn’t know about Quinn Hughes until he started playing with him.

“One, just how good he is,” Faber said of his defence partner on the Minnesota Wild. “Like, you don't even realize how good he is until you play with him, and then you realize how much he actually changes the dynamic of a team, how much he takes control of the game every single night. 

“And then, just how competitive he is. He wants the puck on his stick at all times. He wants to be the difference maker. He wants to compete, wants to win. He goes 110 per cent every single time he steps on the ice, which is ... it’s awesome. His inner drive and will to win and be better every single day is something like I've never seen.”

From the time Hughes arrived in the National Hockey League in 2019 and raced Cale Makar for the Calder Trophy, starting a rivalry that we hope will last another decade, his world-class skating and passing skills were obvious.

But Hughes’ competitiveness, that drive Faber had never seen, is what has always been harder to gauge.

Hughes is too small to hit anyone, rarely gets drawn into scrums, sees ghosts from the bench as he stares straight ahead, emotionless, between shifts, and smiles about as often as Darth Vader or Connor McDavid.

Sometimes you have to wait for the gold-medal game at the Olympics or the Wild’s Game 6 closeout-win against the Dallas Stars last series for an overt measure of Hughes’ competitiveness. Or maybe Minnesota’s must-win home game Saturday against Makar and the Colorado Avalanche, who lead this second-round Stanley Cup series 2-0 and stapled Hughes a couple of times during their 5-2 win Tuesday in Denver.

“I feel like we have a really good team here, so ... it'd be tough if we didn't play the way we want to play and lose,” Hughes said Friday about the Wild’s playoff run. “You’d be like, ‘Damn, that was a good team and we could have done something.’ You know, if we lose to Colorado and we play great, it is what it is and you tip your cap. I think I can live with........

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