Cole Hutson seemingly hit the first stumbling block of his young NHL career on Tuesday night.
Hutson played just 10:58 of total ice time in the Washington Capitals’ 6-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, taking just four shifts in the third period. The benching came after Hutson took two minor penalties earlier in the game and as head coach Spencer Carbery and his staff sought to protect a slim lead in a must-win situation.
“Yeah, I just felt like, and Wellsy (assistant coach Patrick Wellar), in the deployment – young guy playing the most difficult position,” Carbery said postgame. “You can put forwards out in their first 10 games or whatever, and you can hide them in all sorts of situations. You cannot hide as a defenseman.
“I thought he was fine. There’s a couple scenarios where the two penalties and a little bit of bad luck with the one puck, where he’s trying to move it quick, and it ends up bobbling on him. He’s going to continue to play and develop. This is a long, long road for Cole Hutson and his development.”
The whole Capitals team struggled analytically at five-on-five in the win, and that certainly didn’t change during Hutson’s minutes. With him over the boards, they posted negative differentials in shot attempts (-5), shots on goal (-1), goals (-1), scoring chances (-1), and high-danger chances (-3). The 19-year-old blueliner was on the ice for Carl Grundstrom’s second-period goal that tied the game 2-2.
Overall, through the first seven games of his NHL career, Hutson has recorded five points (1g, 4a), but all on the power play. He is a minus-3 at even strength, and the Capitals have owned just 44.8 percent of shot attempts, 47.1 percent of expected goals, 49.2 percent of scoring chances, and 49.2 percent of high-danger chances during his five-on-five minutes.
However, Hutson is actually performing better relative to the rest of his Capitals teammates during that stretch, seeing positive ratings in relative shot attempt percentage (+3%), expected goals for percentage (+4.6%), scoring chance for percentage (+5.8%), and high-danger chance for percentage (+4.5%). In layman’s terms, the Capitals have been better with Hutson on the ice at five-on-five than off of it.
The Capitals scored two power-play goals against the Flyers, which were the first two since Hutson’s debut that the young defender did not record a point on. Since his first NHL game on March 18, the Capitals have scored on 31.8 percent of their power plays, good for sixth best in the league.
Hutson’s first chance to bounce back from his benching will come on Thursday night against the New Jersey Devils.