(Tampa) The good news, when you’re last in something, it’s usually only going to get better.
These days, it’s not going so well for the Canadian. It’s not going well in the air, where the club had a significant delay in the day on Tuesday, to the point of arriving in Tampa only in the late afternoon … and jumping on the ice for a practice at 6 p.m., which is pretty unusual, when you think about it.
It’s not going so well on the ice either, where the club have won only 3 of their last 10 games. The Canadian will try to recover a bit by facing the Lightning here this Wednesday night.
Above all, things are not going well on the power play, the club only converting 14.3% of their chances in these circumstances, the worst percentage in the league in this regard.
Maybe that explains the presence of young Justin Barron around here.
Barron comes on after playing 25 games with the Laval Rocket this season. In the American League, the 21-year-old defenseman managed 7 goals, but the most important thing is that 5 of those 7 goals were obtained on the power play, a league high.
It’s still pretty good, since the Canadian needs reinforcements in this very important aspect of the game…
“We haven’t made a decision on the training yet, we haven’t skated for three days, so we’ll see, Martin St-Louis was content to answer. I didn’t know Barron very well, but we saw him play here last week, I liked his game in general. He had given us good hockey and his potential is high. »
Barron, he learned the good news of his recall in the middle of Christmas Eve. “My Christmas turned out to be even better this year,” he admitted upon arriving in Tampa. I am enthusiastic and happy to be back with the team. I now hope to get a chance to play. »
This recall means that the Canadian now has seven defenders on hand. Injured, David Savard and Mike Matheson did not accompany the rest of the team to Florida. Another injured, Brendan Gallagher, also made the trip, but he will not play this Wednesday in Tampa.
It remains to be seen if Barron will have the opportunity to do more than tourism during this passage of the Canadian in Florida. After Wednesday’s game in Tampa, the Canadian will travel to Sunrise on Thursday to face the Panthers. Either way, he’ll be ready.
“I think I improved with the Rocket, added the young man Tuesday arriving in Tampa. It was a disappointment to have to go to the American League at the start of the season, but I wanted to improve my defensive game and become a tougher player to play against. That’s what I did, I think. »