Tough schedule here over the next 2 weeks, 4 of the next 5 games are against 3 of the top 7 teams in the AHL in goals with 2 huge games against the Marlies on the 1st and 2nd.
If they make the playoffs, which I have been saying all season I think they will due to such an impressive defensive game but that they need some offensive help. Losing McCarron for the season would suck both for Laval's playoff chances and the fact that he was playing his best hockey since that 1st month of his pro career. If he's out the rest of the season then hopefully he can continue to work on his speed/skating and come to camp ready to land a spot on the 4th line.
If you go by pct, Laval is 6th, but only .026 behind the monsters who have been in free fall with just 3 wins in their last 10 games. Next is Utica who have a 7 pt lead but Laval has 3 games in hand. Then you have the Marlies who are 4 pts up with a game in hand as well.
To make the playoffs I think they will need Lindgren back and playing at the top of his game, McNiven coming off likely his best start as a pro certainly helps as he could help spell Lindgren so he doesn't get tired. There's always the chance that he takes off as he was CHL goalie of the year and certainly looks much better then last year but he's never played a long string of games at the pro level so we don't know how he would handle it. I talked about listening to the play by play of their opponents due to my French not being that strong and how one of the games they talked about how high the Habs are on McNiven so if Lindgren isn't back to form due to injury, hopefully McNiven can lead the way as it would be great in terms of assets with the 3 goalies in the farm system (Lindgren, McNiven, Primeau) LaCouvee has been a nice story so far but with such a small sample size it's hard to say what he is just yet.
Getting Juulsen back would help once he shakes the rust off. Hopefully Evans isn't out long term, Audette playing his best hockey kind of replaces McCarron's production but we still need offense as it's mostly been Belzile, Froese, Evans scoring goals (32 between them) and those 3 with Audette and McCarron are the only players on the team with more then 20 points.