Defenceman Mike Matheson suffered an upper-body injury in the first period of a 4-1 Montreal Canadiens loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night at the Bell Centre.
It was unclear when exactly Matheson got hurt, but he didn’t return for the second period and after some radio silence from the club, they announced his night was over.
In his place, Lane Hutson played a career-high 30:05. That’s the most any defenceman has played in regulation so far this season.
Another Habs rearguard, David Savard, hit a career milestone: 800 games played. He celebrated in the most appropriate way possible, with two big blocks that will likely leave bruises.
Montreal jumped out to an early lead at 7:02 when Justin Barron, promoted to the top pairing before Matheson went down, scored on a wraparound for just the second goal by a Habs defenceman this season. Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield had the assists.
The Kings responded with four unanswered goals, and the three allowed by goalie Sam Montembeault all went down in about the same way: point shots with traffic in front. Mikey Anderson tied the game up 1-1 just before the end of the first period.
In the second period, Alex Laferriere deflected a Jordan Spence point shot to give Los Angeles their first lead of the night.
With time winding down in the third period, Andreas Englund picked an opportune time to score the second goal of his career. This time, it was Montembeault’s own teammates who served as the screen.
Adrian Kempe iced the game with a shorthanded empty netter to make it 4-1.
You wouldn’t have known it based on performance, but the Canadiens were well rested and playing at home, while the Kings were playing back-to-back games on the road. The Habs have now lost two straight at the Bell Centre.
Hutson responded to the increased role in unexpected ways: the power play went 0-5 with the rookie defenceman as the primary point man, but he showed off his physical edge taking down big Kempe with a hip check. Later on, he held his own against the Swedish forward jostling for position in front of Montembeault.
The lone goal scorer hit the top of Hockey Stat Cards’ impact card.
That’s two straight stinkers for the Canadiens, and the liveblog commenters are starting to wonder if this year’s club is not all that much different from last year’s. Besides Caufield, they haven’t seen enough offence from the top two lines. Kirby Dach has one assist in five games as he looks to shake off the rust from his long layoff, could some new linemates help?
3. “Just gave up too many high-danger scoring chances. Real problems covering guys in their own end. At times it just seems too easy for the opponents. I know I keep harping on it, but this team needs a solid RD. I know they are extremely hard to come by and I’m sure Hugo is looking.” — Doug Kirkby
2. “6 on 4 and we can’t control. This game had better be a wake up call for management. Kings, 2nd game in 2 nights on the tail end of an 2 week road trip, and we got out worked, and outplayed. Tell me there is some improvement this year. Don’t see it.” — Derek Stevens
1. “If I was MSL, I would immediately move #20 to the second line and consider another option for line #1. Firstly, Dach and Slaf have a chemistry that is not working for Dach with Newhook and Armia. Secondly, Dach has no wheels and neither does Armia so your 2nd line is too slow. Finally, #20 is not playing hard enough to warrant 1st line and needs a message.” — Simon Berdugo