If the Montreal Canadiens defeat against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday revealed one thing, it’s the fact the Habs have not lost their enthusiasm, even though they’ve had more than their fair share of lopsided losses.
In the first period of Saturday’s game, rookie blueliner Lane Hutson finally scored his first goal of the season after putting up 19 points in the first 29 games of the year. While the defenseman was understandably happy, his teammates looked absolutely overjoyed.
Related: Canadiens’ Hutson’s Fantastic Start
Mike Matheson and Cole Caufield both hurried up toward Connor Hellebuyck’s net to collect the puck, just that speaks volume, but the reaction on the bench was one of pure elation as TVA Sports’ cameras captured:
Martin St-Louis’ reaction looked like a roar of approval as you can see in this screen capture:
If it took the rookie rearguard some time to get his first career goal, the same cannot be said about his first NHL point which he got in his very first game last April. With Saturday night’s goal, Hutson reached the 20-point plateau and consolidated his third place in team scoring, behind leading scorer Nick Suzuki who’s on a point-per-game pace with 30 points in as many games and sniper Cole Caufield who’s not far behind with 17 goals and 10 assists. The diminutive winger is now tied in seventh place in the league for goal scoring as Leon Draisaitl has turned on the Jets lately and leads the league with 22.
As for rookie scoring, Hutson is now in second place tied with Macklin Celibrini while Matvei Michkov leads the way with 30 points. Amongst rookie defensemen, the Canadiens’ rookie leads the league 15 points ahead of his nearest competition, a trio of blueliners who all have five points; Jack Thompson with the San Jose Sharks, Victor Mancini with the New York Rangers and Emil Andrae with the Philadelphia Flyers.
League wide, Hutson is 18th in scoring amongst all defensemen. Unsurprisingly, the Colorado Avalanche’s Cale Makar is leading the pack with 37 points in 32 games, closely followed by Vancouver Canucks’ Quinn Hughes who has 34 points in 29 contests. The latter leads in the point-per-game category with 1.17 just ahead of the former who’s on 1.16. It promises to be a tightly contested race all season.
Related: Canadiens: It’s His Record Now
Of course Hutson still hasn’t reach that kind of productivity level yet, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he could one day. Hutson is currently on a 55 point-pace for an 82-game season. In his rookie season, Hughes put up 53 points (but he did it in 68 games), as for Makar he put up 50 points in 57 contest in his first year.
Norris Trophy winner in 2020-21 Adam Fox put up 42 points in 70 games in his rookie season, a mark Hutson is well on his way to exceed. If his Canadiens’ teammates had a better conversion rate, his point total could be much higher, still, now being on the first power play unit should even help him pick up the pace. No matter what happens in the standings, it will be a treat for Canadiens fans to follow Hutson’s progress this season.
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