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How Pascal Vincent’s past can help Joshua Roy and Logan Mailloux’s future

Photo by Arianne Bergeron / Arena du Rocket Inc.

For many, a trip from Laval to Montreal can take longer than expected. A metro stoppage here, constant traffic there. For Joshua Roy and Logan Mailloux, going back to the Bell Centre is even harder, and if they are frustrated below the surface, they aren’t letting it show with their play. And let’s be truthful: Their play will be the reason they get back to the Bell Centre wearing an NHL jersey.

They are undoubtedly off to dominant starts in the AHL. Roy has 10 points in nine games and second in the league with seven goals. Mailloux is tied for the AHL defence scoring lead with nine points despite playing only four games and was just named the AHL Player of the Week. Despite that, it won’t be their offensive games alone that get them back to the top league.

On Saturday, it was the biggest argument for Roy to get the call. He scored a hat trick in Laval’s 6-3 win over the Providence Bruins while the Canadiens mustered one goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins a few hours later.

“I need to stay focused on Laval,” Roy said on Saturday, after his game but before the NHL one. “Everyone’s ultimate goal is to get called up. Things are going really well here, and I will continue to work hard to bring wins to Laval and things will happen.”

Mailloux, for his part, already got a taste for the NHL this season. His NHL track record is smaller than Roy’s and what he needs to work became clear.

“I think when I was up there you saw I wasn’t at my best and I wasn’t good enough to force their hand and stay there,” Mailloux said after Saturday’s game, where he had a goal and three assists. “The offensive stuff I think that’s something I will bring without thinking about but there are some details defensively even today that I feel I can get better on so just going to try and take a step in the right direction every day.”

For now, the biggest benefactor of their play is Rocket head coach Pascal Vincent, but he’s also the one tasked with developing them to get back to the NHL.

“It’s perfect that they are performing like this in terms of points, they still have work to do,” he said. “The goal isn’t that you perform one game, two games, five games. What it does is it creates a certain confidence that you can play a game the right way. Josh, I see him blocking shots, I see him back checking defensively, winning board battles, and he’s rewarded with goals. Logan, we’re working on his defensive game because we know what he brings offensively. The next time those guys [go up], whether it is them, whether it is someone else, we want them to be confident in a specific role to help the Canadiens, that’s our goal. Does it become consistent.”

Vincent has experience at both the AHL and NHL as a head coach, and brought up someone from his past when discussing the pair of Rocket players. Kyle Connor is now considered one of the better players in the NHL. However, despite starting his first professional in the NHL, he didn’t stay there. In 20 NHL games, he scored only two goals and added three assists. He was then sent to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, where Vincent was the head coach.

“He’s an elite player,” Vincent said. “He came down to the Moose, and wasn’t called up. He was OK at the beginning and eventually he became a dominant player. We kept him there. He got his confidence.”

Connor played 52 games for the Moose that season, scoring 25 goals and adding 19 assists. He started the next season in Manitoba, playing four games before earning his call up.

“We never saw him again in the AHL,” Vincent said.

“There’s a transition in the pros, it takes some time, and those specific players we want them to be confident. Right now they’re in the right position to grow as hockey players,” Vincent said.

Roy and Mailloux being recalled (for the second time in Mailloux’s case) is very likely to happen this season. They’re working hard to make sure the next trip is on a one-way ticket.

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