Canadiens defenceman Alexandre Carrier sidelined 2-4 weeks

Defenceman Alexandre Carrier has an upper-body injury, which resulted in Adam Engstrom getting recalled from the Laval Rocket.

The Canadiens announced Tuesday morning that Carrier will be sidelined for two to four weeks with an upper-body injury.

That explains why the Canadiens announced Monday that they had called up defenceman Engstrom from the AHL’s Laval Rocket.

Carrier will miss his first game this season when the Canadiens play the Lightning Tuesday in Tampa (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS).

In 73 games this season, Carrier has 7-15-22 totals and a plus-2 differential while averaging 19:05 of ice time per game. Carrier has also been a key part of the Canadiens’ penalty-killing unit, averaging 3:01 of ice time short-handed per game to rank second on the Canadiens behind Mike Matheson with 3:58.

In 45 games with the Rocket this season, the 22-year-old Engstrom has 10-24-34 totals and was plus-14. He also played 11 games with the Canadiens earlier this season without registering a point and was plus-3. The Canadiens selected the 6-foot-2, 193-pound Engstrom in the third round (92nd overall) of the 2022 NHL Draft.

While Engstrom shoots left, he is comfortable playing on the right side, which he has done in Laval. Carrier and Noah Dobson are the only two right-shot defencemen the Canadiens have.

The Canadiens are on a season-high five-game winning streak and are in third place in the Atlantic Division with a 42-21-10 record. They trail the Lightning (46-21-6) and Buffalo Sabres (45-21-8) by four points.

This will be the third and final regular-season game between the Canadiens and Lightning, who could be first-round opponents in the playoffs. The Lightning won the first two games this season — 6-1 at the Bell Centre on Dec. 9 and 5-4 in a shootout at Tampa on Dec. 28. Jonas Johansson started in goal for Tampa in both games.

The Canadiens have a 3-5-2 record in their last 10 games against Tampa. Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov has 20-28-48 totals in 39 career games against the Canadiens. Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy has a career 16-3-2 record against the Canadiens, along with a .931 save percentage. 

This is the third game of a five-game road trip for the Canadiens, who will face the Rangers Thursday in New York and the Devils Saturday in New Jersey before returning home to face the Devils again Sunday at the Bell Centre.

scowan@postmedia.com

x.com/StuCowan1

The post Canadiens defenceman Alexandre Carrier sidelined 2-4 weeks appeared first on Montreal Gazette.