“I don’t think I need to give Slaf confidence, to be honest. Why was he on the 1st line, cause he’s earned that opportunity. Same thing with the PP. He can extend time [on the boards] with his strength & size. It was a great first night.” – Coach Marty on Juraj Slafkovsky tonight.
by Go_Habs_Go31
9 Comments
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The way he plays now, I feel like one day, we’ll all collectively blink and he now has 30 goals and we wonder what happened.
No goals, but a presence that is noticeable and surprisingly completes Suzuki and Goal. He wins board battles that look impossible to win and gets it in front of the net. With Suzuki’s faceoff strength and playmaking and Caufield’s speed, I feel like there is nowhere the opponent could be with the puck and be safe.
![gif](giphy|alHWgvUjv8qplv7qXA|downsized)
This is why I think MSL is the best coach we’ve had in a very long time. He actually builds the rookies’ confidence up and gives them time to make mistakes, adjust, and find their game.
We are in for a bright future and I can’t wait to see it happen!
Slaf had very good game! Great to see.
His board play is like the best I’ve ever seen at the NHL level for someone so young (at least on the Habs). It’s insane how he’s able to take and keep the puck away from much more experienced and fully grown players like it’s no big deal. He’s 19, when he grows into a man he will be unstoppable.
There is to much positive in his game. Points will come for sure.
The goals and points aren’t flowing yet, but there are more and more flashes of the skills and promise that led to the Habs to draft him first overall.
Will he be the most productive player from his draft year? I sort of doubt it. But I don’t doubt that Slafkovsky will be far, far from a draft bust and will be a very productive, impactful NHL player. He’s already hitting on the latter more frequently; the production, at least to some reasonable degree, will come.
Slafkovsky is making the right plays with greater frequency, and learning to more effectively use his size and skill. Future superstar? Dunno. But I am, at this point, pretty confident that he will be a top-line NHL winger with a wholly unique combination of abilities.
He just needs to work on his skating and winning puck battles… Gally needs to show him some grit