Lane Hutson said Monday he is good to go for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes at Bell Centre, a terse answer that follows a game-changing moment in overtime two nights earlier.
The moment came at 2:17 of overtime in Game 2 on Saturday when Hurricanes forward Taylor Hall delivered a hard hit that sent Hutson into the boards. Hutson got to his feet, cleared the puck out of the zone and made it to the bench, but he did not take another shift; Carolina forward Nikolaj Ehlers scored the winner at 3:29.
After taking part in the morning skate Monday, Hutson kept the tone low and pragmatic: "Hockey happens, that's all," he said. He acknowledged the hit stung and tempered criticism with acceptance. "I was a little mad about the hit, (but) whatever," he said. "It definitely doesn't feel great, but it is what it is."
Hutson pushed back only slightly on the mechanics of the play: "I feel like he could have done a better job of, you know, leading more with his shoulder, but whatever." He also declined to make anything of Hall's intent, saying, "I mean, the game happened so fast, and I'm not like saying he intended to do anything crazy or anything. I mean, I put myself in a bad spot, and you take advantage."
The stakes behind Hutson's decision to play are clear. He ranks second on the Canadiens during the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 14 points — two goals and 12 assists — but has been held without a point by Carolina through the first two games of the conference final. The Hurricanes have leaned on a physical approach: they lead the remaining four playoff teams with 34.91 hits per 60 minutes during the postseason and that rate has risen to 43.73 during the conference final.
Carolina piled up 90 hits through the first two games of the series, 56 more than Montreal managed, and individual Hurricanes have been plentiful. Jordan Staal led the team with 18 hits through two games and Andrei Svechnikov had 11. Hutson has been on the receiving end of that pace — he has been hit 12 times through the first two games, the same number as teammate Noah Dobson, the most on Montreal's roster.
Opponents and teammates alike have acknowledged the Canadiens try to get Hutson going and the Hurricanes' plan to slow him. Logan Stankoven said of Hutson: "Lots of skill there, very elusive and just sees the ice so well," and added, "I think you want to try and finish our checks clean on him and just try to get a piece of him because he's always hopping up into the play, and a he's a play driver for them and wants to make things happen when he’s on the ice. So obviously, we are always making ourselves aware of when he's out there and trying to do our best to shut him down."
Teammate Cole Caufield echoed the expectation opponents have for No. 48: "I think whenever you play the Canadiens, No. 48 is the guy that you circle, you watch out for," he said. "Obviously he has the puck a lot, so he's going to get hit every once in a while. But he's a guy that we want with the puck and he finds a lot of ways to make different plays."
The tension going into Monday's 8 p.m. ET puck drop is simple and consequential: Hutson says he will play, and he still drives Montreal's attack, but Carolina has turned physicality into an escalator. The single question now is whether the Canadiens can keep Hutson on the ice and effective against a Hurricanes lineup that has made taking liberties with him a defined part of its game plan — and whether that will be the hinge that decides Game 3 at Bell Centre.
