Juraj Slafkovsky and Kirby Dach, despite an excellent match yesterday against the Buffalo Sabres, did not escape the harsh criticism of Jean-Nicolas Blanchet, journalist at the Journal de Montréal.
According to him, the performances of both players leave much to be desired, and he is simply scathing when talking about the two big attackers who play, according to him, with the fear of breaking a nail.
In his column, Blanchet does not hesitate to dismantle their offensive production.
Although Martin St-Louis has two players potentially destined for a first-line role on hand, the statistical reality is quite different.
Slafkovsky and Dach performed well below expectations.
According to Blanchet, with only six expected goals accumulated since the start of the season, but only two actually scored, they are struggling to establish themselves as offensive threats.
He does not hesitate to point out that in terms of expected goals, more than 150 players in the NHL surpass the Habs’ two prospects this season.
Blanchet doesn’t stop there. He also points out their supposed inability to exploit their physicality to take the puck from the opponent.
The numbers speak for themselves: Dach reportedly picked up the disc five times this season, but lost it 13 times.
Slafkovsky, meanwhile, only managed to recover the disc three times while losing it 11 times. Statistics which, according to Blanchet, rank them among the worst in the league.
With a scathing tone, Blanchet expresses his hope that the three assists collected by Slafkovsky during the game against the Sabers will ignite a spark, but the analysis remains merciless.
It is clear that, for him, the Slovak and the Canadian are still not able to fully convince.
In the meantime, this public criticism, although merciless, could serve as an electric shock to the two young players who, if they do not quickly gain momentum, risk finding themselves in the sights of more and more commentators.
Jean-Nicolas Blanchet doesn’t stop there: after targeting the performances of Slafkovsky and Dach, the columnist takes aim at the Canadian’s defenders.
For him, Martin St-Louis can only count on three true top 4 caliber defenders on his team: Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle and Lane Hutson.
This trio is, according to him, the only positive defensive point of the team. All the others, according to Blanchet, are only supporting defenders, practically worthy of the American League.
Lane Hutson, without knowing it, places Arber Xhekaj in hot water.
Imagine Hutson and Arber Xhekaj have created roughly the same number of turnovers since the start of the year.
In just 172 minutes spent on the ice for Xhekaj, while Hutson has played…348 minutes this season…
The other defenders, like David Savard, Arber Xhekaj, Justin Barron and Jayden Struble, are, according to Blanchet, only support players, numbers 5 or 6 at best.
Blanchet is clear: no defensive system can compensate for the lack of depth and experience of a brigade which relies on only three real first-rate defenders. For the columnist, we must not be naive.
Blanchet returns to the advanced statistics that Martin St-Louis despises.
However, for the journalist, these figures unequivocally expose the cold reality of the team: St-Louis has one of the worst teams in the NHL on hand.
No matter Marty’s speeches or hopes, these statistics show that the Canadiens, in their current state, are far from having the means to fight for a playoff spot.
Or to be in the mix.
According to Blanchet, we are talking about one of the worst teams in hockey history. Maybe we should be less harsh on St. Louis.
After all, the Pastoral Monitor only has second-hand singers.
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