- Lane Hutson hit 10 career playoff points in 10 career games, the fastest any Canadiens defenseman has ever done it
- He passed Chris Chelios, who needed 13 games to reach the same mark
- Read below for the video of his Game 3 OT winner and the Larry Robinson-Serge Savard club he just joined
Lane Hutson keeps stacking accolades onto a rookie season that already had a Calder finalist nod attached to it.
The Canadiens defenseman picked up the primary assist on Alexandre Texier’s third-period winner Wednesday in a 3-2 Game 5 victory over the Lightning in Tampa. That helper gave Hutson 10 career playoff points in 10 career playoff games.
Per NHL Public Relations, that makes him the fastest defenseman in Montreal franchise history to that mark. He passed Chris Chelios, who needed 13 games.
Hutson also joined a smaller club. His five points in Montreal’s first five games of this series put him alongside Larry Robinson and Serge Savard as the only Habs defensemen to produce five points in the team’s first five games of a single playoff series.
The Game 3 overtime winner is the goal that put him on this trajectory. Hutson scored the OT winner at Bell Centre last Saturday to swing the series back Montreal’s way and pick up his first career playoff goal.
Hutson wrapped up the regular season with 78 points in 82 games as a 21-year-old in his first NHL year. That total had him in the Calder finalist conversation and helped Montreal sneak into the postseason as the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic.
He has somehow looked even more comfortable since the playoffs started. He’s controlling possession through the neutral zone, running the power play, and hitting forwards with the kind of stretch passes that put Texier in alone on Andrei Vasilevskiy on Wednesday.
Robinson is in the Hall of Fame. Savard is in the Hall of Fame. Chelios is in the Hall of Fame. Hutson is 21 and hasn’t finished his rookie season.
Game 6 is Friday at Bell Centre, per NHL.com. The Canadiens can close out the Lightning and book their first second-round appearance since 2014.
