The NHL just made the Lane Hutson situation even worse for Canadiens fans
Lane Hutson and Martin St-Louis just got the answer Canadiens fans feared on William Carrier.
The league is not handing out any suspension.
No fine, no hearing, no late discipline. At this point, the file says there has been no official punishment announced for Carrier after the hit on Hutson late in overtime Monday night.
That is why this is blowing up again in Montreal.
Fans were already furious about how Game 3 ended. Now they get the added punch of seeing the Department of Player Safety apparently leave this one alone.
And the timing makes it worse.
If discipline was coming, it likely would already be out. That is the read in the report, and it is hard to argue with it this late.
The file also lays out why people are so angry.
It describes the sequence as a high elbow from Carrier to Hutson's head, and it points to the same questions everybody asked on replay: why jump into the hit, and why extend the arm that high?
That is the part Montreal cannot get past.
If the NHL keeps talking about player safety, these are the plays that get held up against it every single time there is no follow-up.
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Canadiens fans are furious after the NHL's latest decision following the Lane Hutson incident
That is what makes Game 4 feel even hotter.
The file says the ruling will not please Canadiens fans, and that is putting it lightly. The series already had enough bad blood without adding a no-punishment decision on a hit involving one of Montreal's most important young players.
Hutson is not some extra defenseman in this story.
He scored in Game 3, and he is one of the biggest drivers of the Canadiens' puck movement and transition game in this series.
So from Montreal's side, this does not feel like some random missed standard.
It feels like the league looked at a dangerous play involving a star young defenseman and decided to move on.
That leaves St-Louis in a tricky spot.
He has to keep his team focused on the hockey while knowing the crowd at the Bell Centre is going to want a response the second Carrier touches the puck. That second sentence is an inference based on the ruling and the playoff setting.
And if Hutson looks even a little limited, the anger is only going to get louder.
That is why this decision has real legs. It is not only about discipline. It is about trust in the standard.
Right now, the NHL looks like it made its call.
Montreal does not have to like it, and judging by the reaction around this team, it absolutely does not.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 25, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Shayne Gostisbehere | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Michael Matheson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Caufield | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ivan Demidov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jake Evans | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mark Jankowski | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | 1 | 1 | |
| K'Andre Miller | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | - | - | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | - | - | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | - | - | |
| William Carrier | - | - | - | |
| Jalen Chatfield | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||