“It’s definitely a weight off your shoulders. Winning – there’s no better feeling than it.” After going 346 days without an NHL-level win, Michael Hutchinson stood tall and the MapleLeafs stood right there with him. lukefoxjukebox l LeafsForever
TORONTO – 346 days removed from a National Hockey League victory, who could’ve pictured a scene like this?Chants of “Let’s! Go! Hutch!” rained as the much-maligned goaltender twirled to first-star-of-the-night honours, thefinally left the second half of a back-to-back with two points and backup-for-the-night Frederik Andersen scooped up the game puck for a friend.
After a 346-day drought bristling with speculation and consternation — and lowlighted by a confidence-testing demotion to the AHL — Hutchinson cleared his mind, dug in his edges, and gave himself permission to relax.One might say Hutchinson got the monkey off his back-to-back. “It’s huge,” coach Sheldon Keefe said. “All the attention will be on Hutch, and I recognize, of course, why that has been a story. But, it’s also for our group. It’s not just Hutch that hasn’t done well in these games. Our team hasn’t done well in these games. It’s important for us to get a good result.”
Hutchinson’s first test arrived a mere 30 seconds following puck drop, and it was a doozy: a Dylan Larkin breakaway straight down the gut from 125 feet out, plenty of time to let the mind wander to the worst.
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