(Laval) Last season, as in many hockey locker rooms, the standings were displayed in the Rocket locker room.
“But quite early in the season, we had a hard time and watching the standings every day, it was getting heavy,” said Jean-François Houle Wednesday morning, after Rocket training.
He therefore had him removed from the locker room because “it is important to focus on the process. When things are bad, you shouldn’t be too negative. »
In Laval as in Montreal, we come back to the process, this good old process which, here too, must take precedence over the results. Last year, the results had ended up being there, the Rocket going to a victory of a qualification for the Calder Cup final.
At the start of the season, the results are not there for the Rocket, and neither is the process. Houle therefore took advantage of Tuesday’s team meeting to dot the “i”s and tildes over the “n”. He wanted this meeting and Wednesday’s match, the first of a series of four at home, to mark a turning point, a “reset”, in his words, in this season.
Establishing our defensive game, that was the meeting of yesterday. We don’t have the kind of team that will win 5-4. We must give less overnumbers, be better defensively. Everyone realizes we’re better than our record.
Jean-François Houle, head coach of the Laval Rocket
The meeting obviously had an immediate effect since the Rocket won 4-2 against the Abbotsford Canucks on Wednesday night. It’s only a fourth victory for the Laval residents this season, who are 31e rank (out of 32) in the American League with a .367 (4-8-3) success rate.
Of his process, Houle identified a few elements that annoyed him. Surpluses were high on the list and he saw improvement. His team also gave nothing at 5 against 5. Abbotsford scored on the power play, then at the very end of the game when the goalkeeper was on the bench.
On the other hand, penalties remain a major irritant. “Players will have to sit at the end of the bench if they take too many penalties,” he grumbled. Without naming Mitchell Stephens, we guess that Houle did not appreciate the penalty in the offensive zone of this veteran.
The so-called stick penalties are also part of what Houle wants to limit, and Justin Barron was guilty of one such infraction, a cross-check in the face of a rival who came under pressure.
“Stick or reply punishments are not good punishments. We’ve been talking about it since the beginning of the year and we’ve come to the consequences,” said Houle.
Barron’s apprenticeship
It’s impossible to know if Barron will suffer “consequences”, but one thing is certain, his fall is not going as he would have liked.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Justin Barron
When he arrived at the camp, he was the defender with the most experience among professionals among the backs who knocked on the door of the CH. He had 50 games in the American League, seven in the NHL.
But Kaiden Guhle, Arber Xhekaj and Jordan Harris all had better camp, while older rookie Johnathan Kovacevic also doubled it.
Result: Barron continues his development in Laval and with the imminent return of Michael Matheson, the Nova Scotian will have to hope for a trade and an injury or two in order to be recalled to Montreal.
“I arrived in Laval knowing that I have to work on some things,” said the right-handed defender.
The performance of the four aforementioned rookies should give him plenty of time to hone his craft, as none of the four has had such a bad string of games as to be demoted to Laval.
“He knows that the young people are doing well at the top, he will have to wait his turn, but he is here to continue his development, recalled Houle. He shouldn’t worry about what’s going on up there. He can’t do anything about the decisions of others. »
Barron ended Wednesday’s game with an assist, which he incidentally got when he came out of the penalty box. He pounced on a loose puck in the defensive zone and used his fluid skating to cross the rink before taking a wrist shot. Rafaël Harvey-Pinard seized the return.
With this assist, Barron is 8 points in 15 games this season. Of all the hopes of the CH on the blue line, he is undoubtedly the one whose offensive instincts are the sharpest. An observer pointed out to us, however, that he has a tendency to want too much to highlight them, to want too much to create the games himself.
It remains to be seen whether the turn Houle hoped for for his group will also have an effect on Barron.