Mccarron a big — and most welcome — problem
Now that the big forward is back with Icecaps, how will he be used?
Sylvain Lefebvre is always a busy man, even more so these days with his St. John’s Icecaps in the midst of a hotly-contested first-round American Hockey League playoff series against the Syracuse Crunch.
The last thing the Icecaps head coach needs is a dilemma in addition to any he might be dealing with already.
But here’s one he’s probably very happy to have: trying to figure out where to use Michael Mccarron in his lineup.
As expected, the big centre was assigned to the Icecaps by the parent Montreal Canadiens on Monday, two days after the Canadiens were bounced by the New York Rangers in their opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series.
Mccarron was the only player on the Montreal roster who was made eligible to join the Icecaps in the AHL postseason, but his addition is still a huge boost for a St. John’s team that will need to win two of the next three games against the Crunch — all to be played in Syracuse — to advance past the best-of-five North Division semifinal.
The Icecaps and Crunch, who split the first two games of the series over the weekend at Mile One Centre in St. John’s, play Game 3 Wednesday night at the Onondoga War Memorial.
Mccarron will join the IceCaps today in southern Ontario. The team flew to Toronto Monday afternoon and will practise this morning just outside Hamilton before busing on to Syracuse.
As the official announcement of Mccarron’s assignment was made Monday afternoon, Lefebvre wasn’t commenting about the second-year forward after a morning optional skate Monday morning at Mile One, so it will be interesting to find out how he will be used in practice today.
Mccarron hasn’t played for St. John’s since being recalled to Montreal 10 weeks ago. At that time, he had been centring a line that had Stefan Matteau and Max Friberg on the wings, but that was when Jacob de la Rose was with Montreal. After de la Rose was reassigned to St. John’s (just as Mccarron was recalled), he found himself as Friberg’s and Matteau’s centre and they have become the IceCaps’ most consistent line.
It is unlikely they will be broken up on Mccarron’s return.
A likelier possibility is for McCarron to return as centre for St. John’s top offensive unit between leading scorers Charles Hudon and Chris Terry just as had been the case for a number of games earlier this season. But that would mean Terry would slide back to the wing and leave Lefebvre looking for a new slot for a bumped-out Nikita Scherbak.
Another option is for McCarron to take over for rookie Daniel Audette on a line with wingers Bobby Farnham and Yannick Veilleux, although there could be questions about why a player who has spent the last two months in Montreal and was being used on what ostensibly has been the Icecaps’ third line.
Whatever the case, there will be a change to one 0f the top three forward units, all of which have remained pretty well intact the last six weeks. And wherever he is slotted, it is a guarantee that Mccarron will be featured on the power play and on important faceoffs, providing an option to de la Rose, who has been the go-to player in latter situations.
Mccarron appeared in only playoff game for Montreal, a 3-1 loss in Sunday’s deciding Game 6 against the Rangers, where he recorded no points while playing on the fourth line with Dwight King and Steve Ott.
In 31 regular-season games for the Canadiens in 2016-17 Mccarron had a goal and fours assists. In 32 games with St. John’s before his February recall, he had seven goals and 12 assists.
While Mccarron will play for the Icecaps Wednesday, in Game 4 Friday and any necessary Game 5 on Saturday, Lefebvre says winger Daniel Carr, who is recovering from concussion symptoms, is unlikely to participate in the series even though he has taken part in full practices recently.