Laval Rocket / Trois-Rivières Lions 2023-24

[Willie Dog]

Laval beats the baby Hens 2-1, they play again today... Go Rocket

theahl.com/stats/game-center/1026179

Trudeau and Gignac score

[NWTHabsFan]

Dobeš recognized for his great game last night.

[seventeen]

Farrell, 3rd star. Getting the hang of the AHL.

Reinbacher, plus 1. Four games, 3 wins.

[seventeen]

Rocket lose to Belleville 5-2. Kaskisuo with an .846 save %. Mailloux at -3, Reinbacher at even, along with an assist.

[IamCanadiens]

For me a playoff appearance would be great. I'd love for Reinbacher to get continued exposure to the North American game. Other than that I have no expectations. The AHL playoffs are so goofy with a lot of eliminated (NHL) teams bolstering their farm teams and changing the dynamics of the league.

[jkr]

I see the Rocket lost 6-4 to Cleveland last night. They trail Belleville by 2 points but they only have 3 games left, Belleville has 5 remaining.

[NWTHabsFan]

Apr 12, 2024 6:12:14 GMT -5 jkr said:

I see the Rocket lost 6-4 to Cleveland last night. They trail Belleville by 2 points but they only have 3 games left, Belleville has 5 remaining.

Yeah, letting that game get away on them last night was likely their season going up in smoke.

[NWTHabsFan]

Rocket won 5-1 against Cleveland last night behind Andersson’s 2 goal 1 assist night. Belleville lost.

Belleville has two more points than Laval and three games remaining. Laval has two games remaining and both are against Belleville. While Laval’s chances are slim to fading, there is still a chance if they win both against Belleville next weekend (and they probably need Belleville to lose its game in hand on Wednesday just to be sure).

[NWTHabsFan]

Apr 14, 2024 11:52:21 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

Rocket won 5-1 against Cleveland last night behind Andersson’s 2 goal 1 assist night. Belleville lost.

Belleville has two more points than Laval and three games remaining. Laval has two games remaining and both are against Belleville. While Laval’s chances are slim to fading, there is still a chance if they win both against Belleville next weekend (and they probably need Belleville to lose its game in hand on Wednesday just to be sure).

Apparently this sequence of events gets it done…

[seventeen]

Apr 14, 2024 11:52:21 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

Rocket won 5-1 against Cleveland last night behind Andersson’s 2 goal 1 assist night. Belleville lost.

Belleville has two more points than Laval and three games remaining. Laval has two games remaining and both are against Belleville. While Laval’s chances are slim to fading, there is still a chance if they win both against Belleville next weekend (and they probably need Belleville to lose its game in hand on Wednesday just to be sure).

Gotta dress Florian. I think he gives the team a bit more intensity.

[NWTHabsFan]

The Lions sneak into the playoffs.

[NWTHabsFan]

Apr 14, 2024 13:44:38 GMT -5 seventeen said:

Apr 14, 2024 11:52:21 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

Rocket won 5-1 against Cleveland last night behind Andersson’s 2 goal 1 assist night. Belleville lost.

Belleville has two more points than Laval and three games remaining. Laval has two games remaining and both are against Belleville. While Laval’s chances are slim to fading, there is still a chance if they win both against Belleville next weekend (and they probably need Belleville to lose its game in hand on Wednesday just to be sure).

Gotta dress Florian. I think he gives the team a bit more intensity.

He did play in this game, making his AHL debut. Hopefully Houle keeps him in for next weekend’s games as the team definitely does not have a lot of toughness.

[seventeen]

Apr 14, 2024 17:06:52 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

Apr 14, 2024 13:44:38 GMT -5 seventeen said:

Gotta dress Florian. I think he gives the team a bit more intensity.

He did play in this game, making his AHL debut. Hopefully Houle keeps him in for next weekend’s games as the team definitely does not have a lot of toughness.

I knew he was dressed. Two things happened. 1. Florian was dressed. 2. The Rocket won fairly convincingly.

I didn't think the two were coincidental. Players grow gonads when they have a big brother along and I suspect that played into the game. If the rest of the team is braver with him in the line-up, then it's a simple answer to dress him again, especially against Belleville.

[NWTHabsFan]

Apr 14, 2024 19:38:39 GMT -5 seventeen said:

I knew he was dressed. Two things happened. 1. Florian was dressed. 2. The Rocket won fairly convincingly.

I didn't think the two were coincidental. Players grow gonads when they have a big brother along and I suspect that played into the game. If the rest of the team is braver with him in the line-up, then it's a simple answer to dress him again, especially against Belleville.

Fully agree. Hopefully Houle figures this out and agrees with us rather than going back with some useless plug he is more familiar with.

[NWTHabsFan]

Definitely some injury concerns with the forwards. Perreault will miss the rest of the regular season and both Stephens and Gignac are D2D and will miss practice today. Hopefully they are ready to go by the weekend.

Great news is that the new #17 (Tuch) is joining the team right away and should add some more beef and talent up front. Him and the Deputy could be quite the crash and bang duo this weekend!

[Willie Dog]

Apr 16, 2024 10:17:13 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

Definitely some injury concerns with the forwards. Perreault will miss the rest of the regular season and both Stephens and Gignac are D2D and will miss practice today. Hopefully they are ready to go by the weekend.

Great news is that the new #17 (Tuch) is joining the team right away and should add some more beef and talent up front. Him and the Deputy could be quite the crash and bang duo this weekend!

Bash brothers

[NWTHabsFan]

The three new guys.

[Willie Dog]

Apr 16, 2024 16:09:44 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

The three new guys.

Nice post... very funny

[NWTHabsFan]

Some help is on the way. Roy is practicing in a normal jersey today.

[Willie Dog]

Those 4 will help a lot... I guess lane can't go down?

[seventeen]

You almost have to send guys down because every other team is doing it. As a homer, though, those 4 guys are pretty good. And maybe someone will kidnap Houle and Tuch can dress too.

[NWTHabsFan]

Apr 17, 2024 14:39:45 GMT -5 Willie Dog said:

Those 4 will help a lot... I guess lane can't go down?

By signing his ELC and burning a year by playing with the big club, he is ineligible for Laval this season. Weird rule, but the league has a few.

[jkr]

Belleville beat Syracuse in a SO last night to use their game in hand & hit 78 points.

Can Laval still move ahead of them if they win the final 2 games in regulation?

[NWTHabsFan]

Apr 18, 2024 5:46:42 GMT -5 jkr said:

Belleville beat Syracuse in a SO last night to use their game in hand & hit 78 points.

Can Laval still move ahead of them if they win the final 2 games in regulation?

Laval can tie them with two wins in regulation on the weekend and Laval would win the tie breaker apparently. If Belleville gets a point, it is over for Laval.

[NWTHabsFan]

How they line up against Belleville tonight. Must win in regulation.

[IamCanadiens]

2-1 good guys at end of 2nd. Laval is playing with fire but the Baby Sens are 0 for 4 on the powerplay

[NWTHabsFan]

Season over. 2-0 lead goes poof. Baby Sens win it 3-2 with one second left, although going to OT would have been enough for them. One more game tomorrow that means didly other than getting some reps in. See them next year.

[folatre]

Laval was driving down a bumpy road all season -- the kid in net had some tough stretches before he settled down; injuries and guys getting called up to fill in for injured Habs; taking way too many penalties (tonight was no exception). And with Houle driving the truck, I would not exactly say that coaching gave the Rocket a positive edge.

I know we always say wait for next year and imagine positive scenarios for next year. But I think there will be an additional infusion of talent in Laval next season (as well as some of the AHL rookies from this season being better).

[NWTHabsFan]

Apr 19, 2024 21:27:47 GMT -5 folatre said:

Laval was driving down a bumpy road all season -- the kid in net had some tough stretches before he settled down; injuries and guys getting called up to fill in for injured Habs; taking way too many penalties (tonight was no exception). And with Houle driving the truck, I would not exactly say that coaching gave the Rocket a positive edge.

I know we always say wait for next year and imagine positive scenarios for next year. But I think there will be an additional infusion of talent in Laval next season (as well as some of the AHL rookies from this season being better).

Yeah, the roster is slowly becoming more home grown. But like the Habs, there are a lot of young and relatively inexperienced guys still. They will get better.

As for behind the bench, I hope they are open minded to wholesale change. More new school, less old school.

[seventeen]

I keep going back to the example of Jon Cooper. He won a Calder Cup with the Norfolk Admirals in 2011/12. That team had a number of guys who would go on to play in the NHL, including Tyler Johnson, Radko Gudas, Mark Barberio, Ondrej Palat and Dustin Tokarski. His best achievement in the AHL, IMO, was with that same team the year before. They made the playoffs and lost in Round 1. They had Barberio, Gudas and Tokarski, but I recognize very few of the remaining players on that team, and I followed prospects quite thoroughly. It was a junk team, but Cooper got them to play hard enough and smart enough to make the playoffs.

We haven't seen that with our farm team for ages. Lefebvre left ruins in his wake and Houle, while being more tolerable than Lefebvre, keeps missing the playoffs too. There's got to be a change there. It probably wasn't high on HuGo's rather long priority list, but the emphasis to make the playoffs this year and get the kids some experience there became a priority for the organization and Houle didn't deliver. Definitely time for a change, with a competent organization making the decision this time.