BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Points to ponder as Ben Hutton arrived with his first NHL goal and Jared McCann played with a heightened edge in a 2-1 shootout victory Sunday over the Islanders:
ROOKIE SMILES FOR MILES: Ben Hutton is always smiling. He has an aw-shucks attitude toward everything but in the heat of the battle, the rookie defenceman has usually looked like a seasoned veteran. And when he pinched in from the point to finish a play in which Jared McCann and Daniel Sedin were at the net, he whipped the game’s opening goal past Jaroslav Halak on the short side. Cue the smile.
The always-smiling Ben Hutton netted his first NHL goal Sunday in a 2-1 shootout win over the New York Islanders. (Getty Images via National Hockey League).
“Great game and I finally popped my first goal and obviously a pretty important one,” beamed Hutton, who logged 21:37 and finally cracked the goal plateau in his 39th game. “McCann made a great play to get the puck to the net and Danny was probably going to me with his vision in the slot.
“My eyes lit up for a split second and I was thinking: ‘Here it is, here it is’. And I pulled the trigger. That was cool. I want to get more aggressive in the offensive zone.”
TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM: Jared McCann was going up the ice when he felt something. It was John Tavares in pursuit and he was literally sticking it to the Canucks rookie centre. But let’s let McCann tell us what really happened on the first-period play in which he took a high-sticking minor:
“I was trying to jump up into the play and felt a stick wrapping around my sensitive area and I didn’t think much of it. He skated in front of me and I kind of looked back and I didn’t hit him in the face, I hit him in the shoulder with my stick. And he kind of threw his face back a bit.
“I feel like I’m OK at controlling that kind of stuff. If they’re going to keep coming at me and wasting their time on that, that’s good for me. Every team comes in with a plan and I felt that was their plan to get under everybody’s skin And I thought we did a good job of sticking with the game.”
McCann had an assist, four shots in 16:57 of ice time and looked comfortable when pressed to centre Daniel Sedin and Jannik Hansen.
SBISA BACK IN THE BATTLE: After missing 19 games with a hand injury, Luca Sbisa logged 19:33 and had five hits and two blocked shots in a pairing with Ben Hutton.
“That was definitely a battle,” said Sbisa. “But it’s good to have one like this the first game back and have everything you could ask for. The shots were lopsided (48-26) but we battled and I felt better as the game wore on. The first two (periods), I was gassed. A lot of it had to do with a little anxiety in the first game back. You waste a lot of energy because you’re so excited.”
bkuzma@theprovince.com
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