The Montreal Canadiens already know they are going to be without a key part of their blue line as Noah Dobson is still dealing with an upper-body injury. However, during practice on Thursday, they got some good news as it appears Alexandre Carrier could return for this series.
Carrier has been out since the end of March due to an injury, but was at practice in a full-contact sweater, according to Stu Cowan at the Montreal Gazette. He finished the regular season playing 73 games and was second on the team in blocked shots with 155, along with 22 points and an average of over 19 minutes per game.
Where does Alexandre Carrier fit in the Montreal Canadiens lineup?
For the Canadiens, the big question is what they do with the pairs going into the series with the Tampa Bay Lightning. When Carrier initially went out due to his injury, the Canadiens brought Arber Xhekaj back into the lineup on the third pair.
However, since Carrier has been out, they have also been without Dobson, so rookies Adam Engstrom and David Reinbacher have seen ice time to close out the regular season.
During Thursday's practice, the Canadiens had Carrier paired with Lane Hutson, Mike Matheson with Adam Engstrom (however, Eric Engels notes this will be Kaiden Guhle), and then Jayden Struble with Arber Xhekaj. The pairing of Hutson and Carrier makes sense as the two have been on the ice together for over 340 minutes this season and have an xGF% of 55.98%, according to Natural Stat Trick.
However, it would not be surprising as the series goes on (or even within games themselves) that the Canadiens look to shuffle these pairs, and they could have Carrier play with Guhle to pair Matheson and Hutson together. The good news for now, though, is that Carrier looks like he is ready to return, and that is a big boost for this blueline going into the series with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
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