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After an extended break, Laval was back in action over the weekend with a pair of games on the road against the Atlantic Division.  Both games were back-and-forth affairs but the Rocket came out victorious in both of them.

The Week That Was

Nov. 29: Laval 5, Lehigh Valley 4 (SO) – There are times in the AHL when, even with a young roster like Laval has, a team needs its veterans to step up and win a game.  That happened in this one.  Alex Belzile scored a pair of goals, including one to give the Rocket the lead in the second period.  However, they blew that in the third but were bailed out by Samuel Blais who scored in the final minute of regulation (his second of the night) to send the game to overtime and then for good measure, he scored the only goal of the shootout to give the Rocket the win.

Nov. 30: Laval 4, Hershey 3 – Second periods have been ugly for the Habs this season but not so for the Rocket.  They picked up three tallies in the middle frame to give them the lead heading into the third period.  Once again, they weren’t able to hold it although the Bears were only able to tie it, not take the lead.  That set the stage for Xavier Simoneau (part of the dominant third line over the weekend) to pick up his second goal of the season just past the midway point which stood as the winner.

StatPack

Skaters:

Goalies:

Shootout – Skaters:

Shootout – Goalies:

Team Leaders:

Goals: Dauphin/Davidson (9)
Assists: Laurent Dauphin (14)
Points: Laurent Dauphin (23)
+/-: Laurent Dauphin (+17)
PIMS: Florian Xhekaj (44)
Shots: Laurent Dauphin (56)

News and Notes

– The Habs sent Joshua Roy back to Laval after adding Alexandre Texier to their roster, giving the Rocket a top-six forward back.

– Adam Engstrom was recalled to the Canadiens to serve as depth for their road trip.  To replenish their depth on the back end, Ryan O’Rourke was recalled from ECHL Trois-Rivieres.

– Samuel Blais was claimed on waivers and sent to Laval since no one else put in a claim (and the Habs being the team that originally lost him).  In a corresponding move, Riley Kidney was sent back to Trois-Rivieres.

Last Game’s Lines:

Farrell – Dauphin – Belzile
Roy – Beck – Mesar
Blais – Condotta – Simoneau
Tuch – Dineen – Thorpe

Trudeau – Reinbacher
Paquette-Bisson – Didier
Del Gaizo – Clurman

The Week Ahead

Tuesday vs Providence – This is a rare Tuesday game for Laval, one of only two this season.  The Rocket won the first meeting last month with a 2-0 shutout but Providence is the top team in the Eastern Conference, four points ahead of Laval.  If there’s a silver lining, two of their top five scorers (and three of their top ten) are up with Boston but veteran Patrick Brown and prospect Fabian Lysell continue to pace their attack.  Meanwhile, both of their netminders have a GAA below 2.00 and a save percentage over .930.

Friday/Saturday at Belleville – In what will be their fourth and fifth matchup in less than a month, the Senators are on tap once again.  Laval won the first three out of that stretch, notching 14 goals along the way.  Top playmaker Stephen Halliday is back in Belleville after his first NHL stint while veteran Olle Lycksell is back as well after being up with Ottawa for most of the season.  Meanwhile, in goal, the Sens are basically running a three-goalie rotation which is something that isn’t seen too often, 

Final Thought

It has been a quiet first full season of Tyler Thorpe’s professional career so far.  Through 19 games, he has all of two assists (which happens to match his output in last year’s season finale, his AHL debut).  Meanwhile, with 24 shots, he’s got getting a lot through to the net either.

However, I think the Habs and Laval head coach Pascal Vincent are probably pleased with what they’ve seen so far.  Considering he was a late bloomer in junior, there was a case to send him back for his final WHL season and let him dominate.  But instead, they’re giving him regular run with the Rocket, albeit in a very limited role as he has seldom moved off the fourth line.

But there are some parallels to how they handled Florian Xhekaj a year ago.  He was also predominantly on the fourth line and in the second half when he went on his hot streak, he started to get a bit more playing time.  I think they’re trying the same thing with Thorpe although he’s not as far along development-wise thus far.

At this stage, Thorpe is a big-bodied winger who is decent on puck battles and can play with a bit of an edge.  He has a decent shot but with his linemates, they’re not spending a lot of time in the offensive zone.  He’s also good enough defensively to not need to be sheltered.  That’s a foundation to work with.  But his skating looks a step slow for the AHL level and that’s not a good sign.  A big but slow winger with some skill doesn’t scream ‘future NHL winger’.  But if he can get his skating to an even adequate level, there’s some developmental runway.  It’s not easy to do in-season but the organization needs to keep working extra hard on shoring up Thorpe’s skating as he’ll need that to even take a step forward with the Rocket let alone potentially down the road with Montreal.