{"id":373172,"date":"2025-12-28T03:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T03:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/373172\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T03:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T03:31:09","slug":"team-usas-cole-hutson-stretchered-off-ice-against-switzerland-at-world-juniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/373172\/","title":{"rendered":"Team USA\u2019s Cole Hutson stretchered off ice against Switzerland at World Juniors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Team USA defenseman and Washington Capitals draft pick, Cole Hutson, was hit high with a puck in the second period of a 2026 World Juniors preliminary round game against Switzerland at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, Minn., on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Hutson went down after a point shot hit him, on or near his neck, as his back was turned. He was taken off the ice via stretcher but was conscious and his legs were moving. He was taken to a local hospital, but was later discharged and rejoined the team. Hutson\u2019s status for the rest of the tournament will be evaluated on Sunday, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2005097496809501115\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">according to NHL Network\u2019s Jon Morosi<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou never want to see one of your guys go down like that and get stretchered off like that,\u201d Team USA forward Will Zellers, who scored in the second period to give the U.S. a 2-1 lead, told TSN\u2019s Brit Dort during the second intermission. \u201cSo it was a little bit of a shock to all of us, but (we) knew we had to come up big for him and make a play. So happy and lucky I was able to be the one to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hutson was one of the top defensemen in the tournament last year and is the younger brother of Montreal Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Cole Hutson had to be stretchered off the ice after taking a puck to the head vs. Switzerland. \ud83d\ude4f <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WorldJuniors?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#WorldJuniors<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JDEx3oECTB\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/JDEx3oECTB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 TSN (@TSN_Sports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TSN_Sports\/status\/2005073933259743639?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">December 28, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cGood to see (he\u2019s) looking OK, we\u2019re obviously praying for him,\u201d Team USA captain Brodie Ziemer told Morosi during the second intermission. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously a scary thing, especially someone you\u2019re so tight with. Obviously a little bit of shock, but good job by the group to kinda shake it off and continue on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust playing as a group, playing for him and doing what we\u2019re supposed to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Team USA held on for the 2-1 win over Switzerland. Ziemer was awarded player of the game honors for the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>What Hutson\u2019s absence could mean for Team USA<\/p>\n<p>Hutson\u2019s absence would be devastating for Team USA. He is the key to their defense, an elite offensive player and despite his size, he has been a key penalty-killing guy for them too. It\u2019s hard to see the United States winning a gold medal at the tournament without him.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Team USA defenseman and Washington Capitals draft pick, Cole Hutson, was hit high with a puck in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4828,385,99,1791],"class_list":{"0":"post-373172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-minnesota-wild","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-washington-capitals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}