LAVAL | Philippe Maillet went to bed last Friday several pounds lighter. The Laval Rocket’s center player had lost several pounds of pressure.
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After racking up points everywhere, the player, who celebrated his 31st birthday on Monday, had yet to score in eight games when he scored a brace, punctuated by one, in the Rocket’s 5-3 win over the Marlies of Toronto Comeback from four unanswered goals in the third period.
“It definitely feels good, especially after a win,” he admitted on Tuesday. Scoring two goals when you lose is fun, but that’s not the goal. It was a bit poetic to count my first two goals in a win when we had lost four games.
“We hope he finds consistency to produce and help young people,” said head coach Jean-François Houle. We are counting on him, especially as Andersson [Lias] is injured and we don’t know for how long. “It is certain that he will have more ice time, it is up to him to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Not easy
Maillet has two goals and two assists in ten games and that doesn’t satisfy him.
“It wasn’t an easy start for the team and for me personally. When you have difficult times and the team wins, things always go a little better because it remains a team sport.
“But when there are difficult times and the team loses, I am a veteran who has been playing professionally for seven or eight years, so I have more responsibility than a first-year player.”
He had to deal with the pressure, the pressure he was putting on himself.
“I put more pressure on myself. I am extremely competitive and there is no one who puts more pressure on me than myself.
balance
“It’s hard to find the balance,” he admits. I have high expectations for every game and every season. So if it doesn’t work, things can go downhill quickly.”
However, the experience allows Maillet to remain philosophical about these first ten meetings.
For him, they risk being an anecdote over an entire 72-game season.
“If you set high expectations for yourself over a long period of time, you will most often achieve your goals. In the short term it hurts more, but if you look at it in the long term and we’ll talk about it again at the end of the season, we’ll see that it wasn’t that bad in the first ten games. , but at the moment it’s sometimes hard to get out of it.”
Adjustment
After playing more than 200 games in the American League in his first five professional seasons, Maillet moved to Magnitogorsk, Russia, where he played two seasons in the KHL.
With 22 goals and 31 assists in 66 games, he finished 14th in points last season. Returning to North America came with an adjustment.
“Half of the arenas have larger ice. The game focuses more on time of possession. Here I had the feeling of having someone in my face the whole time.
On the forecheck there is more pressure and the puck moves much faster, whereas there I could play the round for 10, 15 seconds because the game is more passive. One of my strengths is my feel for the game and at the beginning I couldn’t use it that much, but with each game I feel better.