Canadiens rookie Lane Hutson continues to prove he is mature beyond his years


MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens played their 42nd game of the season Saturday night, and rookie defenceman Lane Hutson has played all of them.

Last season, Hutson played 38 games with Boston University, seven games with Team USA while winning a gold medal at the World Junior Championship, and another two games with the Canadiens at the end of the regular season for a total of 47 games played.

Hutson, barring injury, still has 40 games ahead of him this season, at least. And if he keeps playing the way he did in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Dallas Stars, or the way he played Friday night in a 3-2 overtime win on the road against the Washington Capitals, or the way he’s been playing for the better part of six weeks, if not more, then Hutson might very well have more games to play this spring.

The Canadiens’ successful run that has put them firmly in the playoff conversation is not solely based on Hutson’s play, far from it. But Hutson’s growth through this run that has seen the Canadiens put together a 16-9-2 record over their last 27 games — a .630 points percentage — has been so gradually steady that it seems imperceptible. As the team’s play has grown, so has Hutson’s. As the team has matured, so has Hutson.

And it was most evident in the third period Saturday against the Stars, a veteran, hardened team that knows how to win tight-checking, playoff-style hockey games.

Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis, who is a little less than a month shy of his third anniversary as an NHL head coach, has hammered home the message that his team can’t have “actions that help the other team.” It is his mantra, and it is something the Canadiens players have bought into.

Stars coach Pete DeBoer, who is five months shy of his 17th anniversary as an NHL head coach, explained before the game what had allowed his team to enter this game riding a six-game winning streak, one they extended to seven games a few hours later. He said it was “not beating ourselves,” a different way of saying the same thing St. Louis has been hammering home for months.

It means managing the puck, not turning it over, not activating the other team’s offence, playing a mature game. But sometimes when dealing with the most skilled hockey players in the world, that’s a tough sell. It can be difficult for a young coach like St. Louis, as we’ve seen this season, but it can also be difficult for a veteran coach like DeBoer.

“That’s always the million dollar question, especially with young players coming up who have been used to using that skill, have had more time and space at lower levels,” DeBoer said Saturday morning. “But also with veteran guys who maybe haven’t won before, we have to remind them.”

Unwittingly, DeBoer basically described the Canadiens: Full of young players who had more time and space at lower levels and veterans who haven’t won before; aside from David Savard and Alex Newhook, the only two Canadiens with a Stanley Cup ring.

But the one young player on the Canadiens who took the most advantage of that time and space at lower levels and has had to learn how to rein that in the most because of how much skill he has is undoubtedly Hutson.

The Canadiens and Stars were tied 1-1 heading into the third period Saturday. The Canadiens had plane trouble the previous night in Washington, meaning they didn’t get to bed until about 3 a.m., at the earliest. This was the 13th consecutive game the Canadiens have played that required travel. The Stars had been sleeping in Montreal since Thursday night. They are one of the best teams in the NHL.

Everything was aligned for that third period to be a disaster, for the Stars to take advantage of all the advantages they had to win the game in regulation. But the Canadiens didn’t let them do that.

And of the 20 minutes that needed to be navigated in that third period, Hutson played 8:14 of them, including 2:44 of the final 4:51 of regulation time.

And the Canadiens got a point out of it.

As normal as Hutson has made this seem, it is not normal. He is a rookie defenceman, one with offensive gifts that are special, but also one who has learned when to use those offensive gifts and when not to use them. Or in other words, how to properly calculate risk versus reward.

“I think everyone does in those types of games,” Hutson said of that calculation. “But for me, if there’s a play to be made, I’m going to try to make it. If there’s not, I’m going to play the game that’s being played. And the game that was being played was limited mistakes from them, and we were trying to limit ours, too.”

The level of trust St. Louis has in Hutson’s ability to properly make that calculation is what stands out, because Hutson is widely seen as a player defined by risk, a player who can’t defend, but he has already learned that the NHL game is not always one that is decided by skill. It is often, as was the case Saturday, defined by maturity.

And Hutson has proven he has that maturity even if he hasn’t yet played 50 NHL games.

“The players are playing for what’s best for the team, not what’s best for themselves. And I think when you have that buy in, if you’re not bought in, you’re going to stick out like a sore thumb,” St. Louis said. “So I think Lane is finding that balance and understands where we are in the game, what’s the score. Because I know if we’re down, you’re going to see him more offensively, trying to get the goal.

“He’s a smart player, and he realizes what we’re trying to do at that time.”

From the moment Hutson arrived in Montreal for summer skates, his Canadiens teammates have been nothing but impressed with what he can do with the puck on his stick. And perhaps no one had a greater appreciation of that than Kaiden Guhle.

This is what makes Guhle’s assessment of Hutson’s game halfway through his rookie season that much more meaningful. Hutson is not only flash and dash, he is not only head and shoulder fakes. There is substance to his game, a maturity that goes far beyond his years that is impossible to appreciate simply by watching highlights and looking at numbers.

“For him, the biggest thing I think is he’s so used to being able to go end to end all the time and basically dance every single guy on the ice,” Guhle said. “He still does that, he still can do that, but it’s the NHL and guys adapt quick, teams watch video, teams have seen what he can do now. So I think what he’s gotten so much better at is just picking his spots, figuring out when he can dance and when he can razzle-dazzle. It’s been huge for him … and he’s found a really good balance to that, helping us help him.

“It’s been fun to watch. It’s been a lot of fun to watch.”

It’s also been largely taken for granted.

What Hutson is doing is not normal. Over the Canadiens’ last 12 games, they have scored 29 goals and allowed 21 at five-on-five in piling up a 9-2-1 record. Hutson has been on the ice for 13 of those goals scored and only six of those goals against. The Canadiens have had 291 shots on goal at five-on-five and 244 against over that span, and Hutson has been on the ice for 130 of those shots on goal and 83 against, meaning with him off the ice, the Canadiens are even at 161 shots on goal for and against.

He is a difference-maker for the Canadiens in so many ways. Though Hutson is still a rookie, he is nowhere close to being the same rookie we saw at the beginning of the season. And while most rookies hit a wall at this time of year, Hutson appears to only be getting better.

This game was perhaps the best example of it. It required a mature third period to get to overtime, to get that point in the standings the Canadiens had a long list of reasons not to get, from the schedule to plane trouble to simply facing a seasoned, quality team.

And Hutson did not stick out like a sore thumb in that environment. He fit right in.

(Photo of Lane Hutson: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)





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