2019-2020 Laval Rocket & ECHL Thread

[Fixxer]

He suffers from migraines. And no return date set. They will take their time with him.

ah man!! Not again. ugh! Well, anyway... thanks for the info!
edit : and yes, they should take their time with him now.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Good news. After being seen with crutches at Place Bell yesterday, Hudon is on the ice this morning doing PP drills. So chances are he'll be good for tonight's game.



Good news also regarding Pelletier, he's practicing for the first time today after sustaining an injury at camp.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

Good for Hudon, the poor dude has dealt with enough stuff this season.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Phelan, Verbeek, and Pelletier were the 5th trio at practice. Cuddemi will play with Weise and Lynch.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Cuddemi knows Varone well. And that was a reason why he accepted Laval's PTO. Cuddemi played for the Flyers' ECHL affiliate in Reading.

 

[Vachon23]

I’m happy to see Phelan in Laval !

 

[Whitesnake]

Bouchard ends the alternating goalies in Laval, an organisation decision. That for me is pretty clear....Kinkaid is done in the organization. And they want Lindgren to be as good as possible so that when they return Primeau in Laval to play a lot, they'd prefer to have Lindgren rather than Kinkaid. Makes perfect sense to me.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Bouchard ends the alternating goalies in Laval, an organisation decision. That for me is pretty clear....Kinkaid is done in the organization. And they want Lindgren to be as good as possible so that when they return Primeau in Laval to play a lot, they'd prefer to have Lindgren rather than Kinkaid. Makes perfect sense to me.

It's pretty telling that Kinkaid isn't playing tonight. Aside from his first period that was a nightmare in Syracuse, Kinkaid has been solid whenever counted upon in Laval.

But as Bouchard said, if it's an organizational decision, then I'm with you Whitesnake, Kinkaid is probably done in Montreal.

Curious to see if they end up placing him on unconditional waivers for contract termination.

If Primeau stays in Montreal, we can expect McNiven to get called up to Laval.

 

[Adam Michaels]

McEneny will play tonight. Looking forward to seeing him play.



Belzile will meet the doctor today regarding his injury. He won't play this weekend. But it's not a concussion.

 

[Treb]

It's pretty telling that Kinkaid isn't playing tonight. Aside from his first period that was a nightmare in Syracuse, Kinkaid has been solid whenever counted upon in Laval.

But as Bouchard said, if it's an organizational decision, then I'm with you Whitesnake, Kinkaid is probably done in Montreal.

Curious to see if they end up placing him on unconditional waivers for contract termination.

If Primeau stays in Montreal, we can expect McNiven to get called up to Laval.

I'd be shocked if Kinkaid agreed to terminate his contract.

 

[montreal]

Bouchard ends the alternating goalies in Laval, an organisation decision. That for me is pretty clear....Kinkaid is done in the organization. And they want Lindgren to be as good as possible so that when they return Primeau in Laval to play a lot, they'd prefer to have Lindgren rather than Kinkaid. Makes perfect sense to me.

I was against it but now if they don't care about Kinkaid they should call up McNiven and let him and Lindgren fight it out for the starters job if Primeau isn't going to be sent back down. Kinkaid can earn his paycheck by being a mentor to Lindgren/McNiven while not playing.

 

[GoodKiwi]

So, with over a third of the season in the books, what do people make of the Rocket overall?

I'm looking at a team with 10 ROW in 29GP, a negative goal differential and a middling offensive output.

What are this team's strengths and weaknesses in your estimation and what is its ceiling?

 

[badfish]

I've saw Brook's name pop up in the thread and gdts recently. Has there been a steady improvement this year?

 

[Treb]

I've saw Brook's name pop up in the thread and gdts recently. Has there been a steady improvement this year?

He's definitely been more involved offensively recently than at the beginning of the season. I think he's on the right path.

 

[ahmedou]

#13/12/19(Game29:Americans3-2Rocket)

Hudon(1G-1)/Evans(-1)/Weise(1A-1)
Alain(-1)/Vejdemo(-1)/Cox(-1)
Jevpalovs(1G)/Lynch(1A)/Cuddemi
Verbeek/Pezzetta/Waked

McEneny(-1)/Ouellet(-3)
Olofsson/Lamarche
Alzner/Brook(-1)

Lindgren (17/20)

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

1 day flash sale. 1 team for the rest of the season is 45 dollars plus tax instead of 60

 

[montreal]

So, with over a third of the season in the books, what do people make of the Rocket overall?

I'm looking at a team with 10 ROW in 29GP, a negative goal differential and a middling offensive output.

What are this team's strengths and weaknesses in your estimation and what is its ceiling?

It's been hard for them to get their flow going with so many top players in and out of the lineup due to injuries and call ups plus you had several key players coming in after being out for most or just about all of last season so it took time for some to find their games.

Overall they have been pretty good, they had a run where they picked up 16 of 20 pts while facing mostly the top teams in the AHL at the time. But since with a lot less help they have struggled at times to play consistently.

The strength is their defensive structure, just as last year this team does not give up many shots, they play a sound structured game and work hard.

The weakness again is the offense, though more consistent and of late it seems to be more to do with having so many top forwards out of the lineup.

We'll see how it goes as I do think they can be a top 10 team in the AHL as long as they have Primeau in net, they get Leskinen and Juulsen back on defense and Poehling, Barber, Varone, Belzile, McCarron, and Peca back. Not that they need them all back at once but getting many of them back and staying there is key as they are in a very tough division and if they hope to make the playoffs and go far they will need these guys.

I think one big problem with the offense comes from the lack of puck moving blueliners. Brook is really getting there but there's not a lot of offense back there now that Leskinen has been up though if Mete is back we should get Leskinen back soon.

The good news is even if this team fails, you can clearly see this is a much better coached team since last season, the prospects are showing good improvement. Fleury, Evans, last year, Brook is really starting to get there so we'll see where he ends up when camp starts next year and how much improvement he's made (or not made).

I can't stress enough how much I f***ing hate this management though, calling up Primeau then sending him back, calling up Poehling when he was playing like shit only to send him back then later call him up, send him down, call him back up. It just drives me nuts how they continue to do this under MB but I don't want to start a discussion on this topic in this thread.

I've saw Brook's name pop up in the thread and gdts recently. Has there been a steady improvement this year?

I wouldn't say steady at first, as it was very up and down for the first 6 or so weeks. He would show flashes of his game but then have some poor games. The past 2 weeks or so he's been much more consistent and you can see he's gaining in confidence. He still has a ways to go before he's at the level I expected him to be at but at least he appears to be headed in the right direction.

 

[GoodKiwi]

It's been hard for them to get their flow going with so many top players in and out of the lineup due to injuries and call ups plus you had several key players coming in after being out for most or just about all of last season so it took time for some to find their games.

Overall they have been pretty good, they had a run where they picked up 16 of 20 pts while facing mostly the top teams in the AHL at the time. But since with a lot less help they have struggled at times to play consistently.

The strength is their defensive structure, just as last year this team does not give up many shots, they play a sound structured game and work hard.

The weakness again is the offense, though more consistent and of late it seems to be more to do with having so many top forwards out of the lineup.

We'll see how it goes as I do think they can be a top 10 team in the AHL as long as they have Primeau in net, they get Leskinen and Juulsen back on defense and Poehling, Barber, Varone, Belzile, McCarron, and Peca back. Not that they need them all back at once but getting many of them back and staying there is key as they are in a very tough division and if they hope to make the playoffs and go far they will need these guys.

I think one big problem with the offense comes from the lack of puck moving blueliners. Brook is really getting there but there's not a lot of offense back there now that Leskinen has been up though if Mete is back we should get Leskinen back soon.

The good news is even if this team fails, you can clearly see this is a much better coached team since last season, the prospects are showing good improvement. Fleury, Evans, last year, Brook is really starting to get there so we'll see where he ends up when camp starts next year and how much improvement he's made (or not made).

I can't stress enough how much I ****ing hate this management though, calling up Primeau then sending him back, calling up Poehling when he was playing like **** only to send him back then later call him up, send him down, call him back up. It just drives me nuts how they continue to do this under MB but I don't want to start a discussion on this topic in this thread.



I wouldn't say steady at first, as it was very up and down for the first 6 or so weeks. He would show flashes of his game but then have some poor games. The past 2 weeks or so he's been much more consistent and you can see he's gaining in confidence. He still has a ways to go before he's at the level I expected him to be at but at least he appears to be headed in the right direction.

Thanks for a detailed analysis, much appreciated!

One of you points I wanted to concentrate on... You mention their defensive structure is solid, yet I see they've allowed 5th most goals against in the entire league. Is their issue the goaltending then?

 

[Runner77]

 

[montreal]

Thanks for a detailed analysis, much appreciated!

One of you points I wanted to concentrate on... You mention their defensive structure is solid, yet I see they've allowed 5th most goals against in the entire league. Is their issue the goaltending then?

the goaltending has been hit and miss, Primeau was lights out early on but now has been getting lit up as he's given up 4 or 5 goals in 5 of his last 6 starts and that's just brutal. His last 3 games he's given up 15 goals, his last 6 games he's given up 24 goals with one game where he got a SO.

Lindgren is kind of the opposite of Primeau as he struggled early on but has been of late. Overall he's been inconsistent as in 16 games he's given up 3 or more goals 8 times. In his first 4 games of the season he gave up 13 goals and then in the next 2 he gave up 3 goals against what was at the time the best team in the AHL that hadn't lost in regulation yet. His next game after that he gives up a 5 spot to the Marlies, then a SO next game, then another 5 spot and then in his next 7 games he gives up just 15 goals.

 

[canadiensnation]

Maybe time to call up McNiven from the coast and send Kinkaid to waivers.

 

[Treb]

Maybe time to call up McNiven from the coast and send Kinkaid to waivers.

He already went unclaimed. The options are:
Trade him if we can (probably would need retention)
Keep him in the AHL as backup
Keep him in the AHL as third goalie (ergo not playing games until injuries occurs)
Somehow make him agree to abandon his salary and do a mutual termination

We can't send him to the ECHL unless he agrees to it (which he 99.99% won't) because he is not on a ELC.

 

[ahmedou]

#14/12/19(Game30:Americans5-0Rocket)

Hudon(-1)/Evans/Lynch(-1)
Alain(-1)/Vejdemo/Cox(-1)
Jevpalovs/McCarron(-2)/Cuddemi
Verbeek/Pezzetta/Waked

McEneny/Ouellet(-1)
Olofsson(-1)/Lamarche(-1)
Alzner(-1)/Brook

Primeau (27/32)

 

[Adam Michaels]

 

[Whitesnake]

Stick to goaltending Michael...does haymakers don't work....