Laval Rocket: Laval Rocket at Utica Comets 3:00 pm

[Pompeius Magnus]

Having AHL caliber goaltending makes a pretty big difference, especially with all the young players. You can tell the confidence level is on another level right now.

 

[Matthew McConaughay]

Having AHL caliber goaltending makes a pretty big difference, especially with all the young players. You can tell the confidence level is on another level right now.

That finish goalie is quite good.

 

[DAChampion]

The current dominance is not just due to Xhekaj joining the team, I think the Rocket began to turn things around when Dobes stabilized.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

That finish goalie is quite good.

Dobes has taken the next step as well. He's playing like a bona fide pro goalie now.

 

[Ezpz]

Like I mentioned in the Laval thread, the rest of the season they essentially play bottom ten teams 90% of the time. It would be a huge fail to miss the playoffs with how much easier their schedule is.

It's still good to see 8 wins in the last ten with heavy contributions from the young guys though.

 

[dackelljuneaubulis02]

Farrell Assist - 0:19
Mailloux Goal - 5:52
Davidson Goal - 9:17
One too Many Passes - 3:40

check out the steal from Roy at 3:40 and had they pulled it off what have been a highlight reel goal

Nice to see Roy have one of his 10 chance filled games like he did in the beginning. He’s a little cavalier with the puck at times but all in all he looked great. Nice net clear near the end of regulation there. He’s pretty strong.

That was an absolutely insane rush by Norlinder. I’ll hold out the smallest amount of hope for him. Wonder what his deal is.

That Mailloux wrister is nuts

 

[montreal]

The current dominance is not just due to Xhekaj joining the team, I think the Rocket began to turn things around when Dobes stabilized.

Correct, Dobes first 3 games he let in 15 goals since then he's let in 47 goals in 17 games.

But this team is playing different since Xhekaj went down as it's helped out the D so much as it means you take a struggling Trudeau off the top pairing and top him down to the 3rd pairing (or 2nd as I don't know the stats on TOI but I would guess he's now the 3rd pairing). So Trudeau has mostly been much better when he's not tasked with top pairing duties since Struble left as there was no one to replace his steady play.

Having Xhekaj also seems to be helping Mailloux out a lot as he is looking his best since being in Laval in his short time so far. The mistakes will still happen but overall he just seems to be playing much more confident and the mistakes have toned down though Xhekaj makes a few of his own.

Dobes has taken the next step as well. He's playing like a bona fide pro goalie now.

I was shocked that he was so bad in those first few games and he is still way too aggressive and over plays his angles plus I think they league is keeping an eye on him knocking the net off. I saw one ref talk to him but it's something he did in the NCAA as well where he gets moving around and bangs into his net so hard it gets knocked off.

But now that he's really turned things around, which is very impressive considering how ugly things got to start but it says a lot that he could battle through it and find his game. Next season should be very interesting to see if he can take a big step forward or not.

Nice to see Roy have one of his 10 chance filled games like he did in the beginning. He’s a little cavalier with the puck at times but all in all he looked great. Nice net clear near the end of regulation there. He’s pretty strong.

That was an absolutely insane rush by Norlinder. I’ll hold out the smallest amount of hope for him. Wonder what his deal is.

That Mailloux wrister is nuts

Roy knows he's better off not over handling the puck as he often seems quick to dish it off when rushing up ice but he's so slick with the soft touch of his passes. The Habs will likely badly need him to figure things out as the skill level is no doubt high as is the IQ. If the physical tools can just keep improving, it's going to be fun watching him progress.

Norlinder I sort of wonder if his problem is a bit like Scherbaks, just doesn't take it serious enough as he just looks way too laid back and then you see when the light blub goes off and he suddenly realizes that oh shit I got to get moving and kicks it into the next gear. So you know he has that gear but he almost never shows it.

It's usually never a good sign though when you have a skilled prospect and he doesn't play his kind of game at all. It was similar with Josh Brook as these guys were both known for rushing the puck up ice but in Laval they just never seem to do what in the WHL or Allsvenskan worked for them there.

With Brook I thought it was confidence and lack of physical strength with not being smart enough but then the knee injury happened but even before that he was far from what I had thought he would have shown in the AHL. Norlinder has been more frustrating as Brook kept getting better he was just really terrible to start. Norlinder showed good progress last year but this year he looked like someone that didn't get the message that his NHL hopes were trending to being on life support yet he played his worst hockey at times this season.

 

[MarkovsKnee]

They need to open the throttle, go flat out, put the pedal to the metal, not look back,

Hey Don, you just get back from a cliche conference or something?

The pedal to the metal is flat out open to throttle.