Rocket Weekly: Struggles Versus Syracuse
Laval had won all four games against Syracuse heading into their two matchups last week. However, they struggled in both games, failing to secure a point to slide out of the top spot in the division.
The Week That Was
Dec. 27: Syracuse 4, Laval 1 – One team came to play after the holiday break but it wasn’t the Rocket. They couldn’t muster up much of anything offensively and had all of seven shots on net in the first 35 minutes of the game. You’re not going to win like that too often and Connor Hughes had a bit of an off-night himself. Laval was better in the third and Tyler Wotherspoon got his first goal of the season to make it a bit more respectable but that was all they could muster.
Dec. 28: Syracuse 5, Laval 2 – The rematch saw Laval play a little better but a ten-minute stretch in the second period did them in. After Xavier Simoneau opened up the scoring, the Crunch scored three times before the end of the frame including a tally from former Hab Jesse Ylonen. (Another former Hab, Joel Teasdale, scored in the third as well.) Alex Barre-Boulet got one back late on the power play but they once again came up well short.
StatPack
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | SOG | PIMS |
| 5 | Gustav Lindstrom | 2 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Joshua Roy | 2 | 0 | 1 | E | 7 | 0 |
| 11 | Rafael Harvey-Pinard | 2 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 4 | 0 |
| 12 | Alex Barre-Boulet | 2 | 1 | 0 | -3 | 5 | 2 |
| 15 | Sean Farrell | 2 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 1 | 0 |
| 17 | Luke Tuch | 1 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | Tyler Wotherspoon | 2 | 1 | 0 | -2 | 3 | 0 |
| 24 | Logan Mailloux | 2 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 14 |
| 27 | Laurent Dauphin | 2 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 3 | 0 |
| 28 | Josh Jacobs | 1 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 | 2 |
| 37 | Brandon Gignac | 1 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| 42 | Lucas Condotta | 2 | 0 | 1 | -3 | 3 | 2 |
| 48 | Filip Mesar | 2 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 1 | 0 |
| 49 | Jared Davidson | 2 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 3 | 2 |
| 56 | Adam Engstrom | 2 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 5 | 0 |
| 62 | Owen Beck | 2 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 3 | 5 |
| 63 | Florian Xhekaj | 2 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 14 |
| 65 | Zack Hayes | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 1 | 0 |
| 81 | Xavier Simoneau | 2 | 1 | 0 | -1 | 3 | 14 |
| 84 | William Trudeau | 2 | 0 | 1 | -3 | 4 | 0 |
Goalies:
| # | Player | Record | GAA | SV% | SO |
| 31 | Connor Hughes | 0-1-0 | 4.00 | .826 | 0 |
| 70 | Luke Cavallin | 0-1-0 | 4.03 | .871 | 0 |
Team Leaders:
Goals: Davidson/Roy (12)
Assists: Owen Beck (15)
Points: Joshua Roy (24)
+/-: Owen Beck (+10)
PIMS: Florian Xhekaj (74)
Shots: Joshua Roy (98)
News and Notes
– Brandon Gignac returned to the lineup from his knee injury but his return was short-lived. He re-injured the knee and didn’t play on Saturday although the setback isn’t believed to be too significant.
– Xavier Simoneau also returned from his minor injury, giving Laval a fully-healthy forward group (which didn’t even make it through a game with Gignac getting hurt again).
– Jakub Dobes was recalled to Montreal. With Luke Cavallin already on the roster as the third-string goalie, they didn’t have to call anyone up from Trois-Rivieres.
– Team captain Lucas Condotta is still looking for his first goal on the season (with Laval, he has one with Montreal). He has been held without a tally in now 24 straight games dating back to last season.
Last Game’s Lines
Roy – Dauphin – Barre-Boulet
Davidson – Beck – Mesar
Harvey-Pinard – Condotta – Farrell
Simoneau – Xhekaj – Tuch
Wotherspoon – Lindstrom
Hayes – Engstrom
Trudeau – Mailloux
The Week Ahead
Friday/Saturday: vs Abbotsford – The Canucks don’t have a high-scoring threat but they do have a well-balanced attack. No player has more than 15 points but 11 have at least 10 points to their name. Four of their top eight point-getters are rookies, led by Jonathan Lekkerimaki who’s in his first season in North America and is just below the point-per-game mark. Abbotsford also just got their starter from last season back as Arturs Silovs was sent down once Thatcher Demko was cleared to return recently.
Final Thought
So Cayden Primeau is back with Laval after all. It doesn’t sound like he was open to a conditioning stint again so the Habs instead waived him and sent him down after he cleared. Accordingly, instead of the netminder having at most a two-week stint with the Rocket, he’s likely to be there longer than that now.
But in reality, this isn’t the worst thing for him, the Canadiens, or Laval. While Primeau would have preferred to stay in the NHL, getting sporadic playing time to try to turn his numbers from objectively awful to somewhere between really bad and pretty bad wasn’t going to do much for his marketability as a free agent this summer. (Montreal can tender him a qualifying offer but right now, that’s not too likely.) He needs games to show that he’s worthy of a number three spot next season, a role that could still land him a one-way contract.
For Montreal, Primeau staying in the organization gives them a chance to bring him back when they decide they want Jakub Dobes to get more playing time. Yes, Dobes had a strong NHL debut but from a development standpoint, having a waiver-exempt goalie playing once every three or four games isn’t ideal long-term. Assuming that Primeau is able to get back to playing at a reasonable level in Laval, there will come a time when he can come back up and Dobes goes back down, even if it’s just for a short-term stretch.
Lastly, Primeau has been a solid AHL netminder in the past when he’s on his game. If he goes down with the right mindset of getting some confidence back in a lower-pressure setting, he should be able to help the Rocket win some games and keep their goaltending as a strong spot.
Will things go this way? That remains to be seen and admittedly, these types of situations don’t always go as planned. But there’s a way for this to still work out pretty well for all sides in the end. We’ll soon see if Primeau can get things turned around with the Rocket.