Hockey

Alexandre Carrier’s series: no one misses Justin Barron in Montreal
Félix Forget
Alexandre Carrier’s series: no one misses Justin Barron in Montreal
Credit: In December, Kent Hughes completed a transaction with Barry Trotz. The CH sent Justin Barron to Nashville, and in return, Alexandre Carrier went the other way. And it didn’t take long to realize that Hughes had made a good move. Carrier’s arrival solidified the defensive brigade, and more importantly, brought a true top-4 right-handed defenseman […]

In December, Kent Hughes completed a transaction with Barry Trotz. The CH sent Justin Barron to Nashville, and in return, Alexandre Carrier went the other way.

And it didn't take long to realize that Hughes had made a good move. Carrier's arrival solidified the defensive brigade, and more importantly, brought a true top-4 right-handed defenseman to the fold.

With David Savard no longer capable and Barron not becoming one, Carrier became truly essential.

And even though he was stable and solid all season long, we could feel him tearing it up a bit alongside Mike Matheson at the end of the campaign…

Except that since the start of the playoffs, Carrier has been playing great field hockey. Yesterday, his goal at the end of the first period was a nice exclamation point for the man who plays very, very big field hockey against the Capitals.

He scored, he's doing a great job against Alex Ovechkin, he's absorbing a ton of checks and he's solid in his zone: does anyone miss Justin Barron in Montreal?

The Tricolore's defensive top-4 (Hutson, Guhle, Matheson and Carrier) is playing big minutes game after game, and while all four are playing good field hockey, to say that Carrier has been the team's best defender so far is a bit of a stretch.

Guhle gave his teammate some love in front of the media today, praising #45's consistency.

Carrier doesn't have as sexy a style of play as Lane Hutson, he's not as physical as Kaiden Guhle and he doesn't have Mike Matheson's skating stroke, but he's extremely effective. He knows his role and has played it wonderfully since the beginning of this series.

He's never the one who jumps out at you when you watch a game… but for a defenseman like Carrier, that's more of a compliment than a criticism.

Without Carrier (and with Barron), the CH would probably have trailed 0-3 in the series… and that's if they'd made the playoffs in the first place.

When you consider that the Habs have been playing much better field hockey since Carrier's arrival, it's easy to make connections.


In a gust

– A special evening.

– Come on!

– It was perfect.

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