The Montreal Canadiens have been playing some of their best hockey of the season, particularly on the blueline. Martin St. Louis made some pairing changes a few weeks ago that have worked out well, but he might have to go back to the drawing board now.
On Tuesday, the team announced that Alexandre Carrier will be out 2-4 weeks with an upper-body injury. That timeline likely means he is done for the remainder of the regular season and potentially miss some time in the playoffs.
The day prior, the Canadiens did recall Adam Engstrom from Laval, and the move seemed to coincide with the move of Arber Xhekaj to forward. However, with the recent news for Carrier that roster move was likely due to the injury.
Martin St. Louis faces difficult blue line decisions following Alexandre Carrier injury
For Martin St. Louis and the Canadiens coaching staff, they now have the tough decision of what to do with their defensive pairs. The easiest decision would be to just replace Carrier with either Engstrom or bring Xhekaj to the blue line.
However, the Canadiens now have six left-handed defensemen, with Noah Dobson being the only right-handed defenseman on the roster. This is one of the reasons the decision not to recall David Reinbacher is even more surprising, as he looks to be the better defenseman and is a right-handed shot.
However, Engstrom did play with the Canadiens earlier this season, playing in 11 games with a +/- of +3. Even though he is a left-handed shot, he does have the versatility to play on the right side and could be a good fit next to Kaden Guhle.
Even with the inability to get left-handed/right-handed defensive pairs, the Canadiens have to keep their Top 4 together. The pairs of Lane Hutson-Jayden Struble and Mike Matheson-Noah Dobson have been very good and they shouldn't mess with that.
This means that the Canadiens need to just test out who fits best next to Kaden Guhle between Xhekaj and Engstrom. It will be a big test for the Canadiens at a crucial part of the season that could have significant playoff implications.
Canadiens fans won't have to wait long to see this new blue line with Montreal set to play the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.