Laval Rocket: Thoughts on the end of the losing streak
By Omar L
The Laval Rocket ended the wave of negativity by getting their first win in four games over the Binghamton Devils last night.
Charlie Lindgren said that if the Laval Rocket wanted to have an impactful push in the final stretch, they would have to get serious. It’s easy to discount this win considering the Binghamton Devils have had a much worse season, but beating the teams you’re meant to beat is the beginning of what Laval hopes to be an atmospheric turnaround.
With Chris Terry out as well as Matt Taormina and Niki Petti, Sylvain Lefebvre opted to go with eleven forwards and seven defencemen allowing Matt Petgrave to make his AHL debut.
Overall, there were changes and consistencies in Laval’s game. The biggest and most important change was how they started. Laval overwhelmed Binghamton for the majority of the first period which ended with Markus Eisenschmid scoring his second goal in as many games.
Another change was the penalty kill. The Rocket have had issues with team discipline all season but what made it worse was that they would continue to get scored on short-handed. The penalty monkey started to screech a little bit in the second period seeing Laval take five.
Fortunately, the Devils didn’t do much with them, and Michael McCarron and Simon Bourque combined for a goal on a two on one breakout. The Rocket still has the worst penalty kill in the league at 76.7%, but a performance like that is a good way to bring it up.
Thomas Ebbing would eventually score the game-winner in the third period. That marks the first of his AHL career assisted by Jordan Boucher. Both players started out their seasons in the ECHL with the Brampton Beast, and it was nice to see them come together for the milestone.
Zachary Fucale had a nice game as well stopping 25 of 26 shots. There have been a lot of articles featuring Fucale voicing his desire to play and a game like that has to make it hard on the coaching staff.
Thoughts
Overall it was a good win for Laval, but it’ll be a very long road ahead of them. 12 points separate them and the Syracuse Crunch for the final playoff spot from the Atlantic Division. The Rocket will have to link more wins together to lessen that gap as they have the Belleville Senators gunning for it as well. Not to mention, the Crunch are a good team, and they’ll do whatever they can to hold their position.
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Lefebvre will have to continue to work with the lineup. It’s not so much that the injuries on the team are lost bodies, but they’re also key contributors. Eisenschmid seems like he’s finding a bit of a scoring vibe and getting minutes on the top line can bring more of that out.
Additionally, McCarron has to find other ways to make an impact on the ice beside fighting and laying down a hit. Someone needs to step up and lead and hopefully that can be him.
Eric Gelinas and Noah Juulsen had another solid performance on the top line and whether Laval keeps up this level of play will start with them. Their puck movement along the blueline has been a strong asset lately, and it’s lead to a lot of scoring chances. At the same time, tracking the progress of Petgrave, who had a decent debut, will be another thing to pay attention to.
With their next two games against Utica, Laval can truly take a step forward if they manage to get points. Similar to the first four after the All-Star Break, these won’t be easy. But if the team buckles down and plays responsibly, anything is possible.