Canadiens: There’s Something About Hutson

The Montreal Canadiens may have lost their duel with the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night, but at least one player delivered another fantastic performance: Lane Hutson. Facing his brother for the first time at any level, the oldest Hutson flew on the ice and finished with a goal and an assist. That was the second straight game the blueliner found the back of the net, a feat he'd achieved only once before in his career, on January 4 and 6 earlier this year.

In Tuesday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, Hutson led the team with a goal and two assists. While the Canadiens are struggling with injuries to regular players, Ivan Demidov, Oliver Kapanen, Samuel Montembeault, Mike Matheson, and even Florian Xhekaj, Hutson remains a rock for this team. He’s as solid and as competitive as ever.

Canadiens Drop Two Points In Washington
Canadiens’ Anderson Doesn’t Want To Go Anywhere
Canadiens Get Two Points By The Skin Of Their Teeth

In seven games this season, he has taken 16 shots on net. Projected on 84 games, that would give him 192 shots in the season. His highest total in a full season so far is 124. While he doesn’t have an incredibly hard shot, it can still find the net, as his last two games show. Kent Hughes's acquisition of Chris Kreider might explain why the youngster is taking more shots; Kreider is a net-front presence who has mastered the art of deflection. Even if Kreider doesn’t tip his shot, his mobility and ability to dance on the ice can surprise a goalie. His goal against Washington wasn’t a hard shot, but the way he set it up was remarkable.

In Wednesday's game, the errant pass he sent to Juraj Slafkovsky on the power play led to a shorthanded goal for the Capitals, but that was a rare costly blunder by Hutson; generally, when me makes a mistake, he finds a way to fix it himself by backchecking as if Cujo chased him.

The NHL published an interesting stat earlier this week: the highest career plus-minus on the road for a player’s first 100 games away from home ice. Bill Nyrup comes on top with plus-59, Larry Robinson follows suit at plus-51, and Lane Hutson comes in third place with plus-50 in 85 games (now 86 as he broke even against the Caps. That means he has 14 more games to pad that total, which he no doubt will.

On Tuesday night, as the players met the media at vertiginous speed before heading straight to Washington after the win over Buffalo, Lane Hutson held court for a while, and when he was done, he didn’t bolt for the exit like the other players. He saw a member of the communications team with the stats sheet and asked for a copy. On a night when he had three points, the rearguard still wanted to take a closer look at what had happened on the ice. That’s Hutson down to a T, a student of the game who craves more hockey and more opportunities to improve.

Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.

Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens' page for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens.

Join the discussion by signing up to the Canadiens' roundtable on The Hockey News.