Could Lane Hutson be a front runner for the Calder with the return of Laine?
Tuesday night, the Montreal Canadiens won a tight battle against Patrick Roy and the New York Islanders, winning the game 2-1 in overtime with the 10th goal of the season of captain Nick Suzuki.
Many Habs fans were waiting for this game as Patrik Laine, acquired back in August, was making his season debut after a knee injury sustained during the preseason.
The Finn made such a good first impression as he took the opportunity to score his first goal of the campaign in the Bleu-Blanc-Rouge uniform with a wrist shot that gave no chance to Ilya Sorokin.
During the game, we were able to notice some kind of chemistry between the Canadiens' rookie, Lane Hutson, and Patrik Laine.
In fact, on both powerplays during the outing against the Isles, Hutson and Laine exchanged the puck brilliantly. In the 2nd period, the #92 was able to score assisted by #48 while the Islanders were one man short.
It was great to notice nice passing plays between both players yesterday. Having that said, could the return of Laine lead Lane Hutson to the Calder trophy?
The 20-year old defenseman is currently the 2nd best point scorer of all rookies with 16 points in 25 games. He has yet to score his first NHL goal, but he still found ways to contribute to the Habs' offense.
The only rookie in front of him is the Russian Matvei Michkov of the Philadelphia Flyers who currently has 9 goals and 10 assists for 19 points in 23 games.
If Martin St. Louis keeps Laine and Hutson on the same powerplay line and if the Finn can keep scoring goals like the one from Tuesday, we could see Lane Hutson's stats fluctuate quickly.
If the American player keeps adding points to his record, he could possibly become the first Canadiens' player to win the Calder trophy since Ken Dryden in 1972.
Other than Hutson, other players such as Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky and Kirby Dach could benefit from Laine's return. Just with Tuesday's game, we could feel the energy seemed better between the players.
The Habs will look to get another win on Thursday as the Nashville Predators will be in town. Andrew Brunette's team will try to return to the win column as they've lost their last 5 games.
| POLL | ||
Do you think Lane Hutson should be considered in the Calder trophy race? | ||
| Yes | 71 | 88.8 % |
| No | 9 | 11.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
