Rocket Preparing for Difficult Stretch

On Sunday, the Laval Rocket will begin the most difficult part of their schedule with five games in seven days.  The first stop will be in Winnipeg to face the Manitoba Moose on Sunday afternoon and on Monday morning.

"They're a good team. Looking at video, I think they're the team that blocks the most shots in the league. They're big, they can skate and they play the same way they've been playing the last couple of years. They're a tough team to handle. It's never easy to play on the road and we have our work cut out for us," Jean-Francois Houle analyzed the upcoming opponents. 

The Moose have lost their last two games and Houle hopes that his team wins at least one of the two matchups to help kickoff their road trip and turn things around for Laval.

The Canadiens AHL affiliate will travel back home following Monday's game and face the Belleville Senators on Wednesday and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Friday. At the conclusion of Friday's match, the Rocket will hop on a bus and drive overnight to Utica to face the Comets on Saturday. 

"It's part of the development of a young professional. It's not just five games in seven days, it's also travel. It won't be an easy week," said Houle.

For their trip to Manitoba, 12 forwards and nine defensemen will hop on the plane on Saturday. There's a limited margin of maneuvers for Houle to choose from to enter on his lineup sheet. 

Positive news for the squad is that Jared Davidson has been cleared to return after being sidelined with an upper body injury since October 20th. Despite a good training camp, the 21-year-old has suited up for one game in the AHL since the start of the season. 

Forward Emil Heineman has joined his teammates for practice since Monday wearing a no-contact jersey. The Sweden native has been out of action since October 14th following a collision with an official during a game against the Abbotsford Canucks. 

The bad news is that Lias Andersson will not travel with the team due to a lower body injury that occurred during Monday's practice. Andersson leads Laval with seven goals. 

Houle has dressed seven defensemen for the last two contests and used that formation regularly last season. The coach did not discount the possibility of utilizing a defenseman as a forward, an approach used last season with Nicolas Beaudin dressed as a forward on a couple of occasions. 

During the seven-day stretch, the players will be tested physically and mentally.

"We got to take care of our bodies and need to be well rested because it's going to be hard. It's tough but we're hockey players and we're ready for it," Riley Kidney said. 

William Trudeau doesn't remember going through a period of playing so many games in a short period. "It won't be easy. We had a day off [on Thursday] and that allowed us to recharge our batteries. It will be difficult to play five games in seven days. It will be tiring, but we'll have to find a way because right now we need wins. We will need good starts and to keep it simple because with fatigue mental errors happen quicker."

Laval opened the scoring in three of the 10 contests this season and Houle believes that having good starts will help manage the team's energy level. 

"We can't be trailing too often because we saw lately that when we try to play catch-up hockey it takes up a lot of energy. We would dig a hole if we do that early in a sequence of five games in seven days. It's important to get the lead from the start of the matches," explained the coach. 

To help garner positive energy, there will be a team dinner on Saturday in Winnipeg.  

Be sure to bookmark THN.com/Montreal for year-round coverage of the Montreal Canadiens, Laval Rocket, and Habs prospects playing in leagues around the world.