Rocket Weekly: A Tough Divisional Road Trip

The road wasn’t particularly kind to Laval last week.  Despite some promising matchups on paper, they were only able to come away with one win out of their three games with some defensive struggles along the way.

The Week That Was

Oct. 22: Belleville 6, Laval 2 – With Leevi Merilainen down from Ottawa to make a spot start in this one, the Rocket did a reasonable job generating some chances on him but didn’t have much success beyond tallies from Laurent Dauphin and Adam Engstrom.  On the other hand, the Rocket didn’t give up as many shots as they had but there were some uncharacteristically bad mistakes from the back end while Jacob Fowler had a tough outing between the pipes.

Oct. 24: Rochester 4, Laval 0 – This time, Laval couldn’t muster up much from the start and didn’t get much better as the game went on.  Meanwhile, the Amerks had arguably their best overall game of the season with a trio of goals in the second period breaking things wide open.  Kaapo Kahkonen was peppered throughout the game before some Rocket players decided it was time to go for the early league lead in penalty minutes, a title they had for most of last season and the playoffs.

Oct. 25: Laval 4, Utica 2 – This was the most evenly played game of the week as the Rocket bounced back well after a clunker the night before.  Jared Davidson was the hero for Laval in this one, scoring a pair of goals, including the winner and eventual insurance marker to take over the team lead in goals.  Meanwhile, after a tough showing against the Senators, Fowler bounced back with a solid performance which was an encouraging sign.

StatPack

Skaters:

#	Player	GP	G	A	+/-	SOG	PIMS
4	Tobie Bisson	2	0	0	+1	2	0
5	Nate Clurman	3	0	0	-2	2	2
6	Tyler Thorpe	3	0	0	-3	6	10
7	Jacob Dion	3	0	0	-1	2	0
15	Sean Farrell	3	1	2	+2	6	0
17	Alex Tuch	3	0	0	-1	2	4
18	Vincent Arseneau	2	0	0	E	2	2
21	Riley Kidney	1	0	0	E	0	0
22	Alex Belzile	3	1	0	+2	5	0
25	Ryan O’Rourke	1	0	0	E	2	0
27	Laurent Dauphin	3	1	2	+2	5	4
38	Wyatte Wylie	3	0	0	-2	6	2
42	Lucas Condotta	3	0	1	+1	1	8
44	Josiah Didier	3	0	1	E	4	2
48	Filip Mesar	3	0	0	-5	5	0
49	Jared Davidson	3	2	0	-3	10	6
56	Adam Engstrom	3	1	0	-1	8	2
62	Owen Beck	3	0	1	-4	5	2
63	Florian Xhekaj	3	0	0	-2	1	14
81	Xavier Simoneau	3	0	0	+1	1	10

Goalies:

#	Player	Record	GAA	SV%	SO
1	Jacob Fowler	1-1-0	4.00	.855	0
34	Kaapo Kahkonen	0-1-0	4.00	.895	0

Team Leaders:

Goals: Jared Davidson (4)
Assists: Dauphin/Farrell (4)
Points: Laurent Dauphin (7)
+/-: Belzile/Dauphin/Paquette-Bisson (+6)
PIMS: Florian Xhekaj (21)
Shots: Adam Engstrom (23)

News and Notes

– Laval didn’t have Tobie Paquette-Bisson available to them for the Belleville game which certainly contributed to some of their defensive struggles but he returned for the other two.  Meanwhile, Josiah Didier was fortunately able to come back earlier than anticipated after being injured in a fight in the home opener.

– The Rocket did lose a pair of key contributors for this past week with the recalls of defenceman Marc Del Gaizo and winger Joshua Roy to Montreal.  However, Roy’s spot was filled by Owen Beck who was sent down before the Canadiens embarked on a road trip of their own.

– Going back to last season, Sean Farrell has 23 points in his last 23 regular season games.

Last Game’s Lines:

Farrell – Dauphin – Belzile
Davidson – Condotta – Simoneau
Tuch – Beck – Mesar
Arseneau – Xhekaj – Thorpe

Engstrom– Didier
Paquette-Bisson – Clurman
Dion  – Wylie

The Week Ahead

Wednesday vs Lehigh Valley – The Phantoms are off to a decent start to their season with nine points in seven games and boast one of the younger goalie tandems in the AHL in Aleksei Kolosov and Carsen Bjarnasen who are both on their rookie contracts.  Another rookie, Karsen Dorwart, is pacing them in scoring in his first taste of AHL action after finishing up last season in Philadelphia including making his NHL debut against the Habs back in April.  Former Rocket winger Anthony Richard is a focal part of their attack once again and is a little under a point per game in the early going.

Friday/Saturday vs Rochester – The Amerks have now won three straight (including last week’s victory over Laval) to jump into second in the North Division standings.  Isak Rosen has points in six of seven games and is among the top scorers in the league early on while Zac Jones, in his first season with Buffalo after coming over in free agency from the Rangers, is the league leader in assists with nine and also leads all blueliners in scoring.

Final Thought

With Patrik Laine out for several months, there could be an opportunity for someone from Laval to come up and make an impression.  Right now, Joshua Roy is the one getting that opportunity although with just one game played that wasn’t anything to write home about, he might not be up much longer.  Owen Beck had an early chance and held his own but didn’t stake a claim to a spot.

It wouldn’t shock me if some of Laval’s forwards were thinking about this a bit, thinking that there might be an opportunity coming in the near future.  The problem is that not many players who would fit in that spot are playing well.  Both Florian Xhekaj and Luke Tuch profile as players who could fit on the fourth line if they want to give Joe Veleno a night off but both have underachieved in the early going.  Beck didn’t probably do enough since being sent down to get the next recall either. 

Jared Davidson has played better and is worthy of a chance.  I’d like to see him get a look but they were hesitant last season even when he was playing well enough to be under consideration.  Sean Farrell is off to a strong start again and could merit a recall but with the role that’s available, is he really a good fit? 

There’s an extra incentive for these prospects with Laine not coming back anytime soon.  I’m curious to see who will step up and take advantage of the opening on the roster.