After a five-game week, Laval got a small break on the schedule with only three although they were all on the road. The Rocket weren’t able to come away with a win but managed to get to overtime in all three games, making it a reasonably successful week in the standings.
The Week That Was
Nov. 22: Rochester 4, Laval 3 (OT) – The Rocket got some secondary scoring in this one with Alex-Olivier Voyer getting his first of the year and Xavier Simoneau his third; his goal came in the third to tie it up. Joel Armia also picked up a shorthanded goal for the second straight game. However, a slashing penalty to Sean Farrell in overtime proved costly, setting up Jiri Kulich to score the winner with the man advantage.
Nov. 24: Rochester 3, Laval 2 (OT) – Once again, it was the depth players providing the offence with Jan Mysak and Riley Kidney picking up their second of the season. (No shorthanded goal from Armia, however, though there was a good reason for that.) Laval survived two penalty kills in the third and it looked like the game was heading for a shootout before a long breakout feed helped set up Isak Rosen to score the winner with seven seconds left. Both Rosen and Kulich have since been recalled to Buffalo.
Nov. 25: Syracuse 4, Laval 3 (OT) – J-F Houle expected a physical game, opting to sit Simoneau and Jared Davidson for this one in favour of Riley McKay and John Parker-Jones. Special teams were important in this one with the Crunch scoring twice on the power play while Laval failed to cash on five opportunities. The Rocket held the lead for a good chunk of this one but Syracuse tied it midway through the third and scored the only shootout goal, spoiling a good performance from Jakub Dobes in net.
StatPack
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | SOG | PIMS |
| 4 | Tobie Bisson | 3 | 0 | 1 | E | 7 | 2 |
| 10 | Joshua Roy | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 10 | 2 |
| 13 | Nicolas Beaudin | 3 | 0 | 1 | +2 | 3 | 4 |
| 14 | Jan Mysak | 3 | 2 | 0 | +2 | 9 | 0 |
| 15 | Sean Farrell | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 2 |
| 17 | Nathan Legare | 3 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 7 | 0 |
| 21 | Riley Kidney | 3 | 2 | 1 | +3 | 6 | 2 |
| 23 | Nolan Yaremko | 3 | 0 | 2 | +1 | 4 | 6 |
| 24 | Logan Mailloux | 3 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 8 | 0 |
| 25 | Brady Keeper | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 2 |
| 27 | Mitchell Stephens | 2 | 0 | 2 | +1 | 3 | 2 |
| 37 | Brandon Gignac | 3 | 1 | 0 | E | 7 | 2 |
| 40 | Joel Armia | 1 | 1 | 0 | E | 5 | 0 |
| 42 | Lucas Condotta | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 7 | 0 |
| 43 | Alex-Olivier Voyer | 3 | 1 | 0 | E | 3 | 0 |
| 44 | Olivier Galipeau | 3 | 0 | 5 | +5 | 6 | 2 |
| 49 | Jared Davidson | 1 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 3 | 0 |
| 61 | Philippe Maillet | 4 | 0 | 4 | +2 | 3 | 0 |
| 68 | Riley McKay | 2 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 2 | 0 |
| 81 | Xavier Simoneau | 2 | 1 | 0 | -1 | 2 | 22 |
| 84 | William Trudeau | 2 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 5 | 2 |
| 85 | John Parker-Jones | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 0 |
Goalies:
| # | Player | Record | GAA | SV% | SO |
| 38 | Strauss Mann | 0-0-1 | 2.77 | .914 | 0 |
| 71 | Jakub Dobes | 1-1-0 | 3.28 | .900 | 0 |
Shootout – Skaters:
| # | Player | G/ATT |
| 10 | Joshua Roy | 0/1 |
| 15 | Sean Farrell | 0/1 |
| 27 | Mitchell Stephens | 0/1 |
Shootout – Goalies:
| # | Player | SVS/SF |
| 71 | Jakub Dobes | 1/2 |
Team Leaders:
Goals: Andersson/Roy (7)
Assists: Joshua Roy (11)
Points: Joshua Roy (18)
+/-: Bisson/Stephens (+7)
PIMS: Xavier Simoneau (42)
Shots: Joshua Roy (63)
News and Notes
– Jayden Struble, Mattias Norlinder, and Joel Armia were all recalled to Montreal to cover for their injuries. However, Laval didn’t need to make any corresponding recalls from Trois-Rivieres to replace those players.
– That’s because Riley McKay, John Parker-Jones, and Mitchell Stephens were able to return from their injuries while Laval still has six healthy blueliners on the roster.
– Gabriel Bourque (lower body) and Emil Heineman (upper body) are skating as they work their way back from their respective injuries. Meanwhile, Philippe Maillet will miss a couple of weeks with an upper-body injury.
Last Game’s Lines:
Condotta – Gignac – Roy
Kidney – Stephens – Farrell
McKay – Mysak – Legare
Parker-Jones – Yaremko – Voyer
Paquette-Bisson – Mailloux
Trudeau – Galipeau
Beaudin – Keeper
The Week Ahead
Friday/Saturday: The season-long six-game road trip comes to an end with a pair of games against the Canucks, a team who just lost one of their top scorers (Nils Aman) to recall. They’re a bit more of a veteran-laden team although they have a pair of notable young forwards off to good starts in Aatu Raty and Vasily Podkolzin. They’re the highest-scoring team in the West and given Laval’s defensive and goaltending struggles, these could be high-scoring affairs.
Final Thought
We’re near the one-quarter mark of the season so there is a reasonable sample size to work with when it comes to judging Logan Mailloux. Basically, the scouting report on him from junior has carried over to the pros.
Offensively, he’s an above-average player already at the AHL level. He hasn’t seen a ton of top power play time but is their top point producer among blueliners. That’s the good part. The bad part is that his in-zone play has been consistently inconsistent as expected. Some of the decisions have just been real head-scratches. To be fair, that’s not entirely unexpected and considering it’s his first professional season, there’s plenty of time for that to improve.
But those defensive zone struggles are why he was passed over twice for recalls this past week with Jayden Struble and Mattias Norlinder being selected. Struble is there on merit while Norlinder had a strong training camp and some time skating with the big club could help turn around his tough start. All things considered, it has been a decent start to Mailloux’s professional career but he still has a long way to go to be trusted as a potential recall. Patience is always needed with young blueliners but especially him. Mailloux getting passed over for a recall was the right call.