Can't Even Get Off The Ground

I'm not going to wade into the world of American politics, but you can put me in the group who believes that Elon Musk's "intelligence" isn't anywhere close to what he has led the world to believe. The image to the left is one of his SpaceX rockets blowing up, and I decided to use it as a lede image since it represents what's happening to the Laval Rocket in the AHL's Calder Cup Eastern Conference Final right now. Make no mistake that the Rocket look solid and will have some NHL players in the future, but they find themselves down 3-0 in their series against Charlotte right now as the Checkers are laying a beating on the Rocket.

The Checkers grabbed that 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Final after scoring a 5-1 victory over the Rocket at Bojangles Coliseum this afternoon. In all three games thus far, the Checkers have scored five goals while the Rocket have scored four goals combined. It doesn't seem to matter what the Rocket do at any points in any of the three games because the Checkers not only have an answer, but it often results in the Checkers getting scoring chances of their own.

You might be thinking, "Come on, Teebz, it can't be that bad," but I assure you that it is. Patrick Williams pulled this image just before Charlotte scored their fifth goal today, and the coverage shown by Laval will have you shaking your head in disbelief. I know mine was.

The image you see above is not Charlotte breaking in on a two-on-one on a rush with three Rocket players giving chase. No, this is an image of a puck that was turned over in the Laval zone without it ever getting outside the blue line. This happened at even-strength, so where's the fifth Rocket player, you ask? Already flew the zone. Not even close to the play. How can the above image happen when we're told "defence wins championships"? It clearly doesn't for Laval.

After Charlotte went into Laval and took both games there, I thought there might be a fire lit under the Rocket - figuratively, of course. Down 2-0 and heading to North Carolina, the Rocket needed a better effort than what they had shown at home if they were to climb back into this series. Charlotte scored in the first period today to take a 1-0 lead into the intermission, but the roof caved in on Laval in the second period as John Leonard, Riley Bezeau's second of the game, and Will Lockwood scored in a 4:21 span before six minutes had passed in the second period, and the 4-0 hole that Laval was pushed into seemed to be more of a grave as Charlotte dominated again.

Only four times in AHL history as a team rallied from an 0-3 deficit. It happened last year when Hershey rallied against the Cleveland Monsters in the Eastern Conference Finals, so Laval will need history to repeat itself once again if they want to play for the Calder Cup. The only problem is that this year's Laval Rocket look nothing like last year's Hershey Bears, so the odds are certainly stacked against the Quebec-based AHL club. If that comeback does happen, it will need to start tomorrow at practice as Game Four goes on Tuesday night.

I've seen a lot of people on social media pointing to the fact that the Checkers have a lot of older talent on their roster compared to Laval, and that cannot be denied with names like Trevor Carrick, Jesse Puljujärvi, and Kaapo Kähkönen skating for Charlotte. I'm not excusing Laval's performance due to this, though, as the Canadiens have opted to use Laval to develop a larger majority of their players at a faster pace whereas Charlotte is used to develop a handful of Florida's players on a slower schedule. That's just how things have played out based on the state of both NHL franchises and their development processes when it comes to their AHL affiliates.

After watching Game Three today, I feel quite confident in saying that Laval's chances to rally and win the series are slim. We're not talking odds that contain whole-number percentage points, but more in the range of the 0.01% range. The Gazette's Herb Zurkowsky wrote, "... can the Rocket even win a game? That appears unlikely," so I wouldn't be making any crazy bets on the Rocket pulling off the improbable dream when the local scribes are already writing them off. I won't kill all hope by saying there's always a chance they could come back, so cling to that hope if you're a Rocket fan. The last thing you need to hear are the last lines of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" that go, "Planet Earth is blue/And there's nothing I can do."

Maybe, though, Elton John's timeless lyrics are more appropriate when it comes to how hard it is to win a professional hockey championship. If we get a little creative, he could sing, "And I think it's gonna be a long, long time/'Til touchdown brings me 'round again to find/I'm not the man they think I am at home/Oh, no, no, no/I'm a Rocket fan" which would be pretty awesome to hear. That "long, long time", however, could be the length of time needed before the Rocket are back in the Eastern Conference Final.

What needs to be said once more is that the Rocket are building for Montreal's future, so this run towards a Calder Cup berth should see the Rocket pushing as hard as they can for a berth in the final based on Montreal's need for good, young talent in their lineup. They're on the brink of elimination now, but they could repeat what Hershey did last season and shock the planet. Wouldn't that be out of this world?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!