Rocket Weekly: Starting March on a good note
After a tough week, Laval was able to rebound nicely, picking up a pair of victories against two division rivals to retain the second seed in the North Division as the calendar flips to March.
The Week That Was
Feb. 26: Laval 5, Toronto 4 – In a rare morning game, the play was sloppy to start, especially by the Rocket. However, they still managed to get two goals on three shots to stay afloat. They were able to carry a three-goal lead into the final two minutes of play but the Marlies didn’t go quietly, scoring twice with the goalie out to make it interesting but Laval was able to avenge their loss from a couple of weeks before.
Mar. 1: Laval 4, Belleville 1 – The Senators have been a thorn in Laval’s side this season (even last year, honestly) but this time, they had a chance to take advantage of some Belleville penalty trouble. The Rocket had three power plays in the second period and scored on all three of them while Jared Davidson added an even-strength tally before the period ended. That was more than enough of a lead for Connor Hughes whose shutout bid was spoiled with four seconds left in the game.
StatPack
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | SOG | PIMS |
| 10 | Joshua Roy | 2 | 1 | 0 | E | 11 | 4 |
| 11 | Rafael Harvey-Pinard | 2 | 0 | 1 | E | 3 | 2 |
| 12 | Alex Barre-Boulet | 2 | 2 | 2 | +1 | 5 | 2 |
| 15 | Sean Farrell | 2 | 1 | 2 | +1 | 2 | 0 |
| 16 | Alex Beaucage | 2 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 2 |
| 21 | Riley Kidney | 2 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 1 | 2 |
| 23 | Tyler Wotherspoon | 2 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 0 |
| 24 | Logan Mailloux | 2 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 2 | 2 |
| 27 | Laurent Dauphin | 2 | 1 | 3 | +1 | 8 | 2 |
| 42 | Lucas Condotta | 2 | 1 | 1 | E | 2 | 5 |
| 49 | Jared Davidson | 2 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 7 | 0 |
| 56 | Adam Engstrom | 2 | 0 | 1 | +2 | 2 | 4 |
| 63 | Florian Xhekaj | 2 | 1 | 2 | +3 | 3 | 4 |
| 64 | David Reinbacher | 2 | 0 | 1 | +2 | 0 | 2 |
| 65 | Zack Hayes | 2 | 0 | 0 | E | 1 | 0 |
| 79 | Logan Nijhoff | 2 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 0 |
| 81 | Xavier Simoneau | 1 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 1 | 2 |
| 84 | William Trudeau | 2 | 0 | 1 | +3 | 4 | 0 |
| 86 | Jakov Novak | 2 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 0 | 0 |
Goalies:
| # | Player | Record | GAA | SV% | SO |
| 30 | Cayden Primeau | 1-0-0 | 4.00 | .882 | 0 |
| 31 | Connor Hughes | 1-0-0 | 1.00 | .962 | 0 |
Team Leaders:
Goals: Jared Davidson (18)
Assists: Alex Barre-Boulet (30)
Points: Alex Barre-Boulet (44)
+/-: Jared Davidson (+17)
PIMS: Florian Xhekaj (130)
Shots: Joshua Roy (153)
News and Notes
– The bad news on the injury front continues. Filip Mesar is out four-to-six weeks with an upper-body injury while Noel Hoefenmayer is out four-to-six weeks with a lower-body injury. Both players should be back for the final stretch but for a team already missing several regulars, this only adds to the injury crunch.
– There was at least a bit of good news, however, as Xavier Simoneau returned to the lineup after missing a little over a month. Unfortunately, that might be it for the list of players due to come back relatively soon.
– Joshua Roy has 32 points in 43 games with Laval this season. Last year, he had 32 points in 41 appearances. I think it’s fair to say the Habs were hoping he’d be able to improve at least a little bit on last season’s pace.
Last Game’s Lines
Farrell – Dauphin – Barre-Boulet
Harvey-Pinard – Condotta – Roy
Simoneau – Xhekaj – Davidson
Nijhoff – Kidney – Novak
Wotherspoon – Mailloux
Engstrom – Reinbacher
Hayes – Trudeau
The Week Ahead
Wednesday vs Utica – The Comets are at the bottom of the North Division but they’ve won four straight games and just got starter Nico Daws back since Jacob Markstrom returned for New Jersey. However, they don’t have top youngster Simon Nemec who is back up with the Devils for the time being. They’re also without blueliner Seamus Casey, a similar-styled defenceman as Lane Hutson as he’s also up with the big club.
Friday/Saturday vs Rochester – The Americans have overtaken Laval for the number one seed in the division and have recorded at least a point in six straight games. Needless to say, this is an important couple of games in the battle for first. They only have four double-digit scorers despite being the highest-scoring team in the league but Isak Rosen and Brett Murray are in the top ten league-wide in goals.
Final Thought
With the trade deadline almost here in the NHL, it will be interesting to see who is papered down and then recalled. Owen Beck should be a near-certainty but Jakub Dobes isn’t quite as certain. Even with a paper transaction, the Habs need to have two goalies on the roster for that minute when the move is done so if they need to paper Dobes down, someone needs to be coming up (or signed for the day), removing their eligibility for the rest of the way. With that in mind, do they keep Dobes up for the duration and retain one of their four allowable recalls and then see if Dobes can get picked for the Czech roster for the Worlds in May to get his extra work in then?
Emil Heineman, Lane Hutson, and Arber Xhekaj are the other waiver-exempt players on the roster but it’s unlikely any of them will go down. With Beck being an obvious paper candidate, the intrigue for me on Friday on this front will be what happens with Dobes. On the surface, he seems like a logical candidate to go down but the more I think of it, the more I think they might not do it, even with Laval being in line for what they hope is a long playoff run. We’ll see what happens soon enough.