Here's my take after the two Flint games. But with a caveat that I only saw the first period of Friday's game and Mailloux received a 10 minute misconduct penalty in last night's game that in essence reduced his participation to only two periods.
The Good: He continues to show elite level passing and shooting ability. His first pass is off the charts. The best I have seen in my many years of watching junior players. It will be a real weapon at the next level. Several times in last nights game he made long passes to London forwards who would have had break-a-ways if they had the skill to accept / receive a pass. Think a wide receiver in football 5 yards behind his coverage and dropping a pass. This inability was also present in the offensive zone when Mailloux was able to find an open teammate who just couldn't handle the pass. His skating with the puck remains impressive as he has the lateral skating ability going forward when carrying the puck and the stickhandling ability to evade the first forechecker and gain separation and speed through the neutral zone. This puck transporting ability puts great pressure on the defence and opens up the ice for teammates. Mailloux also started to show a physical component to his game throwing several big checks that 'de-cleted' several Flint players. And he did so rather impressively. Mailloux is large, fast and has a presence on the ice that opponents must and do respect. I really believe we are only seeing a tip of his potential. He plays at a level that is a notch higher than most of his teammates. They simply can't take advantage of his best skills. Too many times I see plays that Mailloux start die on his teammates' sticks. It was interesting to note that for one shift Mailloux played with Isiah George, another certain future NHLer. The way they played off each other showed a glimpse of what Mailloux can and will do at the next level when playing with superior players.
The Bad: Mailloux at times continues to have difficulty to defend opponents who try to go wide. He still tries to defend and contain them with his stick and shows limitations in skating laterally going backwards. There's an awkwardness, even a lack of confidence , when trying to seal off the boards against on rushing forwards. He relies on his superior reach to break up plays and often tries to use his skates to block passing and stickhandling efforts when all he has to do is stand up and take the man. It is a fear of reinjuring his shoulder? The effects of limited playing for the past 3 years? I don't know. But this deficit in his game has to be cleaned up. While Mailloux is a shooting machine, too many of his shots continue to be blocked. But this could be a result of teams making every effort to take away his shot. You have to take away his shot or sooner or later he's going to kill a goalie. Also, he has to stop trying to do everything himself. In the 12 or so games that I have watched Mailloux play this season on several occasions he has tried to beat 4 defenders on the rush. While this may work on occasion in Jr, A it has little chance of success at the OHL level. Even less so, at the NHL level. He has to learn when to keep his game simple and just use the dump and chase.
The Ugly: Unless Mailloux can improve his play in defending the rush he will largely be a one-dimensional player at the next level. With Hutson also on the horizon, that may be a luxury that this improving team can't afford.
My Assessment: Mailloux remains an intriguing and valuable prospect who has all the abilities and skills to be an impact player at the next level. I think his defensive deficiencies are correctable and I am confident that when Mailloux fills in over the next few years and gets stronger and faster he will prove to be a core player for the Canadiens in the future.
