Alexandre Texier's Olympic Games came to an end on Tuesday, but he's learned a lot, and he's excited to get back to Montreal.
Nobody expected France to make the quarterfinals when the Olympic tournament kicked off. After all, they were among the last teams to qualify at the end of Summer 2024, and had Russia been allowed to compete, they might not have made it. Still, the French hoped to put on a good fight and make their country proud. Their lineup only included a single active NHLer in Montreal Canadiens’ winger Alexandre Texier.
The 26-year-old had been dealing with a lower-body injury in the run-up to the Olympic break and hadn’t played for the Habs since January 29, meaning he had missed Montreal’s last three games before the break and hadn’t played in two weeks by the time the puck dropped on France’s first preliminary round matchup.
Hardly winning circumstances for the forward who still took part in France’s four games in the Olympic tournament, but he was held off the scoresheet all the way through and finished the competition on Tuesday with a minus-10 rating.
The French had an opportunity to qualify for the quarterfinals when they took on Germany on Tuesday morning, but Leon Draisaitl and co. were just too strong for them, winning 5-1. With that loss, the French were officially eliminated, and Texier missed an opportunity to go head-to-head with teammate Juraj Slafkovsky in Italy.
Speaking after the game, he said:
We can’t get a do-over; it’s finished. It was a good experience, and we’ll learn from it. It’s exciting that we can now take the lead in improving. We have a lot to improve, be it on or off the ice. Our young guys have learned, they’re motivated to take over. As for the veterans who won’t play again (Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said he wouldn’t be back when the games are held in the French Alps in 2030), for everything they’ve given for us, I have a lot of respect. They’re passing the torch over to us, and it’s our turn to carry it, which we’ll be proud to do. Life goes on, it’s not the end of the world, we all go back to our clubs, I’m excited to go back to Montreal, and carry on, but we gave all we had for France. We didn’t play a perfect game, but we gave our all to represent our country as well as we could.
When the games are held in the French Alps, Texier will be 30 years old, and if things go well for him with the Canadiens, he could very well be back to represent the host nation. Texier’s timing to head back to Montreal isn’t bad at all since the Habs are set to resume training on Tuesday at 3:00 PM.
They’re also scheduled to take to the ice in Brossard on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday before holding their annual skills competition at the Bell Centre on Sunday. If things go according to plan for Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky, they’ll be missing the event and playing in the gold medal game, but there’s plenty of hockey left to be played before that happens.
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