BROSSARD, Quebec — A telling scene played out as the Montreal Canadiens were finishing up their final full practice before hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs to start the 2024-25 regular season.
After a practice that ended with work on special teams, captain Nick Suzuki and defenceman Mike Matheson were at the whiteboard along the side boards with coach Martin St. Louis. They talked for a long time, going over various situations and what the team’s top power-play unit should do in those situations. The Canadiens power play went 0-for-30 in the preseason. It was 27th in the NHL in efficiency last season, 29th the year before that, 31st the year before that, and so on.
Continuing the pattern and finishing 25th this season simply won’t cut it.
As the three of them spoke, rookie defenceman Lane Hutson was on his hands and knees in the net, picking up pucks, as rookies do. He was not in that power-play meeting, though he surely will be one day. Just not on this day.
And that has been a source of debate, outrage even, prior to the season starting — that Hutson is not on the top power-play unit, and Matheson is.
Last season, among NHL defencemen who played at least 150 minutes on the power play, Matheson was 12th in points per 60 minutes of power-play ice time, ahead of such defencemen as Brent Burns, Miro Heiskanen, Rasmus Dahlin and Drew Doughty.
Also last season, once it was over, Matheson expressed some frustration at the criticism he received from fans online, much of which was about his performance on the power play.
It has apparently carried over to this season. But Matheson is taking it in stride. For now.
“I don’t really care, honestly. I just want to win,” Matheson said Tuesday after practice. “I’m at a point in my career where that’s all I care about. That stuff’s all out of my control.”
Again, only seven NHL defencemen had more points on the power play last season than Matheson. If it was frustrating for him last season while he was in the midst of a career year, one of the most productive seasons in Canadiens history for a defenceman, this public debate should be even more frustrating.
But apparently it’s not. Because as he said, Matheson doesn’t care, which is a positive development for him.
“I think everybody has strengths that are going to help the team. I’m not going to get in the way of that,” he said. “I’m going to do the best I can. I’m not going to try to keep whatever (job), I’m going to do the best I possibly can to help the team. That’s really where my focus is.
“Yeah, people are going to talk, they’re going to make stories up and invent things whatever the case may be, and I’m not going to read it.”
St. Louis didn’t want to get into too much detail on the decision to go with Matheson over Hutson on the first power play.
“I mean, it’s a lot of responsibility. And Mike’s body of work,” he said. “I would say that.”
Matheson spoke well of Hutson’s ability to play on the power play, something he has excelled at throughout his hockey-playing life, but he was not about to get into the details of the decision.
But then, when asked what was going on at the whiteboard with Suzuki and St. Louis after practice, he unwittingly did just that.
“Just trying to understand cues and reads,” Matheson explained. “It’s a constant conversation. Because it’s not like football where you line up at the line of scrimmage, you read the defence and then you can audible or whatever the case may be.
“It’s a moving process where the more you can encounter a certain situation and have the same idea in mind, the more you can execute it better.”
There it is, NHL experience encapsulated in one quote. It’s a long season, there is so much we don’t know about what Hutson can do at this level and there is so much we do know about what Matheson can do at this level. That’s what this decision — for now — comes down to.
There is nothing saying Hutson will not eventually be used on the top power play. Just like there is nothing saying Hutson will not eventually find himself playing in Laval. And frankly, the one guy who is not the least bit outraged by this situation is Hutson. He’s made the NHL. He’s playing on the power play. He’s playing in the top four on defence. He’s going to get a ton of opportunities to let his talent shine because his coach believes in him, and his teammates believe in him, including Matheson.
Sometimes, it is best to just let things play out a little bit before being outraged. And as this Canadiens season starts to unfold, there will likely be other opportunities to be outraged over decisions.
But we have already seen the Canadiens have every intention of running a meritocracy this season. They have a plan for Logan Mailloux’s development, so they sent him to Laval to execute that plan. They were disappointed with Joshua Roy’s training camp and were impressed with Alex Barré-Boulet’s camp, and thus Roy is in Laval and Barré-Boulet is in Montreal, even if Roy is a far bigger part of the Canadiens’ future. Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher, counting for a combined $12 million on the cap, are playing bottom-six roles because Joel Armia has earned an audition on the second line through his play.
When the time is appropriate, or if the time is appropriate, the Canadiens will surely apply the same criteria to the composition of the first power-play unit, or any other decision they will need to make.
But they will need to see how those decisions play out before making those adjustments, taking time to evaluate and consider various scenarios and combinations.
Hutson is very likely to be running the Canadiens’ top power play for many, many years. Just because he is not doing that as of his third career NHL game is not a matter of life or death.
As this Canadiens season kicks off, it might be a good time to remind everyone to take a deep breath when that outrage starts percolating inside you.
(Top photo of Mike Matheson: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
