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Canadiens Postgame

Habs Highlights: Lane Hutson Powers Habs To Another Win

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8 months ago

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montreal canadiens lane hutson

The Montreal Canadiens were back at home on Monday, facing the Vancouver Canucks in a classic Canadian match-up.

The Habs were coming off their best stretch of the season, while the Canucks were faltering, with just three wins in their last 10 games, but as we all know, any team can win on any night, which is what makes the NHL such an entertaining league.

Monday’s game was part of the Amazon Prime broadcast schedule, and if you’re yet to check out their feed, I strongly suggest giving it a chance. Even though my feed was perfect, some noted they had audio issues at the start of this game, but overall, Amazon does a great job producing an innovative and highly entertaining broadcast.

The feed is crystal clear, the analysis is solid, the features are top quality, and they provide new angles that are genuinely worth checking out.

For the record, I’m not sponsored by Amazon, but my direct messages are always open. Hint, hint.

Monday’s game featured several lead changes, but in the end the Habs took home a well-deserved 5-4 win. With the win in the books, the Canadiens are now tied for the last wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference.

Let’s dive into the highlights!

Strong Start

The Canadiens were particularly physical to start the game, with Kaiden Guhle setting the tone during his first shift. Montreal followed it up with a very nice play to score the opening goal of the game, courtesy of Juraj Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield. While I feel the criticism regarding Slafkovsky has been overblown, as is tradition in this market, it’s true he does have to do a better job when it comes to his play in both the offensive and defensive zone.

That being said, he has seven points in his last 10 games. Perhaps we could give the youngest player in the lineup a little rest when it comes to the dramatic criticism. Or maybe I’m just being a jerk, because like you, I know he can be better.

Either way, he was instrumental in the Canadiens’ first scoring play.

The Canucks took over at that point, earning a 3-1 lead by the midway point of the second period. I know many will point to the team’s decision to use Samuel Montembeault rather than rookie Jakub Dobes as a mistake, and given Montembeault did allow a couple of questionable goals (behind equally questionable defence), you can certainly make that argument.

That being said, we can’t forget this is just the beginning of the beginning of Dobes’ NHL career, as they say. There’s plenty of time to get Dobes starts.

As per usual since about mid-December, the Habs did not fade away after giving up the lead. Guhle scored his third goal of the year to cut the lead to just one in the second period. The fourth line did another great job creating chaos in the offensive zone, a recurring theme this season.

All Lines Rolling

Kirby Dach tied the game early in the first period, scoring his sixth goal of the season, a sure sign he’s starting to regain the confidence that powered his first encouraging season with the Habs. Like most of my ex-girlfriends have said, there’s nothing pretty here, but all the matters is that he found the back of the net.


Lane Hutson, who assisted on Dach’s goal, would go on to give the Habs a short-lived lead with his third goal of the year. Again, it wasn’t sexy, but that doesn’t matter. A terrible penalty by Caufield shortly thereafter gave the Canucks the perfect opportunity to tie the game, which Jake DeBrusk did via his 17th goal of the year.

It’s almost comical to suggest Hutson’s goal wasn’t that nice, because we all know he deserves many more points than he’s actually registered this year. His penchant for setting up teammates with perfect plays that don’t lead to goals is another one of those recurring themes, but it’s not as entertaining as the last.


Thanks to their strong play, the Habs held all the momentum heading into overtime, which forced the Canucks to take multiple penalties. Of course, only one was called, but the referees had options.

Once they were on the powerplay, team captain Nick Suzuki did what he does best, securing a win for his Canadiens. For the record, Hutson registered his third point on the play.

The Montreal Canadiens are off until Friday, when they’ll face the Capitals in Washington, with the puck drop scheduled for 7 pm ET. All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.

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