Montreal Alouettes head coach Jason Maas touted the performance of special teams player Alexandre Gagné in his team’s season-opening win over Toronto, during which the veteran racked up seven special teams tackles.
“He was hunting like hell that night,” Maas told the media on Monday. “Whenever your captains of your team are leading my example, I think that’s a great thing. Gagné’s done that since I’ve gotten here, he’s been our special teams captain the whole time.”
The 33-year-old native of St. Hubert, Que. tied the CFL’s single-game record for special teams tackles, which is shared by Paul Clatney, Terry Wright, Brendan Rogers, Norman Bradford, Donovan Gans, Darren Joseph, and Mike Miller.
Gagné helped limit Toronto returner Calvin Turner Jr. to only 26 yards on five punt returns as the Alouettes won 28-10 in front of their home crowd.
“After the sixth, I think, people came and whispered in my ears that I was one away from tying the record,” said Gagné. “It was nice to be able to do that for the Montreal Alouettes and doing it in the first game of the year is fun, it makes you excited for the other games.”
Miller, who now serves as Winnipeg’s special teams coordinator, holds the all-time league record with 226 career special teams tackles. After his incredible Week 1 performance, Gagné now has 111 special teams tackles over 106 career games as a member of Saskatchewan and Montreal.
It should be noted that the CFL has only calculated special teams tackles as an official statistic since 1991.
Maas feels Gagné’s contributions to the Alouettes go well beyond tackling, touting his blocking and leadership. James Letcher Jr. noted a 67-yard kickoff return in Montreal’s season-opener, which helped set-up a one-yard touchdown plunge from Caleb Evans.
“The things that people don’t see are the blocking and he blocked and mauled like crazy, so he not only had seven special teams tackles but he was the special teams player of the week because of all the things he was doing,” said Maas.
“As a captain, he went with all the rookies to play in that second preseason game — that should tell you all you need to know about Gagné.”
The Montreal Alouettes (1-0) will visit the Ottawa Redblacks (0-1) at TD Place Stadium on Friday, June 13 with kickoff slated for 7:30 p.m. EDT.
