Canadiens’ Hutson displays winning attitude after opening-night loss

TORONTO — A terrible break was the difference. Literally.

Just don’t try telling Lane Hutson that.

“It’s on me,” he said after Morgan Rielly finished a flukey sequence that gave the Toronto Maple Leafs a 3-2 lead they never relinquished in the opening game of the season against Hutson’s Montreal Canadiens, and it spoke volumes of his character.

The Canadiens have a lot of it, too. They’ve matured enough to understand how much every single play in a game matters, and they were disappointed they didn’t execute enough of them to win. 

Hutson felt he made the costliest play on the deciding goal of this game. We didn’t feel he did, but if he thought his choice of route was the wrong one to defend the play that developed before Rielly deposited the winning goal, who are we to argue? We certainly won’t criticize Hutson for holding himself to an incredibly high standard, either, because it’s going to take him and his teammates doing that to live up to their own expectations this season.

They played a good game, despite the final score. They were the better team in all situations, according to the underlying numbers.

But if they were good enough to win, they probably would’ve. 

And if Hutson felt he was good enough, he probably wouldn’t have blamed himself for the outcome.

Again, it slipped away from him and the Canadiens on a terrible break.

Rielly’s game-winning goal, scored in the 10^th minute of the third period, came after Mike Matheson’s stick exploded. All Matheson was trying to do was recycle a slow-moving puck from the offensive blue line down to the goal line, and when he leaned on his stick, it shattered in his hands and gave the Leafs the chance they were looking for. 

More than $400 worth of carbon composite was wasted in a split second, and the cost was much more than that for the Canadiens seconds later, when Rielly completed the chaotic rush.

“That just flat-out sucks,” said Matheson.

There wasn’t much he could do about it.

Hutson got caught between Mattias Maccelli and Matthew Knies, who were in full flight with no Canadiens opposition in front of them. He made a quick cut towards Maccelli to try to interfere with a breakaway pass to Knies and, in the process, got his stick caught up in Matheson’s equipment and dropped it. 

That left both Hutson and Matheson chasing the play without sticks to break it up.

Cole Caufield then understandably overcommitted to Knies on the backcheck because he thought the other two Canadiens ahead of him were at a disadvantage to defend him, and Rielly took advantage of the gap between himself and Juraj Slafkovsky to bury the puck from the slot.

It was a bad break with bad consequences, but Hutson put it on himself.

“S—– play by me,” he said, because he expects to make good ones no matter the circumstances.

You have to admire that because it’s the type of standard winners set for themselves. And Hutson’s accountability is the type that drives a winning culture.

Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis knows.

“The group is disappointed right now for sure,” he said. “They know we played a solid game, and (Hutson) is right: every play matters. And you break a stick at that point in time, and Lane probably overextends one way, and you lose a stick because of it; it’s unfortunate. But the will, the desire was there, and we’ll get back to work tomorrow.”

Perhaps the execution will be sharper for the Canadiens against the Red Wings in Detroit on Thursday. 

It was there for some of them against the Leafs — Oliver Kapanen scored his first NHL goal on a heady play on the penalty kill before Zac Bolduc potted his first as a Canadien, and Noah Dobson was sharp all over the ice from the top defence pair next to Matheson — but not quite where it needed to be on the whole to pull the Canadiens away from the Leafs. 

They were down after one minute, up 2-1 after 22, and they were threatening to take the lead right before Matheson’s stick fell apart. 

Hutson had the best chance to give it to them, busting into the slot before faking a shot and then unleashing one that just missed the far side of the net.

He was probably just as mad about that as he was the rest of the sequence.

“I guess it’s in the past now,” Hutson said. “Move on.”

He’s doing it with the right attitude to help push the Canadiens into the win column in Detroit.

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