In the middle of the race for the playoffs in the North Section of the American League (ALH), the Laval Rocket just suffered a significant defeat.
Two days before the start of a three-game trip in as many nights at opposing rinks, the Laval team announced that forward Gabriel Bourque would be held out of the game “for a period of up to four weeks.”
• Also read: “Reinbacher will be a member of the Rocket around March 10th”
He had already been playing for several weeks despite a lower body injury. This season, the 33-year-old has one goal and six assists for seven points in 26 games. In addition, the club's captain is plagued by physical problems in the 2023-2024 season, notably having undergone knee surgery in October.
This news comes at a very bad time as several players are already missing from Jean-François Houle's training. Joshua Roy and Brandon Gignac, the team's top two scorers since the start of the regular season, are with the Montreal Canadiens. In addition to Bourque, defenders Mattias Norlinder and Brady Keeper as well as strikers Sean Farrell and Emil Heineman are also injured.
Additionally, Bourque is an important member of the Rocket locker room without compromising the scoring charts in every game.
To offset these losses, Laval recently recalled defenseman Chris Jandric and forward Alex-Olivier Voyer from the Trois-Rivières Lions to the ECHL.
Get back on track
The Rocket currently sit in sixth place in the North Division, just one point out of a playoff spot from the Belleville Senators thanks to a record of 20-19-6.
If Sunday's matchup against the Bridgeport Islanders, who sit last in the AHL standings, is expected to be largely within Laval's reach, then the matchups against the Hartford Wolf Pack on Friday and the Wilkes Penguins-Barre/Scranton on Saturday certainly will just not be within reach. These two teams are among the 11 best in the AHL this season.
Laval has also experienced more difficult times recently. After a lucky streak of 11 wins in 13 games between December 20th and January 24th, Logan Mailloux's teammates suffered five defeats in their last seven games.