On the box score, the Montreal Canadiens first goal on Thursday night against the Boston Bruins will show Brendan Gallagher from Joel Armia and Lane Hutson. The second goal will show Cole Caufield from Kaiden Guhle and Hutson.
On the surface, two secondary assists. In reality? I’m not sure either goal happens without Hutson.
The first goal is started by a Hutson zone entry, but watch the puck skills he uses to give himself space. There’s the stop and start to get around Trent Frederic (#11). That was followed by the quick pass back to Gallagher into space. Gallagher gets the puck back to Hutson and three of the four Bruins on the ice (because it’s a Montreal power play) are transfixed on Hutson. He shows no panic. In fact, he already knew what he was going to do with the puck before he got it. He makes the quick, perfect cross ice feed to Joel Armia, who now has a two-on-one down low with Gallagher, and it’s already too late for Brandon Carlo to do anything to stop it.
There aren’t many other players that would have had the ability to draw the defenders in and make the perfect cross-ice pass quick enough.
The second goal wasn’t as flashy, but you can see a definite Hutson effect. If you were wondering why Cole Caufield was so open at the side of the net and had enough time to do everything he did before a defender stopped him, well, just look at this.
Right before Hutson (at the half wall) passed the puck to Guhle at the point, he had three defenders closing in on him and a fourth (the man supposed to be marking Caufield) looking in his direction and turning his back on his player.
Caufield is an expert in creating space for himself. It’s even easier when there’s one player essentially taking an even strength situation and turning it into a four-on-two.
It’s not even Hutson’s impact directly leading to goals that was impressive, it was even plays he made that didn’t lead to goals.
You can’t put multiple players on Hutson because, as the examples above showed, he can pass his way out of trouble. And if you put one guy on him, he can beat single coverage. I am fairly certain that he can’t actually see the future but he plays and makes decisions like he can.
For all the talk about whether what he does would work in the NHL, we can safely put those questions to bed. He now has four points in four NHL games, but it goes beyond that. His numbers against the Bruins – a good team on the road without last change – were absolutely incredible.
Hutson played 17:22 at even strength, only Kaiden Guhle (18:01) played more on the Canadiens. Hutson played 22:48 total, only Mike Matheson played more for Montreal. In those minutes, per Natural Stat Trick, the Canadiens outshot the Bruins 8-3, outscored the Bruins 2-0, and high danger scoring chances were 5-1 Montreal. This on a night where the Canadiens were outshot 28-21 at even strength, outscored 5-3, and tied in high danger chances 10-10. You can do the math to see how the Canadiens fared when Hutson was not on the ice.
And it’s not like Hutson did this against bottom six forwards and bottom pair defenders. He played 7:48 against Hampus Lindholm, 6:40 against Charlie McAvoy, 5:46 against David Pastrnak, 5:00 against Elias Lindholm, and 4:25 against Brad Marchand. In fact, no Habs defender played more at even strength against Pastrnak than Hutson. Despite this, when Hutson was on the ice at even strength, the Canadiens had 81.39% of expected goals, per Natural Stat Trick. The team as a whole was at 45.38%. Hutson also started more shifts in the defensive zone than any other Canadiens player at even strength.
The question surrounding Hutson was not only would his offence translate, but how would he fare without the puck. The answer is, quite well actually. He might not be the best defender, but the best defence is having the puck. RDS said on their broadcast that in both of the first two games, no player at the puck on his stick as much as Lane Hutson. Not Auston Matthews. Not Morgan Rielly. Not Pastrnak. Not McAvoy.
Whether you use the eye test or statistics, what Hutson is doing is serious must-watch stuff.
There will surely be setbacks as teams adjust to how to cover him, and he only needs one hand to count his NHL games, but the Lane Hutson show has started in earnest and teams will have to focus on him as much as any other Canadiens player in a long, long time.
