Defenseman Jeremy Lauzon has found a connection in fellow Quebec native Alexandre Carrier.

-- Photo By George Walker Iv | Ap

Much attention in hockey is paid to forward lines, but defense pairings are just as important to a team’s success or lack thereof.

Up front, the Predators top forward line of Filip Forsberg, Ryan O’Reilly, and Gustav Nyquist has been a fixture in the lineup each night, while the other three forward lines have been mixed and matched almost nightly.

When assembling defensive pairings, coaches look for different things. Some like to have one left-handed shooting blueliner paired with a right-handed shooter, others might like to have a mobile defenseman paired with a more stay-at-home partner, and there are numerous other factors that go into putting a pair together.

Veteran defensemen Ryan McDonagh and Luke Schenn are both players north of 900 regular season games played. They have been paired together frequently this season, but over their careers, they have had several playing partners.

“We’ve kind of seen a lot of things in our day here and career,” McDonagh says. “Our chemistry picks up a little bit quicker.”

Another duo that has been together a lot this season has been the Quebecois combination of Jeremy Lauzon and Alexandre Carrier. Just a year apart in age, Carrier is 27 and Lauzon 26, and hailing from the Province of Quebec, the two didn’t know each other growing up, but they knew of each other from playing against one another in their junior hockey days in the Quebec Major Junior League.

Following Lauzon’s trade to Nashville in 2022, the two clicked both on and off the ice.

“The second I got traded here, we started to be really close and hang out,” Lauzon says. “Our fiancees are really close together, too.”

They are so close, the two couples are getting married one week apart during the upcoming offseason at the same location, something that happened without the couples planning it that way.

Developing chemistry on the ice can sometimes be immediate, but often it takes time to get to know a teammate’s habits and what they will do in each situation that happens during a game.

After a fairly rocky start to his time as a Predator, Lauzon has had a breakthrough season. Nashville traded a second-round draft pick to Seattle in exchange for Lauzon and then signed him to a four-year, $8 million deal. He sits atop the NHL in hits and has seen his ice time increase to almost 18 minutes per game.

Lauzon feels his success has a lot to do with his comfort level playing with Carrier.

“We’re two really good skaters,” Lauzon says. “Obviously, he loves to jump in the rush and create offensively. Down low, I try to just win battles for him and let him do his thing defensively.”

Like all successful relationships, good communication is key. While both Carrier and Lauzon are bilingual, they naturally tend to trend toward French when talking on the ice.

For consistency – and so everyone knows what everyone else is saying – English is expected to be spoken on the bench and in the locker room. But sometimes, when emotions are high, French is the default for Carrier and Lauzon.

“I think for the respect of our teammates and our coaches on the bench we always try to speak English, but sometimes it slips a little bit,” Lauzon says.

Schenn was succinct and even channeled his inner Crash Davis from “Bull Durham” a little when summarizing what it’s like playing with different partners.

“At the end of the day, you’ve got to execute with whoever you play with,” Schenn says.

Very true, Luke…and the good lord willing, things will work out.