Head coach Martin St. Louis uses a Waze app analogy to describe 19-year-old’s progression, which has included traffic and some missed exits.
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The day before the 2022 NHL Draft at the Bell Centre, the NHL brought some of the top prospects to Old Montreal for media availability.
The focus was on Shane Wright and Juraj Slafkovsky, the top-rated North American skater and the top-rated European skater, respectively. I asked Slafkovsky why the Canadiens should take him with the No. 1 overall pick.
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“I can play with those two guys (Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield) and I think it can be a pretty good line that can make results at the end of the day,” Slafkovsky said. “I think that’s important for Montreal.”
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That day finally came Saturday — in Slafkovsky’s 50th NHL game with the Canadiens.
After Slafkovsky had failed to score a goal in 31 consecutive games, including the first 10 this season, head coach Martin St. Louis decided to put the 19-year-old with Suzuki and Caufield. St. Louis felt the timing was right with centre Christian Dvorak returning to the lineup after knee surgery in March and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard — who had been playing with Suzuki and Caufield — sidelined with a lower-body injury. Slafkovsky responded by scoring his first goal since last Dec. 1 on a power play and finished with four shots on goal in a 6-3 loss to the Blues after getting only 10 shots in his first 10 games this season.
“I feel like sometimes things just happen for a reason,” St. Louis said. “HP goes down, Devo comes in. You have to switch things around. It was just the timing of that. But what made the decision easier for me is (Slafkovsky’s) play defensively because you get tougher matchups playing with Suzy and Cole. … For a 19-year-old, defensively he’s been very responsible. Timing-wise, it was a little bit of that … the opportunity, the circumstances.”
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Expect Slafkovsky to be back with Suzuki and Caufield Tuesday when the Canadiens play the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM). Now it’s up to the 6-foot-3, 230-pounder to make the most of his opportunity.
To describe Slafkovsky’s progression, St. Louis decided to ask reporters after practice Monday if they use the Waze app in their cars for directions.
“It tells you how much time it will take, how many miles,” St. Louis said. “And then you get into traffic. … Do you turn around or do you continue? … If you miss an exit, do you get frustrated and return home or do you get rerouted to still arrive at your destination. It’s a question like that.
“I live my life like that and that’s what we’re doing with Slaf,” St. Louis added. “Slaf is going to reach a nice destination … we don’t know exactly how much time it’s going to take and sometimes there’s traffic and you can’t get angry about it and can’t get discouraged about it. Sometimes you miss an exit, but you find your way back.”
St. Louis said he doesn’t have all the answers when Slafkovsky will get exactly where he’s going. Last season, Slafkovsky was limited to 39 games, posting 4-6-10 totals, before suffering a season-ending knee injury in mid-January
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“It’s hard for a young guy to be in traffic sometimes and miss the exit, but everyone hits traffic and misses exits,” St. Louis said. “It’s not easy for a 19-year-old, but we’re trying to help him with that.”
St. Louis knows it’s hard for Slafkovsky to avoid hearing what’s being said about him on social media and know what’s being written while he struggles to find his way in the NHL and added that sometimes it’s not fair. But Slafkovsky seems to be handling the off-ice noise well and hasn’t lost his sense of humour.
When asked after Saturday’s game about changing the tape job on his stick back to what he used when he first joined the Canadiens — just a few strips of white tape on the toe of a black blade — Slafkovsky said with a laugh: “It’s for you guys (in the media) so you have something to talk about.”
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Canadiens veteran Sean Monahan knows what the pressure is like for a 19-year-old playing in the NHL in a Canadian market after being a first-round pick of the Calgary Flames (sixth overall) at the 2013 draft.
“I talk to Slaf basically every day,” Monahan said. “He’s a great person, great teammate. It’s such a hard league. You got the pressure on you as the first overall pick and I think he’s just got to kind of move past that and just play. You got to try and enjoy it every day, put the work in and usually the results follow because he’s a great player.”
Monahan got off social media about six years ago and said he doesn’t really care what other people have to say outside of his teammates, coaches and parents. That’s good advice for Slafkovsky.
“He’s a great kid,” Monahan said. “I’m sure he’s going to be a lifelong friend of mine. He’s actually hilarious. He’s a great person, great teammate. He’s everything you could ask for. He works hard and he wants to learn. His time’s going to come. Getting on the board and putting one in the back of the net I think that will really up his confidence.”
What Slafkovsky envisioned the day before the draft is now reality. But there will still be traffic and missed exits moving forward.
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