Cole Hutson is set to play in his second NHL game for the Washington Capitals on Friday night.
Ahead of that contest against the New Jersey Devils, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery offered his advice to Hutson now that the nerves and excitement of his debut are out of the way.
“Keep going,” Carbery said. “It’s sort of what I said yesterday, of just settling into his routine and going through the things that he needs to get used to playing in the National Hockey League and all the areas of the game that are important for a young defenseman to do at a high level.
“So we just work with him on little things inside of our system and structure, and just help him with some of the things that we saw in his first game. ‘Hey, here’s some stick detail stuff. Hey, here’s some of what we like to do as a team, maybe a little bit different than BU. Here’s where we would like to see your positioning in this scenario.’ So, it’s just a lot of little coaching like that.”
Hutson was tremendous in his first game, with the Capitals dominating nearly all of his shifts. At five-on-five with the 19-year-old on the ice, the Caps posted positive differentials in shot attempts (+10), shots on goal (+6), scoring chances (+3), and high-danger chances (+1). He had an offensive zone time percentage of 51 percent at all strengths, which ranks in the 99th percentile among defensemen.
Carbery spoke about finding the fine line between adding to Hutson’s game moving forward without detracting from the brilliance he showed in his debut.
“That’s what we do as coaches,” Carbery said. “You learn what’s too much, when to back off, and, especially, you learn the individual players. He is a very, very intelligent, high-hockey-IQ young man. And one of the things that I’ll say is, you have to assume that. It’s not always a given, but because of his size, how intelligent he is in reading every situation and knowing exactly what’s going on and where everybody is positioned. So, it’s not overly surprising that he is.”
Carbery plans to lean on his experience in the minor leagues, where developing young players is a top priority for head coaches. The third-year NHL bench boss coached in the ECHL, OHL, and AHL before taking an assistant coaching job with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2021.
“But what I will share with you is that the little things that we’re already showing him, he can already finish your sentence, and that is usually an indicator of a young player that has a really good sense for the game, and can process things really, really quickly. When you’re coaching in the East Coast League, American League, you’re developing players, and even in the NHL nowadays, you’re developing players, been doing it for the last 16 years. There’s such a value to players that you tell them one thing one time, and you never tell them again. That is someone that learns quickly and can retain information and then can go out there and do it when there’s nine other people on the ice, and there’s resistance, and then there’s a puck, and then there’s 18,000 people. It’s a great, great quality.”
Carbery confirmed that there will be no lineup changes for the Capitals, other than some shuffling of the team’s forward group. Given the news, Hutson will likely skate with Matt Roy on the backend again. The 31-year-old veteran rearguard recently echoed some of the same praise for Hutson that Carbery gave.
“He’s kind of going with the flow, to be honest,” Roy said. “He picks things up quick, and he’s got the confidence, and he’s got that puck-moving ability.”
The Capitals will take on the Devils in the third game of their four-game homestand. The Caps have gone 1-0-1 against New Jersey this season, with both games going past regulation.
