Juraj Slafkovsky has six points in his last nine games.
On paper, it would be easy to say that this is a relatively respectable production.
But even if he scores points, that doesn’t mean he’s playing the best hockey of his career. Far from it, even…
The big striker didn’t play the right way last night in Colorado and there, Martin St-Louis got bored. He sent him a message by limiting his playing time in the 3rd period, so that Slaf was one of CH’s least used attackers.
He finished the game spending 13 minutes and 25 seconds on the ice: only Brendan Gallagher (12:17), Emil Heineman (9:56) and Michael Pezzetta (4:32) played less than him.
And after the match, it was clear that Slaf was angry with the result even though his club had won:
Is that a bad thing, seeing him replace his smile with frustration?
In my eyes, not necessarily. It shows that he wants to give more and it shows that it doesn’t go ten feet over his head.
Martin St-Louis said after the match that the difference at the moment at CH is that the guys are hungry. The fact that the Canadian is just one point away from the playoffs at the time of writing this is good proof.
But we know what the problem is with Slaf recently: he doesn’t always look like a guy who is hungry on the ice.
When we see him dragging his skates and playing sluggishly, it doesn’t fit with the energy of the rest of the team.
So I liked seeing St-Louis shorten its bench last night and as a result, I also liked seeing the coach send a message to his young player.
St. Louis – who has often been criticized for his decisions in the past – did what he had to do by using less of a guy who isn’t giving enough because that also sends a message to the group.
Don’t you want to put in the effort necessary to win? Stay on the bench and watch your teammates want to get high. St-Louis hasn’t done it all the time since arriving in Montreal, but the timing was well chosen last night.
And it worked because the club managed to beat the Avalanche, one of the good teams in the NHL.
It’s up to Slaf to look in the mirror and do more. Everyone knows he can do it because we saw him do it last season, and maybe it’s just a more average pass too.
But that must change quickly because otherwise, there are doubts which will begin to settle in the heads of the supporters, the leaders… And in his head too.
He must not get to that point.
In burst
– He is hot.
– I will never understand how this player slipped all the way to 23rd overall in the 2023 draft.
– Logic.
– Oh?
