The Canadian | From the bench to the sauna, Slafkovsky’s Saturday

During the second intermission on Saturday, the fate of Juraj Slafkovsky monopolized the conversations in the hockey world. Whether on X, Facebook, Bluesky, Myspace or mIRC, fans only had it for 1^is 2022 draft choice, benched for a shift or two, in the Canadian’s 5-1 victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

It appears that this was not only being talked about on the internet. At the end of the second period, Nick Suzuki went to say a few words to his young teammate. Then, as the players returned to the bench for the third period, Cole Caufield took a place to Slafkovsky’s left and whispered a few words in his ear.

What were these sweet words? “He just told me to continue, to concentrate, and he told me that he was going to see me in the sauna after the match,” revealed Slafkovsky at the end of Sunday’s training in Brossard.

You will understand that Slafkovsky was smiling again, some 12 hours after the events. In fact, he found him at the end of the match on Saturday, even engaging in his new victory ritual before returning to the locker room: he, Caufield, Suzuki, Kirby Dach and Christian Dvorak gather in front of the bench and feign a huddle, like in football.

After Saturday’s victory, Martin St-Louis did not detail what he accused Slafkovsky of precisely. In a general response to what was bothering him during his team’s slump in the second period, the head coach made particular reference to ill-advised “crossing passes”.

St-Louis did not meet with the media on Sunday, but the eagle eye of The Athletic colleague Arpon Basu spotted a sequence where Slafkovsky actually attempts a cross-ice pass rather than taking the puck out through the boards towards the neutral zone, where Dach could have retrieved it. His pass failed, forcing Jake Evans to extend his presence.

Slafkovsky also didn’t go into detail on Sunday, but he did acknowledge that he made “a few bad shifts.”

“It’s nothing big. But I understand Martin’s decision. He wanted to employ players who played well,” added the great Slovak.

High expectations

What we will have learned from this episode, however, is that Slafkovsky has high expectations.

We tend to forget him because he arrived in Montreal at 18, but there are only 15 players younger than him who have played at least one game in the NHL this season. Even Lane Hutson, whose game is not free of errors despite his great talent, is older – by six weeks – than Slafkovsky.

Statistically, Slafkovsky has nothing to be ashamed of for his departure. His 11 points in 15 games, projected over 82 games, would earn him a total of 60 points, which is far from bad at his age. His -1 differential is also the best (or least worst) among CH’s permanent employees this season.

The colossus, however, does not stop at his statistics to evaluate his game. Moreover, after the victory in Buffalo last Monday, he said he had, until then, played “12 bad games”. It was, remember, his 13^e match.

“We have high expectations. The coaches expect a lot, so do we, and it’s good to have high standards,” Slafkovsky reiterated.

In brief

Treatments for Savard and Gallagher

David Savard and Brendan Gallagher were both excused from training. The team cited a “treatment day” in both cases. Gallagher missed Saturday morning’s drill, but was at his post in the evening against Columbus. Savard missed Saturday’s match due to an upper body injury, an unexpected absence after he had participated in Saturday’s morning practice. He will have to make sure not to be away for too long since Hudson Matheson was given an audition at the blue line at the end of training. The 3-year-old showed some precision with the puck. It must be said that as the son of two hockey players (his mother Emily Pfalzer played in the NCAA, the Olympic Games and the now defunct NWHL), he has it in his blood!

Wool at work

Before today’s training, Patrik Laine put on the skates and his rehabilitation seems to be going well. For around forty minutes, he indulged in skating exercises with puck control and took a few shots which reminded us that he still masters this art so well despite his absence. Laine trained with Adam Nicholas, director of hockey development.

When Hutson tries to imitate St. Louis

Once the collective portion of the training was over, a handful of players took part in a shootout session against Karel St-Laurent, who came to offer a respite to goalkeepers Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau for a few exercises. During one of his tests, Hutson tried the famous Martin St-Louis feint, the one where he turns around to place himself on his backhand as he approaches the goalkeeper. Hutson confirmed he took inspiration from his head coach. The young defender says he “remembers” a goal that St-Louis scored against Marc-André Fleury with this gesture. Checked, it was January 7, 2007, when Hutson was 2 years old. We guess that he is one of the 120,000 Internet users who viewed the sequence on YouTube.

See Martin St-Louis’ goal