Daniel Carr will get chance to help ailing power play
While not the biggest or fastest on the ice, he is fearless in pursuit of the puck
Daniel Carr wants to make one thing perfectly clear.
“OK, Gally lied the other day,” Carr said about his teammate Brendan Gallagher after the Canadiens practised Tuesday in Brossard. “He told the media that they always beat us when we were kids … that’s not true. That’s actually the opposite.”
Last week, Gallagher was talking about how he used to play summer hockey against Carr when they were young boys growing up in Sherwood Park, Alta.
“His team always lost,” Gallagher said with a smile at the time. “I’m not even kidding … I don’t think they ever beat us.”
Whatever the final results were in those games, Gallagher said one thing has never changed about Carr: he has always been able to score goals.
Since getting called up from the AHL’s Laval Rocket at the end of last month, Carr has at least one point in all five games he has played with the Canadiens, posting 2-5-7 totals. At practice Wednesday, Carr found himself on one of the Canadiens’ two power-play units along with Gallagher and Max Pacioretty up front, with Alex Galchenyuk and Jeff Petry on the points. The second power-play unit had Charles Hudon, Jonathan Drouin and Andrew Shaw up front with Shea Weber and David Schlemko on the points.
The Canadiens rank 20th in the NHL on the power play with a 17.82 per cent success rate and coach Claude Julien is obviously hoping Carr can provide a spark after being a regular on the power play in Laval, where he posted 118-19 totals in 20 games. Julien took a day off from speaking with the media Wednesday.
“It’s one of those things where you just kind of got to be ready and see what happens,” Carr said after Wednesday’s practice. “I think the guys out there are doing a good job right now creating a lot of opportunities. It’s one of those things … just make sure you’re ready. That’s all you can do.”
Carr isn’t the fastest player on the ice or the biggest at six feet and 193 pounds. But he can win puck battles and isn’t afraid to go to the dirty areas on the ice.
“To get opportunities you got to have the puck, so I think that’s a big thing on the power play,” Carr said.
You also have to be able to finish the scoring chances when they come.
Carr said there are two reasons why he has always had success scoring goals.
“One, you look at where the goals are scored in any league and it’s kind of right around the net,” Carr said on Tuesday. “You look at how Brendan scores all his goals. He’s the same way … he goes to the net and that’s where he scores. I think that’s where you got to go if you want to score. And the other thing, I think, is practice. That’s the big thing. That was a big thing I was taught when I was a kid, just about working at things.”
Carr is trying to enjoy the ride with the Canadiens for as long as it lasts, saying: “It’s my dream to play here in the NHL and I’ll do whatever I can to stay.”
When asked if he will definitely be on the power play Thursday night when the New Jersey Devils visit the Bell Centre (7:30 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN Radio 690) Carr said: “You’re way ahead of me right now.”
But Carr admitted it’s hard for him not to think ahead to the Canadiens’ road trip to Western Canada next week and a game against the Oilers next Saturday near his hometown in Edmonton.
“I’m trying to stay day-by-day right now,” he said. “It’s a little hard right now because I would be pretty excited to be there. But day-by-day.”