Alexandre Carrier said it was “weird” sleeping in his own bed after playing his first game with the Canadiens.
The Canadiens beat the Red Wings 4-3 Friday night in Detroit before flying back to Montreal. It was Carrier’s debut with the Habs after being acquired from the Nashville Predators on Wednesday in exchange for Justin Barron.
The 28-year-old Carrier spent seven seasons with Nashville, but he always returned home to Montreal during the summer. He was born in Quebec City and grew up in Varennes, on Montreal’s South Shore. A few years ago, Carrier and his wife bought a condo in Point-St- Charles on the Lachine canal.
Carrier and his wife, Dr. Alicia Lessard, started dating in 2015 and were married this July at Sutton’s Château Ste-Agnès vineyard in the Eastern Townships. Lessard completed her family medicine residency at McGill University and is now co-owner of a family medicine practice in Côte-St-Luc. In 2019, while at McGill, Lessard and two of her classmates made headlines when they lobbied the Quebec government to provide free menstrual hygiene products in the province’s schools.
Carrier played his second game with the Canadiens Saturday night at the Bell Centre — a 5-1 win over the Red Wings — with his parents, wife and other family members and friends in attendance.
During a pre-game interview on TVA Sports, Carrier’s mother, Lyne Rodrigue, said this will be the first time in eight years that both her sons and their wives will be home for Christmas.
“It’s the best gift I could have,” she said.
Carrier’s parents weren’t able to attend his first NHL game with the Predators on Jan. 17, 2017 against the Canucks in Vancouver because he only found out a few hours before that he was getting called up from the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals. But they were able to make the trip to Detroit to see his first game with the Canadiens.
While Carrier was happy to sleep in his own bed Friday night, there was one problem.
“There was a party downstairs,” he said with a chuckle. “I had to go and knock on the door. It wasn’t a good start.”
While he might not have had a good night’s sleep Friday, Carrier is off to a very good start with the Canadiens. He looks like a huge upgrade on the 23-year-old Barron, who struggled to find his footing and confidence after the Canadiens acquired him from Colorado in March 2022 as part of the trade that sent Artturi Lehkonen to the Avalanche.
In 28 games with the Predators this season, the 5-foot-11, 174-pound Carrier had 1-6-7 totals and a minus-14 rating. In his first two games with the Canadiens he had one assist and was plus-2 while averaging 18:44 of ice time as Kaiden Guhle’s defence partner.
What has impressed me most about Carrier is his quick feet and aggressiveness while playing defence, along with his ability to move the puck up the ice quickly. He also plays a lot bigger than his size and is very physical along the boards and in front of the net.
“To stay in this league, if you’re not like (Lane) Hutson you got to find a way,” Carrier said about his highly skilled new teammate on the blue line. “So for me it’s about being competitive and being bigger than I am.”
Carrier looks like a very good partner for the 22-year-old Guhle and the Canadiens now have a veteran playing with a younger player on each of their three defence pairings with Mike Matheson and Hutson and David Savard with Arber Xhekaj.
“He’s a bigger body than me, but I think he defends very well with his skates and his stick,” Carrier said about the 6-foot-3, 202-pound Guhle. “I think it’s similar (to his own style), so we can complement each other.”
Sunday was a travel day for the Canadiens as they flew to Columbus ahead of Monday’s game against the Blue Jackets (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS). Carrier still hasn’t had a full practice with the Canadiens, but he seems to be fitting in just fine. He noted there are a lot of adjustments he has to make since the Canadiens play a much different style than the Predators, who always want to push the puck up the ice and don’t use cross-ice passes from defenceman to defenceman or bring the puck backwards to set up a play. The Canadiens’ hybrid system in the defensive zone, which includes man-on-man coverage up high, is also an adjustment.
“It’s all different, but it’s hockey,” Carrier said. “So it’s not like the end of the world. You’ll get used to it.”
What has impressed him most about the Canadiens as a team?
“How fast they play and the confidence they have with the puck,” Carrier said. “Even when it was 4-1, 5-1 (on Saturday), they were still making plays. Even though they’re a younger group they got so much confidence. I’ve been impressed with how fast they can play and just how confident they are. It’s like they can make a play every time.”
Carrier looks like he can definitely help them with that.