Twelve players took part in the Canadiens’ optional morning skate Tuesday at the Bell Centre.
Not surprisingly, Lane Hutson was one of them.
Hutson has a passion for hockey that shines through both on and off the ice. After spending the last two seasons at Boston University — playing less than 40 regular-season games each year with the shorter NCAA schedule — one of the things Hutson loves most about being an NHL rookie is “more hockey.”
“For me it’s a dream come true to have it every day and I’m definitely not taking it for granted,” Hutson said.
Martin St. Louis had the same passion for hockey as a young boy, as a Hall of Fame player in the NHL, and now as head coach of the Canadiens.
“Some people, it’s a lifestyle, it’s an everyday thing,” St. Louis said. “Sometimes you got to be careful because it can consume you as well. But if you want to accomplish great things in any sport, you better be passionate about it.
“It’s something that you can’t teach,” St. Louis added. “You can’t teach somebody to be passionate. As a coach, you can kill their passion by how you handle them.”
St. Louis is fully aware of that when it comes to coaching Hutson and has given the rookie defenceman a very long leash.
It has paid off with Hutson ranking third in scoring among NHL rookies with 1-19-20 totals in 30 games before facing the Buffalo Sabres Tuesday night at the Bell Centre. The only two rookies with more points are both forwards: Philadelphia’s Matvei Michkov (11-16-27) and San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini (10-10-20).
Hutson is the most fun player Canadiens fans have had to watch in a very long time and he finally scored his first NHL goal in Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Jets in Winnipeg.
“I was just hoping it would happen and it did,” Hutson said. “You have a feeling that it could happen whenever. I’ve had some good chances … hit some posts.”
The celebration on the Canadiens bench after Hutson’s goal — including St. Louis’s reaction — spoke volumes about how much Hutson is loved by his teammates. He’s just a really likable kid with a ton of talent.
It wasn’t a surprise that both Mike Matheson and Cole Caufield rushed to the Winnipeg net to retrieve the puck from Hutson’s first goal, with Matheson getting there first.
Matheson and Hutson are now partners on the Canadiens’ top defence pairing and the veteran really enjoys playing with the rookie.
“I think both of us just love hockey,” Matheson said. “We get along well off the ice in that sense of just being able to kind of geek out over it and I think our games complement each other really well. We both like to have the puck and possess it and when we get into the offensive zone I feel like we’re reading off each other pretty well. I feel like we’re doing a good job of not kind of selling the farm either and being all offence and being a liability. I think we’ve been balancing that well.”
The feeling is mutual.
“It’s so nice just watching him skate sometimes,” Hutson said about Matheson. “He gets out of tight spaces. The way he defends, he’s so good, smooth. He’s always communicating with me, telling me where to go, even mid-shift. He makes it pretty easy on me. He’s such a talented player and he’s got a heavy shot, too, so it’s nice getting him pucks and letting him shoot.”
One of the big questions coming into this season concerning Hutson was whether he’d be able to compete defensively in the NHL at 5-foot-9 and 162 pounds. The answer is he can.
Some might want to focus on Hutson’s minus-14 rating heading into Tuesday’s game, but he’s a 20-year-old defenceman averaging 22:48 of ice time per game — by far the most of any NHL rookie — often against the opposition’s No. 1 line on a team that is near the bottom of the overall NHL standings. St. Louis said Hutson’s compete level defensively is something that has really impressed him.
The experience Hutson is getting this season will only help him moving forward in what looks like a very promising future. He’s also working on improving his shot, which would help him score more goals.
“It’s important to have,” Hutson said. “You need to be a shooting threat.”
Has Hutson been surprised by his success so far as a rookie?
“I mean, you never really know what to expect,” he said. “It’s such a hard league and there’s so many great players. But I think it starts with the guys here (in the locker room). They’ve helped me so much kind of adjust. There’s so much more that I want to build on and learn. Just trying to be a better player a week from now, two weeks from now. A different player a month from now.
“For me, it’s everything I ever wanted here and it helps with all these guys.”