Lane Hutson nightmare emerges ahead of Canadiens' Game 7
Lane Hutson is the story heading into Game 7, and not for the reason Martin St-Louis wants 36 hours before puck drop in Buffalo.
A clip of Hutson going down in Saturday night's Game 6 has lit up hockey Twitter, with one Sabres fan account calling it the most egregious dive he's ever seen at the NHL level.
The video, posted May 16 by @23sabres, has cleared 83,000 views and counting. The accusation is blunt. The timing, worse.
You can see Hutson chasing a puck inside the Montreal zone, getting brushed near the dot, then going horizontal with his stick fanned out flat on the ice.
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The Canadiens lost that game 3-8 at the Bell Centre. Hutson finished with an assist, a -0, two penalty minutes, one shot on goal, and 24:28 of ice time.
Series tied 3-3. Game 7 goes Monday in Buffalo.
Game 7 in Buffalo with the rookie blueliner under a microscope
That's the part that makes this more than a Twitter snack. Hutson runs Montreal's top power play unit. He's at 13 points in 13 playoff games, including seven power play assists.
If the officials call this series tighter because of viral noise, Hutson is the player it lands on hardest. He draws calls. He also creates them, fairly or not.
Buffalo's coaching staff doesn't need to say a word publicly. The clip does the work. Officials watch the same feeds the rest of us do, and reputations stick fast in May.
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St-Louis has leaned on the 22-year-old defenseman all postseason. Hutson logged 24 minutes again last night in a blowout loss, which tells you exactly where he sits in the pecking order.
Montreal went 78 points up in the regular season with Hutson posting 12 goals, 66 assists and a +36 rating. He earned the trust. Now comes the hardest 60 minutes of his career.
The Habs already split the first six games with a road win, a home blowout, and a 5-1 hammering in Buffalo. They know they can win Game 7.
Whether the rookie defenseman gets the same long leash with refs already on alert? Different question. Monday answers it.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 16, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | 4 | 5 | |
| Tage Thompson | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Jack Quinn | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Zach Benson | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jake Evans | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Ivan Demidov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Konsta Helenius | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Zach Metsa | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Arber Xhekaj | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Bowen Byram | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Caufield | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Michael Matheson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ryan McLeod | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Norris | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | - | - | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||