Canadiens playoff notebook: How to compensate for potential absence of Alexandre Carrier

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BROSSARD, QC — The Montreal Canadiens’ record on Dec. 18, the day they acquired defenceman Alexandre Carrier, was 12-16-3, second-to-last in the Eastern Conference, floundering.

The Canadiens went 28-15-8 the rest of the way, a .627 points percentage, ninth-best in the NHL and third-best in the Eastern Conference as Carrier helped bring balance to a very young and imbalanced defence corps.

Carrier was not at Canadiens practice Tuesday, though coach Martin St. Louis vaguely suggested he would be traveling with the team to Washington for Game 5 of their first-round playoff series with the Capitals on Wednesday at Capital One Arena.

Carrier did not finish the first period of Game 4 on Sunday after just getting out of the way of a massive Alex Ovechkin attempted hit, and then did not finish the game in the third period when Tom Wilson tried the same thing and fully connected.

The hit in many ways showed why Carrier has been so valuable to the Canadiens this season, because he knew he would get hit, and he still tried to make the right play with the puck.

“He’s close to the red (line). I don’t think he does the same thing if he’s 10 feet from the red,” St. Louis said. “He’s just trying to gain territory and he’s not afraid to put his body on the line to do that. I think it kind of was a perfect circumstance with where Wilson was on the ice, where the puck was. That’s the type of player (Carrier) is.

“Hopefully we can minimize those.”

Carrier might play Wednesday, he might not. The Canadiens’ season is on the line down 3-1 in the series, so if there is any way for Carrier to play, he surely will.

If he doesn’t, however, it might mean the Canadiens turn to something they did for much of last season, but ultimately decided was a sub-optimal way to develop a young defenceman.

Except now, it could be very useful.

Carrier is one of only two right-shot defencemen on the Canadiens’ roster, the other being David Savard, who they are unlikely to want to elevate into a more prominent role, considering his difficulties at five-on-five and also considering Savard has been skipping practice for a while now, as he did Tuesday.

Rookie Lane Hutson has been playing on the right side for most of the second half of the season, and he spent a good chunk of that time playing with Jayden Struble, which made for a good pairing. So that’s a possibility if Carrier can’t play, because the option is there to move Hutson’s regular defence partner, Kaiden Guhle, into Carrier’s spot to the right of Mike Matheson on the top shutdown pairing.

Last season, out of necessity, Guhle played on the right side a lot, oftentimes with Matheson, so there would be some familiarity there. Except having four left shots in the top-four on defence is far from ideal, especially against a hard forechecking team like the Capitals. That extra half second it takes to execute a puck retrieval on your opposite side could be the difference between a clean breakout and a massive hit into the end boards.

“At this point, you just go play, just let instincts take over,” Guhle said after practice Tuesday on the possibility of going back to playing on the right. “Going back for pucks on the opposite side is not really that big of a difference. A lot of it is just kind of meeting guys, initiating contact before you get to the puck, especially when you’re on your opposite side, because you have a bit more of a blindside.

“I feel like I haven’t really played that much on the right this year, but I feel like I felt a lot more comfortable going back for pucks. I think I’ve improved a lot. So if I have to go back on the right, I don’t think I’d have any issues doing that.”

At least Guhle would have not only last season to draw on in terms of playing on the right, but also a history with Matheson, while Struble and Hutson also have a much more recent history together and it was very positive. In fact, before Guhle’s return from injury late in the season pushed Struble back down to the third pairing, he was Hutson’s most successful defence partner from an on-ice expected goals perspective at five-on-five, with the two of them combining to control close to 60 percent in their minutes together.

“We’re confident in Strubes if he has to come in,” St. Louis said. “He’s a good hockey player, he’s played some really good hockey for us this season. So we’ll see. We’ll see what happens.”

St. Louis stressed that it won’t be Matheson who has to eat more minutes if Carrier can’t play, or Struble who will take his spot in the lineup. It’s everyone.

And that could include Guhle going back to what was a familiar place a year ago.

Canadiens goalie Sam Montembeault left Game 3 with an injury and did not play in Game 4. (Eric Bolte / Imagn Images)

Where in the world is Sam Montembeault?

The day prior to Game 4 of the series, after a Capitals skate and with Logan Thompson’s status unclear after he got run over by Dylan Strome in Game 3, most of the media covering the skate were gathered in the Bell Centre press conference waiting for Capitals coach Spencer Carbery to speak.

That’s when a Capitals public relations representative walked over to inform the media that Charlie Lindgren was about to talk.

The press conference room at the Bell Centre is close to the Canadiens’ dressing room, which is on the opposite side of the building from the Capitals’ dressing room. That was a relatively long walk to make to tell reporters the presumptive Capitals starting goalie for Game 4 was about to speak to the media.

It was perhaps just courteous. Or it was perhaps calculated, because the following evening, it was Thompson starting in goal for the Capitals, and not Lindgren.

On Tuesday, when St. Louis was asked if the whole team was travelling to Washington for Game 5, he initially said he believed that to be the case. When he was specifically asked if that included Carrier and Montembeault, the Canadiens’ starting goaltender who also left Game 3 with an injury and did not play in the Game 4 loss, St. Louis changed his tune somewhat.

“Sam, I’m not sure,” he said.

It’s playoff time. Take everything with a grain of salt.

History with a 3-1 series in the playoffs

The Canadiens have six players who erased a 3-1 series deficit in 2021 against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, but Guhle was not one of them. However, he does have some experience from the other side of this situation.

In Guhle’s age-16 season in the WHL with the Prince Albert Raiders, the Raiders took a 3-1 lead in the final against the Vancouver Giants. They ultimately needed overtime in Game 7 to win the title.

“I don’t know if I’ve been down 3-1 in a series in my life, but I’ve been up 3-1,” Guhle said. “It’s weird. Obviously you want to close it out, but the other team has nothing to lose. They’re just going to go play. They lose the game, they’re done, and they know that, so they’re just going to give you (everything) every game. Coming from behind is a bit easier, for sure.

“We definitely tightened up a little bit. Definitely some tension. You feel it. You’re so close, but you’re so far. It’s a different feeling for sure. We have to win one game, come back to Montreal and win another game, and then it’s Game 7.”

Cole Caufield back in his happy place

Patrik Laine took part in the Canadiens’ skate Tuesday after missing Games 3 and 4 at home with an upper-body injury.

His absence resulted in the Canadiens’ two best games of the series, and allowed rookie Ivan Demidov to be inserted onto the top power-play unit. But perhaps more significantly, it allowed Caufield to go back to his preferred triggerman spot in the left circle, which is where he scored from in Game 4.

The power play has undoubtedly looked much more dangerous with Demidov in the right circle and Caufield in the left, with Nick Suzuki playing the bumper.

“It’s just what the team needs right now. It’s next man up,” Caufield said. “We’re creating a lot out there right now. It feels nice to kind of be back there, and obviously I’ve played there before, so it comes naturally.”

If Laine is healthy and the Canadiens put him back in the lineup for Game 5, it would be a strong consideration not to touch the top power-play unit. Laine is officially day-to-day, St. Louis said, but after practice the top power-play unit went to the second sheet of ice at the Canadiens’ practice facility to work on some plays.

Laine did not go with them.

(Top photo: Alexandre Carrier:  Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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