Late in the third period on Sunday, with the Canucks ahead 3-1, Martin St-Louis called Jake Allen to the bench for a sixth skater. The lucky one in the role of the sixth man: Juraj Slafkovsky.
The same Slafkovsky who, the day before, had instead been benched at the end of the third period when the Canadian and the Boston Bruins were tied 2-2.
The presence ended badly for the sextet, Brock Boeser scored in an empty net, Slafkovsky was therefore stuck with a – 1 on his record and the Canucks ended up triumphing 5-2.
Slafkovsky did not steal this assignment. After a difficult first period where the puck always seemed to slide off his stick, he regained confidence and finished the evening with six shots on goal, and four more of his shots were blocked by Vancouver skaters.
“It helps me a lot in my game if I know that I can play at this level, in a second match in 24 hours,” he argued after the match.
By sending him into the fray among the six skaters on a mission to tie the game, St. Louis gave Slafkovsky the positive reinforcement that the numbers haven’t provided him so far this season. After a month, the first pick of the 2022 draft only has one goal and one assist, with a differential of -6.
The problem: in the country led by Martin St-Louis, keys are legal tender. In his press briefings, he constantly talks about touches. The statistics are also listed internally. Last week, before the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, a player explained to us that St-Louis had pointed out, during a team meeting, that Nikita Kucherov was first in the NHL for the number of times a player touches the sacrosanct washer.
However, in Slafkovsky’s mind, the good old points still count for a lot. Take, for example, his response when asked how he keeps morale up even if offensive production isn’t there.
St-Louis, for his part, is not giving up. “Compared to last year, [Slafkovsky] is much more comfortable on the ice, he touches the puck a lot more,” explained the CH pilot. Now the next step is how effective he is with his touches. But it’s encouraging to see how many touches he has. »
Slafkovsky, remember, is 19 years and 7 months old. It can take some time, however, for a hatchling not named Connor to hatch. In New York, for example, we are wishing that three years after his draft, Alexis Lafrenière is coming out of his shell, he who scored his sixth and seventh goals of the season on Sunday, in 14 games.
The age argument can’t be made for Josh Anderson, however, because at 19 years and 126 months, it’s becoming tedious to keep score.
The coach targets a relevant statistic here. The penalty to Tyler Myers on Sunday was already the 14th he had caused this season. That’s good for first place in the NHL, no less. Within a team whose numerical advantage is finally productive, this is no small contribution.
“Sometimes you do everything right, but victory is not fair,” said St-Louis, in the middle of a flurry of answers about his two colossi wingers awaiting results.
It may not have been in his eyes on Sunday, he who judged that the match could have gone “one way or the other”, an opinion of his own.
But overall, with a record of 7-6-2 after the first month of the season, the victory was not particularly unfaithful to the CH, knowing that the majority of these victories were snatched away. That’s 16 points in 15 games, 87 if we project over 82 games, an improvement over last year, but an exclusion from the playoffs.
So the successes may not be true to Slafkovsky and Anderson, but we could say conversely that players like Cole Caufield and Mike Matheson have been nicely rewarded offensively despite ups and downs in their game.
The victory is perhaps not “fair” when we look at individual cases, but overall, the Habs are relatively faithful to what their record says. Didn’t Bill Parcells say that “you are what your information sheet says you are”?
His presence was uncertain 24 hours after he left the game in the second period. He responded by delivering 20 minutes of sober play, but devoid of major errors.
He stood out from the start with a shot on the post so convincing that the goal siren went off. We then saw very little of him and he received a penalty in the neutral zone. Not the expected performance against his former club.
Discreetly, defenseman Filip Hronek earned a point in his 10th straight game. The Canucks certainly shouldn’t regret his acquisition seeing his 16 points in 15 outings.
Casey DeSmith has only spent time within the Canadian organization. He had time to participate in the team’s golf tournament, but switched to the Canucks two days before training camp opened to avoid a four-goalie household. Not only did he leave with a victory, but also with a Canadian jersey number 29 from Ken Dryden, donated graciously by the Montreal organization. “I grew up [in New Hampshire] admiring the Canadiens, and Ken Dryden was my idol, so even though it’s not my old team per se, every game against them at the Bell Center is special. Plus, I met Carey Price at the golf tournament,” the friendly 31-year-old goalie said after the meeting. There was no rush at the doors to get him, after he was let go by the Pittsburgh Penguins to reduce the team’s payroll following a miserable season, but his former GM in Pittsburgh and today he current president of the Canucks, Jim Rutherford, had known him during more successful years, and he also freed himself from a hot potato by sending Tanner Pearson to the Canadian. While not smoking, DeSmith blocked 32 shots and improved his record to 4-0-1 with a 2.48 GAA and .923 save percentage. “I didn’t like the last goal, from Xhekaj, but I felt good. And the guys score the big goals in front of me. »
With defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s contract buyout last summer, Conor Garland is the last vestige of an ugly trade that cost the Canucks a 9th overall pick in 2021 and a second-round pick in 2022. He would already gone if Vancouver had found a buyer, but who wants a rather one-dimensional striker paid 4.9 million per season until 2026? After a 46-point season, including 17 goals, Garland was tossed between the third and fourth lines, and he had only 3 points in 14 games on his record before Sunday’s game at the Bell Center, but he scored a nice goal at the start of the second by deflecting a pass from J. T. Miller and prepared that of Dakota Joshua, the third for the Canucks. He was named first star of the match to general indifference. “I know you look at the points a lot, but I am satisfied with my game since the start of the season,” defended the 27-year-old athlete. I adapt to my role, depending on what is asked of me, and we have several players capable of producing. »
The Canadiens’ top pick in 2015, right-handed defenseman Noah Juulsen, was once considered a top prospect in Montreal until serious facial injuries, the result of two puck hits in quick succession, come to derail his career. Juulsen, 26, ended up in Vancouver three years ago and played mostly in the American League, but is clinging to a seventh defenseman role this year with the Canucks. He played only his fourth match of the season on Sunday, having spent the others in the press box. With the injury suffered by Carson Soucy, victim of a shot by Juraj Slafkovsky, Juulsen managed to play 14:15, but he was little noticed, except for his penalty for high stick in the place by Nick Suzuki in the third period.
