GDT Game #4 - Monday Oct. 14, 7:30 p.m. EST, Pittsburgh @ Montreal

[hab29RETIRED]

Yes!

[TurdBurglar]

Good to see Matheson and Guhle taking advantage of 2 lefties on defense, you'll always have a one-timer on that right side.

[IN THE HEARTS OF MEN]

Is Guhle Hutson our new top pair already?

[tomh009]

Just now, IN THE HEARTS OF MEN said:

Is Guhle Hutson our new top pair already?

Only thing I don't like about this is that Guhle would end up on the right rather than the left.

[Prime Minister Koivu]

Better second period than the first but Habs give up too many good chances. 
 

Caufield needs to score 

 

Hutson needs an assist 

 

Super happy that Slafkovsky scored. I think Friedman’s over under for goals on Slafkovsky was 35!

 

Go Slaf Go

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

Monty's been OK, but this game should settle down the "Carey Price" rhetoric, LOL. The good news is that we're tied despite our goalie not being superhuman. We needed a stronger second and we got one. Now we need to manage the game against a veteran squad that knows what it's doing in a close contest.

[dlbalr]

1 hour ago, tomh009 said:

Rogers only owns the Canadian rights. And, yes, as I understand it, Prime only has the Canadian rights (purchased from Rogers) to the Monday night national games.

 

Correct.  The Rogers Monday package generally required a Canadian team in each game so it only makes sense that Amazon would have the same.

 

Nice shot from Heineman on the 3-2 goal - the rest of his game is a work in progress but he has an NHL shot with good speed.  That's a workable foundation.

[BCHabnut]

I'm so happy everytime Lane Hutson gets the puck. He makes me happy.

[BCHabnut]

Tough game boys.

[Prime Minister Koivu]

Hutson laying the body on Karlsson in the Ozone 👍

 

Montembault made some crazy good saves and maybe one softy. The team left him out to dry. 
 

I don’t like the Dach line at all 

 

Matheson and Savard had some tough moments. 

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

9 minutes ago, Prime Minister Koivu said:

Hutson laying the body on Karlsson in the Ozone 👍

 

Montembault made some crazy good saves and maybe one softy. The team left him out to dry. 
 

I don’t like the Dach line at all 

 

Matheson and Savard had some tough moments. 

 

You have to think Matheson will come around. Savard is ancient, so permanent regression is possible in his case.

 

Dach worries me a bit. He just doesn't look like the guy we saw for two games (!) last season and about 1/3 of the year before that, IMHO. Confidence seems low. Of course, that's understandable when you've been out of commission for so long, but you don't want confidence issues to spiral with a young kid.

 

I thought it was an entertaining game, but, for me, this was one of those little tests: tied after the 2nd, could this group take care of business against a veteran squad? Sadly, no.

 

If we want to have tangible progression as a team this season, we need to start finding ways to win, rather than lose, games like this, against bubble teams.

[tomh009]

5 minutes ago, Prime Minister Koivu said:

I don’t like the Dach line at all

Somehow last year's Gallagher-Newhook-Armia worked much better than this year's Newhook-Dach-Armia. Definitely disappointing.

[Butterface]

Watched game on prime. 
 

We took it over after Armia’s penalty.

 

Then lost it when Eller tied it and Hayes got the go-ahead.

 

Hutson was good. If we could just help him help us. He did everything to get us to score. We had every chance to give him more assists, but failed.

 

Definitely Hutson was on for goals against. There will be ups and downs with him on the ice. Enjoyable to watch. At one point he slipped through two Penguins just inside the blue line and all I could say was “wow”.

 

We did not bury on any of his great plays. Sad.

 

Barron I thought had a great game. First time I’m saying I noticed Barron a lot in a game and saying nice things. So kudos to him.

 

Penguins are crap except for Malkin and Crosby…. We have to win against bad teams. At times we looked great. At times we look bad. 

Edited October 15, 2024 by Butterface

[Habs Fan in Edmonton]

Disappointed with the result but for the most part an entertaining game. 

 

I question Dach's decision making sometimes. It seems to me that he has been forcing a pass when he should be shooting and vice versa. I have noticed that the last couple games. His skating and puck handling seems fine. 

 

Best game I have seen Barron play, he has been more physical which he needs to do. Guhle playing with confidence and of course Hutson is magic. He makes the Habs so much more fun to watch. The Penguins seemed to get a few bounces and when did Eller learn to shoot like that?  Shut down the big guns but the others killed us. 

[Prime Minister Koivu]

6 hours ago, Butterface said:

 

Hutson was good. If we could just help him help us. He did everything to get us to score. We had every chance to give him more assists, but failed.

 

Definitely Hutson was on for goals against. There will be ups and downs with him on the ice. Enjoyable to watch. At one point he slipped through two Penguins just inside the blue line and all I could say was “wow”.

 

We did not bury on any of his great plays. Sad.

One thing that I’ve noticed is that Hutson enters the Ozone and draws most defenders with him. He dipsy-doodles down the left side, skating towards the back of the net and then feathers an amazing pass to his WIDE OPEN defence partner, David Savard…who shoots it wide. 
 

Hutson needs a better partner 

[Prime Minister Koivu]

This is an ugly stat card

 

 

[Prime Minister Koivu]

Very interesting comments about Hutson and the scouting report on how to counter him:
 

 

Francois Gagnon on RDS said that he spoke to Kris Letang about Lane Hutson after the game yesterday, to paraphrase: 

“He’s impressive, the way he skates, the way he’s in control on the ice. He’s a rookie but we had a scouting report on him. I heard the crowd every time he had the puck, it gave me goosebumps. But when the crowd reacts to everything you do, it can be dangerous, because then you can try to do too much…”

“The scouting report on Lane Hutson said to give him a little bit of time & space to make him feel over-confident to create something before collapsing on him & taking away all of his options…” 

“But disregard the -4 he had tonight. With the number of quality scoring chances he created, his teammates could’ve scored 1 or 2 or 3 goals. A game like tonight will be a learning lesson for him.”

[Habs Fan in Edmonton]

15 minutes ago, Prime Minister Koivu said:

Very interesting comments about Hutson and the scouting report on how to counter him:
 

 

Francois Gagnon on RDS said that he spoke to Kris Letang about Lane Hutson after the game yesterday, to paraphrase: 

“He’s impressive, the way he skates, the way he’s in control on the ice. He’s a rookie but we had a scouting report on him. I heard the crowd every time he had the puck, it gave me goosebumps. But when the crowd reacts to everything you do, it can be dangerous, because then you can try to do too much…”

“The scouting report on Lane Hutson said to give him a little bit of time & space to make him feel over-confident to create something before collapsing on him & taking away all of his options…” 

“But disregard the -4 he had tonight. With the number of quality scoring chances he created, his teammates could’ve scored 1 or 2 or 3 goals. A game like tonight will be a learning lesson for him.”

 

I think that's a pretty astute observation. The fact they had a scouting report on Hutson says something. He creates numerous chances every game. His defense will improve as he is smart enough to figure it out. 

[DON]

After a shotless start,  was entertaining game.

Barron, Heineman, Guhle had some nice plays.

Hutson is just fun.

10 Thoughts: Habs Abandon Structure in Ugly Loss – HabsWorld.net

Guhle-Hutson eh; Hutson had same amount icetime as Matheson. 

Suzuki-Crosby, Crosby had 0 shots at least.

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

1 hour ago, Prime Minister Koivu said:

Very interesting comments about Hutson and the scouting report on how to counter him:
 

 

Francois Gagnon on RDS said that he spoke to Kris Letang about Lane Hutson after the game yesterday, to paraphrase: 

“He’s impressive, the way he skates, the way he’s in control on the ice. He’s a rookie but we had a scouting report on him. I heard the crowd every time he had the puck, it gave me goosebumps. But when the crowd reacts to everything you do, it can be dangerous, because then you can try to do too much…”

“The scouting report on Lane Hutson said to give him a little bit of time & space to make him feel over-confident to create something before collapsing on him & taking away all of his options…” 

“But disregard the -4 he had tonight. With the number of quality scoring chances he created, his teammates could’ve scored 1 or 2 or 3 goals. A game like tonight will be a learning lesson for him.”

 

That is indeed very interesting. I didn’t see Hutson falling into the trap of ‘having too much room’ and losing his options. Frankly, this reminds me of reports that predicted Subban’s moves wouldn’t fool NHLers. They did, because he was simply too talented. I think the same applies here. They can try to take options away, squeeze him out in the O-zone, but it won’t work, because he’s too shifty and sees the ice too well.

 

Defensively, it’s another story. While I didn’t especially notice Hutson being owned in the defensive end, that -4 illustrates everything that people were saying about LH before the season: great tools offensively, likely to be overmatched defensively, at least as part of the learning process. 

 

I’m of two minds about the Hutson hype. On the one hand, I love to see a Habs rookie generating this kind of league-wide buzz. On the other, it feels like a bit of a trap to me. We are putting absolutely enormous expectations on a 20-year-old kid. The combination of insane expectations and insane adulation can get in the way of player development. At least we have a strong management/coaching group and he seems to be well-surrounded with guys like CC and Suzuki, who have been through it, as well as older mentors like Savard. Still. Maybe the hype machine could stand to dial down just a notch. 

[Prime Minister Koivu]

11 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

That is indeed very interesting. I didn’t see Hutson falling into the trap of ‘having too much room’ and losing his options. Frankly, this reminds me of reports that predicted Subban’s moves wouldn’t fool NHLers. They did, because he was simply too talented. I think the same applies here. They can try to take options away, squeeze him out in the O-zone, but it won’t work, because he’s too shifty and sees the ice too well.

 

Defensively, it’s another story. While I didn’t especially notice Hutson being owned in the defensive end, that -4 illustrates everything that people were saying about LH before the season: great tools offensively, likely to be overmatched defensively, at least as part of the learning process. 

 

I’m of two minds about the Hutson hype. On the one hand, I love to see a Habs rookie generating this kind of league-wide buzz. On the other, it feels like a bit of a trap to me. We are putting absolutely enormous expectations on a 20-year-old kid. The combination of insane expectations and insane adulation can get in the way of player development. At least we have a strong management/coaching group and he seems to be well-surrounded with guys like CC and Suzuki, who have been through it, as well as older mentors like Savard. Still. Maybe the hype machine could stand to dial down just a notch. 

The clear thing is when Hutson has the puck the entire play becomes unpredictable. 
 

Several Habs players have just unexpectedly had the puck on their stick with a prime shot opportunity, that they don’t take because they were surprised by the pass. 
 

Our players need to adapt to Hutson and be ninja like ready at all times. 
 

Hutson also needs a defensive partner that can shoot the puck and that isn’t Savard. 

[Habs Fan in Edmonton]

19 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

That is indeed very interesting. I didn’t see Hutson falling into the trap of ‘having too much room’ and losing his options. Frankly, this reminds me of reports that predicted Subban’s moves wouldn’t fool NHLers. They did, because he was simply too talented. I think the same applies here. They can try to take options away, squeeze him out in the O-zone, but it won’t work, because he’s too shifty and sees the ice too well.

 

 

Agreed. It also reminds me of talk I used to hear about Ovechkin from some pretty knowledgeable hockey people " he only has one move (ie one timer near the circle), that will be easy to stop". Well, guess what,  853 goals later they are still trying to stop him. You can plan all you want but things happen on the ice so fast and Hutson is so creative that I don't worry about plans to stop him. Put too many guys on him and he will find the open man. 

[tomh009]

1 hour ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

Defensively, it’s another story. While I didn’t especially notice Hutson being owned in the defensive end, that -4 illustrates everything that people were saying about LH before the season: great tools offensively, likely to be overmatched defensively, at least as part of the learning process.

Part of that -4 was that his partnerships with Savard and Matheson were not working; both combinations were -2. He was much better with Guhle.  (He was also largely playing with the second line on the ice, and Dach, in particular, was not great last night, either.)

 

Only one game, and I'm generally in agreement with your conclusions, just pointing out that the -4 was not all on Hutson alone.

[DON]

Seemed Hutson aggressively cut off a couple passes, that i think were meant for other Habs (Newhook was one i think).

Not that is a bad thing, just is a very confident young fella... hope Hage & Demidov skill can add even more excitement down the road (or as early as late spring 2025).

[IN THE HEARTS OF MEN]

I know it's only 6 games.... but, I believe Hutson is/ will be a level up on Subban (and I loved Subban)

 

Also, I wouldn't put to much stock into Dach, and his very slow start. He's literally one year post op  and most often, players need a full season to get back to their former self. If he's still having big issues game 40/ 50, maybe that will be cause for concern. Until than, let's give him a chance to get over the mental hurdles of trusting his knee again. Fear and hesitancy is real.