For fans of the Montreal Canadiens, watching the NHL roster play has been a chore at times as they have had inconsistent outcomes stemming from inconsistent play. But, the Laval Rocket has been a bright spot in the Canadiens’ system. The Rocket had three games this past week, one versus the Utica Comets (NJ Devils affiliate) and two games over the weekend versus the Providence Bruins (Boston Bruins affiliate). The “baby Habs” won all three matchups. This 3-win week places Laval at the top of the North Division with an 8-1-0 record.
The week started strong, with a win at home over Utica. In this matchup, fans saw clutch performances and players stepping up in big moments, which seems to be a regular occurrence for the Rocket so far this season. They saw Riley Kidney’s first goal of the season, A two-point night for Owen Beck, a Game Winning Goal for Florian Xhekaj, and an excellent 27-save performance by Dobes who made key saves for the Rocket all night leading to a 3-2 win over the baby Devils.
But it wasn’t all good news. With only 4 seconds left in the Utica game, Jakub Dobes went down with a lower-body injury. Not much more is known about his return. Dobes finished last season with the Laval Rocket on an incredible note, he’s having a good start to the season this year, and he had a solid training camp with the Montreal Canadiens. The 23-year-old, 6-foot-5 Dobes, has had an excellent start to 2024-25 with a record of 4-0-0 and a save percentage of 0.910. The silver lining at this stage is that he is only listed as day-to-day.
Next up were the two games versus Providence, and two starts for the veteran goaltender Conor Hughes. This scenario is one of the reasons why Kent Hughes looked to Europe to sign the 28-year-old netminder, who, after his two wins this past weekend has a 4-1 record with a .937 save percentage.
As expected with any game against a Bruins-affiliated squad, the opening match was a tight-checking affair. The Rocket were consistently sticking to their defensive scheme, giving next to nothing in the dangerous areas of the ice to the Bruins. With a 1-1 tie going into the third and Laval shorthanded, it was expected to see a Rocket squad sit back, kill the penalty and bide their time to push back offensively. However, even short-handed, Laval was dangerous offensively. With only a minute of the Xavier Simoneau hooking penalty killed, Brandan Gignac pushed the play up ice, created a rushing opportunity that pushed the Providence defenders back, and with a very creative play with the puck, set up a backhand goal for Owen Beck. Who scored as he cut across the crease.
C’est beau beau beau
Insane 🤩#GoRocket https://t.co/4Db1mZV5pt pic.twitter.com/gSUhJWTFfk— Rocket de Laval (@RocketLaval) November 2, 2024
Game three on the week had Laval hosting Providence again in a back-to-back night situation. This game saw the offensive floodgates open up with the young Canadiens prospects coming out as the heroes in this 6-3 victory. Owen Beck (2 points), Logan Mailloux (4 points) and Joshua Roy (hat trick) not only provided solid defensive play but stepped up offensively.
De Mailloux, à Roy, sur l’avantage numérique 🚨
Logan➡️ Josh ➡️ 🚨#GoRocket https://t.co/rNXdG4hZlo pic.twitter.com/vE43g8J1y3— Rocket de Laval (@RocketLaval) November 2, 2024
As mentioned by Sick News’ own Grant McCagg, it is going so well for Mailloux at the AHL level that he leads all AHL defensemen in scoring and has played as many as 5 games less than anyone else in the top 5 of that category.
Mailloux is now 15th in AHL scoring, and leads all defencemen with nine points. He has only played four games.
— Grant McCagg (@grantmccagg) November 2, 2024
Injuries seem to be the bane of the Canadiens’ system’s existence. Dobes, mentioned above has a minor injury, Filip Mesar is out for 6-8 weeks at a time when he was starting to shine in the pro ranks and who can forget the loss of David Reinbacher for 4-6 months. The good news is that the Habs prospects who are still healthy and currently playing in the AHL are showing signs of positive development, and it’s also showing up in the outcomes of games: three wins, and three solid performances by the entire roster. The team has provided quality performances every time they take to the ice. Some of this is due to the sheer number of skilled players added to the roster as the Habs’ prospects reach the professional ranks, but some of this has to do with the coaching of newly minted head coach Pascal Vincent.
Vincent is an experienced AHL coach who is an excellent communicator. This is a major reason why he has been capable of teaching young players how to play within a system. The one system that has been causing Canadiens fans fits has been watching the NHL roster try, without success, to implement the defensive system against their opponents.
The defensive system in Laval is the same as the one used in Montreal. There could be many reasons why it is more successful in the AHL, reasons that could make some think Vincent is going to push Martin St. Louis out of a job sooner rather than later. But that is far too simplistic. The fact that the system in use is better suited to a skilled blueline makes it easier for the AHL affiliate to implement as their roster has quality young defencemen, who are playing at a level they can currently handle. Anyone who watched Mailloux play the very same system in Montreal can see that against much more skilled opposition, his defensive play and structure are harder for the 21-year-old to execute.
While patience is the order of the day for any rebuild, and it is desperately needed by the fans when it comes to the NHL club. When it comes to the AHL club, fans can refresh that skill. When watching Laval, fans can see the future and it is filled with some quality, NHL calibre players. They need to keep in mind that there is a laundry list of drafted players who are slowly improving, as those mentioned above, and add in others with NHL upside such as Adam Engstrom, Florian Xhekaj and Luke Tuch. Then look outside the professional ranks to Ivan Demidov, Jacob Fowler, Michael Hage and then the 2025 first-round picks yet to be selected. Patience with the rebuild should be easy to have when keeping the timeline of it only being 2 years of a possible 5 years, and looking at that list of players and the current play of the Rocket, fans should have hope.
