Some key thoughts and takeaways from the Regiments thrilling opening night win over the Moncton Wildcats.

If you were to draw up the ideal opening night to welcome the Regiment to St John’s, I’m not sure it would look much different than what took place at the Mary Browns Centre on Thursday night. A high event, dramatic, rollercoaster of a game, that ultimately ended in the first victory in team history. What more could you ask for?

But now that we’ve had the chance to calm down and digest the Regiments opening night performance, I wanted to break down some of the plays and trends that stood out to me while watching this group for the first time. 

Welcome to the Q!

If there were any doubters in the province about the excitement level of QMJHL hockey, they were certainly silenced on Thursday night. Without a doubt, the first thing that jumped out to me while watching this game was the pace and offensive explosion that this league presents. It’s captivating, and it took a mere forty seconds into the Regiments existence for them to show their new fans the style of play most consistent in the QMJHL. On Moncton’s opening goal (again, just forty seconds into the game), Liam Arsenault got stripped in the middle of the defensive zone while trying to make a move around the oncoming forechecker. His linemates were changing, he had little defensive support, and there were three (!) Wildcats players heading towards him on the forecheck. In no universe should Arsenault be headed full steam up the middle of the ice trying to dance around those Wildcats attackers. But that’s the Q! Of course, the result of that play went just how anyone with a set of working eye balls thought it would go, Arsenault was stripped of the puck, and thanks to a pretty poor recovery attempt by Emile Perron, the Wildcats slotted home the first goal of the game. That one play encapsulated what seemed to be a pretty consistent theme all night, that for better or worse, these guys aren’t afraid to be creative, and the thought of showing some skill to make an impactful offensive play seemed to outway the defensive risks that could be associated with it. I’m not trying to say that defensive structure was completely thrown to the wind in this game (I’ll touch on that later), but it seemed like the offensive side of the game took centre stage for both teams, which lead to a lot of defensive breakdowns and some really fun offensive sequences throughout the entire game. 

Top Line Brilliance

The Regiments top line of Justin Larose, Louis-Francois Belanger, and Marek Danicek looked lethal all night. Larose (1G, 2A) and Danicek (1G, 3A) found themselves all over the score sheet, while Belanger had what was probably the biggest moment of the game, ripping home the game winning goal with 5:26 to go in the third. All three of these players deserve their flowers for how they played against the Wildcats, but I thought it was Larose who stood out more than anyone else and really took control of the game during some big moments.

To put it simply, it looked like Justin Larose was too good to be playing in the QMJHL. It’s probably not unfair to say that, as he’s already committed to play for the University of Michigan next season, and the speed and skill he displayed during the opening night victory was noticeably more impressive than anyone else on the ice. Danicek’s 3-1 goal in the first period is a great example of the pace at which Larose was playing all night. The whole sequence starts with Larose using his speed on the forecheck to force a weak play up the boards by a Wildcats winger, which Oliver Sampson is easily able to pick off and throw towards the net to hold the zone. Off the Sampson shot, Larose is able to jump on a loose puck (shoutout to Belanger for a disruptive forecheck), chip it to himself past a pair of Wildcats and make a centering pass to Danicek in the slot. A nice defensive stick by one of the recovering Wildcat forwards broke up the pass, but still a nice look created by the speed and skill of this line. As play continued shortly after in the Wildcat defensive zone, Larose was able to jump on another loose puck along the boards, and realizing he had three of his teammates high in the zone, he elected to take the puck out to the neutral zone to regroup. Larose then sent a cross ice pass to Jayden Lazara who was easily able to regain the attacking zone. After a Wildcat defender was able to free the puck from Lazara, Larose (again) jumped on the loose puck and chipped it to space behind the Moncton net, where he easily won the footrace against the oncoming defenders, took a quick scan to the slot area, and hit Danicek with a perfect feed to bang home the Regiments third of the game. I don’t want to diminish the play of Belanger and Danicek, who both played significant roles in this goal, but the sequence perfectly demonstrated how dominant Larose was most of the night, and how much of a gamebreaking talent he can be for the Regiment this season. 

With the return of the NHL rookie camp invitees on the horizon, it’s possible that this line gets shaken up before the weekend series against the Charlottetown Islanders, but if I’m Gordie Dwyer, I’d have a hard time pulling that trigger based on what I saw here on opening night. 

Rush D Concerns

There were a lot of positive offensive trends that the Regiment could take away from this game, but something of concern that stood out to me was the poor rush defending by the team’s back end. 

A high skill, high speed league like QMJHL is typically going to result in a lot of offensive opportunities coming off the rush, and I thought the Regiment had a pretty rough night when it came to defending the Wildcats counter attacks. They were fortunate to only surrender the one early goal, as the opening five minutes gave a couple of examples where Moncton were able to break down the Regiment of the rush and create prime scoring chances. Unsurprisingly, Moncton were eventually able to turn their prime rush chances into goals, with all three of their second period tallies coming in that fashion. It felt like there was a lack of organization and certainty in the Regiments rush defending, with Moncton’s second and third goals coming off poor defensive coverage and backchecking around the net. Of course, we’re just one game into the season, so there’s plenty of time for this Regiment roster to become more familiar with each other’s play styles and the system that coach Dwyer wants them to play. Nonetheless, it was still concerning to see so many easy defensive breakdowns, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the team’s collective rush defending is something the coaching staff hones in on before the next game.  

Impressive Finish 

I mentioned earlier that I didn’t think the Regiment completely abandoned any defensive structure in this game, and most of that has to do with how they closed out the third period after taking a 6-5 lead. 

The final five and a half minutes of play started with (surprisingly) a great rush defense by Daniele Biagio Jr and Emile Perron, which was shortly followed by a series of blocked shots and a nice read by Liam Arsenault to eventually gain possession for NL and escape their D zone. That first shift really set the tone to a strong finish for the Regiment. 

The key to the strong defensive finish came from the Regiments effectiveness to clog the neutral zone for Moncton. After the initial shift following the Regiments lead, the Wildcats didn’t see any scoring chances, or any sustained ozone time, until the final 1:30 of play. The biggest factor for that was their inability to create any positive momentum through the neutral zone, as well as their lack of success creating possession through a dump in. I was thoroughly impressed with how the Regiment seemed to dial in on the defensive end to secure this win, It’s definitely something they can look back to if they wish to implement some more consistency on that end.

It’s hard to picture anyone attending this game didn’t leave wanting more, which I imagine is exactly what this ownership group hoped to accomplish this weekend. The brand of hockey that the QMJHL presents isn’t comparable to what was produced by the Growlers and the ECHL, it’s faster, it’s more eventful, and it’s exactly what the city needs to sustain a hockey team long term.