Rocket Weekly: A Tough Road Split
Laval had a tough back-to-back set on the road last week. They didn’t play particularly well in either game but Kaapo Kahkonen helped steal a win in Rochester to help them split the week.
The Week That Was
Jan. 9: Laval 3, Rochester 2 – The Rocket had a good stretch to start the second period in this game, getting three goals in the first 3:21. Normally, that should be enough to comfortably win but Rochester overwhelmed Laval from there. Kahkonen stole the show with 47 saves, his second-highest total in the AHL (his highest was 49 back in March 2019) and that was just enough to give the Rocket the two points.
Jan. 10: Syracuse 3, Laval 2 – This time, Laval started strong in the first with a pair of quick goals. However, they couldn’t muster up much offence the rest of the way and special teams let them down. The Crunch scored twice on the power play (in three chances) and once on a Rocket man advantage (which went 0/5). That was the difference and got Syracuse back into second place in the North Division.
StatPack
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | SOG | PIMS |
| 2 | Marc Del Gaizo | 2 | 0 | 0 | E | 3 | 0 |
| 4 | Tobie Bisson | 2 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Tyler Thorpe | 2 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 2 | 0 |
| 15 | Sean Farrell | 2 | 1 | 1 | +1 | 5 | 2 |
| 17 | Alex Tuch | 2 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| 18 | Vincent Arseneau | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 1 | 2 |
| 22 | Alex Belzile | 2 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 4 | 2 |
| 26 | Will Dineen | 2 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | Laurent Dauphin | 1 | 0 | 1 | E | 0 | 0 |
| 28 | Josh Jacobs | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 0 |
| 42 | Lucas Condotta | 2 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 4 | 0 |
| 44 | Josiah Didier | 1 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| 48 | Filip Mesar | 2 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 5 | 0 |
| 49 | Jared Davidson | 2 | 1 | 2 | +1 | 2 | 0 |
| 56 | Adam Engstrom | 2 | 1 | 1 | +1 | 7 | 4 |
| 63 | Florian Xhekaj | 2 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 1 | 2 |
| 64 | David Reinbacher | 2 | 0 | 0 | +2 | 1 | 0 |
| 77 | Joe Dunlap | 2 | 0 | 0 | E | 1 | 2 |
| 81 | Xavier Simoneau | 2 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 1 | 2 |
| 84 | William Trudeau | 2 | 1 | 0 | +2 | 3 | 2 |
Goalies:
| # | Player | Record | GAA | SV% | SO |
| 34 | Kaapo Kahkonen | 1-1-0 | 2.57 | .935 | 0 |
Team Leaders:
Goals: Alex Belzile (18)
Assists: Laurent Dauphin (28)
Points: Laurent Dauphin (39)
+/-: Laurent Dauphin (+22)
PIMS: Florian Xhekaj (74)
Shots: Alex Belzile (89)
News and Notes
– Laval got a key player back from Montreal with defenceman Adam Engstrom being sent down with Kaiden Guhle coming off LTIR.
– However, they’re also now missing a key player as winger Joshua Roy is out four to six weeks with an upper-body injury.
– Rocket head coach Pascal Vincent has been named the North Division’s head coach for next month’s All-Star game. It’s the second time he’ll take part in the event having coached the Central Division back in 2018.
Last Game’s Lines:
Farrell – Dauphin – Belzile
Simoneau – Condotta – Mesar
Tuch – Xhekaj – Davidson
Dunlap – Dineen – Thorpe
Trudeau – Engstrom
Paquette-Bisson – Reinbacher
Del Gaizo – Jacobs
The Week Ahead
Wednesday vs Belleville – If it feels like Laval has played the Senators a ton already, it’s because they have. This will be the eighth matchup of the season already with the Rocket having taken five of them. Laurent Dauphin is averaging nearly two points per game against the Sens so far while Arthur Kaliyev has taken over the AHL lead in scoring, sitting two points ahead of Dauphin in second. While James Reimer signed with Belleville last weekend, he won’t be in their lineup as he’s already up with Ottawa.
Friday/Saturday vs Manitoba – The Moose have scored the fewest goals of any playoff team in the league and only have three players who have reached 20 points; Walker Duehr and David Gustafsson lead with 21 apiece. But they are also one of the stingier teams defensively with a good young goalie tandem in Dominic DiVincentis and Thomas Milic. The two teams split the games in Manitoba earlier this season.
Final Thought
The Habs haven’t been active in free agency in recent years but they’ve attempted to bring in pieces that can help in Laval. Sometimes, they look for a player who’s perceived to be a potential change of scenery candidate in the hopes that a new environment could get the player to reach another level. Between the Canadiens and Rocket, they brought in a few of those players over the offseason.
One of those was defenceman Nate Clurman. A stay-at-home player in Pittsburgh’s system, the hope was that he could fill that role with the Rocket and maybe even play his way up the depth chart with David Reinbacher being the only other righty in the mix, Perhaps, even, get a game or two with the big club; he got one with the Penguins last season. Instead, the opposite has happened. He was a healthy scratch in both games last week, an outcome that has happened a few times now. He has fallen into a rotation with veterans Josh Jacobs and Josiah Didier and having a player on an NHL contract who can’t crack the lineup on a regular basis isn’t a good thing.
Granted, the back end is healthy which is a good thing. But it’s fair to say that the Habs were hoping Clurman would be more impactful than he has been so far. We’re still the better part of a couple of months out from the trade deadline but part of me wonders if Montreal might look to try someone else and look to flip Clurman for another change of scenery player. With these types of signings, the success rate isn’t overly high and through the first half of the season, Clurman doesn’t appear to be one of the outliers.