He hasn’t played since January, give the kid a chance. The people saying he’s a bust after watching a few shifts during a camp scrimmage are absurd.
I highly recommend that people watch his last game before injury last year: https://youtu.be/jx0HCuXB1pY?si=FWVP-xxHv-pCPbFZ — lots of scoring chances and some good defensive plays too. He was definitely heating up before his injury and likely would’ve had a better second half of the year with more ice time had he note been injured. Who knows if he’ll end up being a true 1OA caliber player in a few years, but anyone saying that he hasn’t shown progress wasn’t paying attention last year.
by fortytwoanswers
34 Comments
I mean he also played well lol, there were 3/4 shifts where he outmuscled people along the boards and transitioned the play, he got an assist and didn’t cause any huge turnovers.
Can’t say youre expecting 40-50 points as a successful D+1 year and then also expect him to look as good as players 3/4 years further into their pro careers.
Training camp’s entire purpose is to shake off rust. Would a guy with 31 games pro experience with no hockey in 8 months be rusty? Hmmm….tough one.
Shitty fanbase
This fan base is truly exhausting.
A famous quote from The Hockey Guy sums this up “You can’t call a player a bust if he is not old enough to drink in the US”. Slaf will be fine, give the kid some time. We all see the fire, it just needs to be tamed a bit and we will have a real gem.
Why are we freaking out? He played on the most dominant line (from game 2) and got an assist.
It’s probably going to take another year or two before he breaks out. Everyone needs to calm themselves. It’s like they think putting more pressure on him will help.
“He just doesn’t know how bad he’s doing! Let’s let him know! Then he’ll start scoring!” 😂
Clowns
oops, wrong thread
I think people are just generally stressed and angry so they find scapegoat outlets. Easier to shit on a kid than to admit you have no power to fix the problems in the world and your life. The whole internet is much more negative now than it has ever been in my opinion.
Thank you for this post.
He hasn’t played in 10 months. I remember the last few weeks of him playing before his injury and he definitely was heating up. The game highlights you posted show how promising he was looking.
Big hits, good cycle play, heavy forechecking and better skating, defensive awareness, his natural shot blocking, and some nice zone entry attempts (arguably one of the hardest things) all at 18 years old after having played an enormous amount of hockey within those last 18 months.
The kid will prove people wrong.
Aren’t people allowed to notice that our scouts just suck at their job?
What’s all this hostility towards people who have expectations?
They did the same thing about maillouxs first game and the rein pick. It’s just part of being a professional athlete in montreal
Jumbo Joe had 7 points in 55 games in his rookie season ; Nino Niederreiter started his career with 3 points in 64 games … Just chill for a bit
Definitely not his fault, but he’s not a 1st overall talent imo. Will be interesting to see how the other prospects from that draft class do this season.I fear it will only get worse for him if he doesn’t outplay them which is totally unfair to slaf but just the way it goes when you’re the top pick.
Habs fans and overreacting, name a more iconic duo.
People are allowed to be mad or disappointed about his play
He’s a #1 pick, he’s going to need to start acting like it eventually
Personally, I think Cooley’s gonna end up being the best player of the 2022 draft, but fingers crossed for Slaf
People mad about one scrimmage game lol. I have my doubts on slaf but you but you can’t base anything off this.
Can’t wait to see him body Bedard and his flock of shithawks tbh
Jesus, I don’t even pay attention until game #1. To think people are watching a scrimmage and drawing conclusions need to get a life. Ffs
I haven’t seen anyone here “freaking out”, did I miss something? Example? Pretty measured comments that I’ve seen on this sub
As a retired professional hockey player who was paid nearly 100$ over his career, this is my expert take on the video of that one game. /s (Also a habs fan who wants nothing more than for him to be an absolute stud)
He is doing a great impression of someone trying to play defensively. He makes a few good plays based more on his reach than his positioning. I love that he does come back below the dots, but on 3 or 4 plays i felt like he was too low in the zone while defending and leaving the point with too much space. He might just be one of those players who are trying really hard but looks like he’s kind of phoning it in a bit. Or just a very young kid being overwhelmed by being a rookie 1OA for an original 6 team and scared to fuck up.
He shows flashes of high level skill which is unsurprising watching his pre NHL highlights.
My question to this sub is, am I judging him too harshly and too early? Is the fact that he’s already trying to play a 200ft game, what I should be focusing on as opposed to him not being great at it yet? I’ve heard he’s shed 15 lbs before camp this year which seems like it could help with his pace.
God people, he’s 18, in a foreign country, and has only played a handful of games in a league that’s full of the best players in the world…this takes time…stop being a-holes.
Jesus Christ some of the takes in here are awful. People shit on Toronto fans for being toxic…look in the mirror.
Hughes and team said in that behind the scenes video they weren’t picking the guy who’d be the best right now, and instead wanted to chose the guy with the toolkit to be the best in 3-4 years. You know, when we’re starting to really compete?
Slaf is also not getting more than 35 points(and it’s perfectly fine), so be ready to see some slaf deniers posts in the coming year.
McDavid would play in Montreal getting 60 goals with 180 points and people would be disappointed he didn’t have 181.
Who TF is taking the White vs. Red match seriously, those scrimmages are about as meaningful as the all-star game for crying out loud.
Who’s freaking out? I think this post is way more dramatic then anything else I’ve read on here today
100% completely agree it’s way too early for any form of criticism, especially in a freaking scrimmage.
However, just because he is young doesn’t mean he will be exempt from constructive (not trolling or concern trolling) criticism going forward.
Lol dude are they talking about the other regs who looked bad? Cause it was most of them lol
People freaking out ? i saw like 2 mild negatives comment and hundred’s of positive one.
Stop cherrypicking.
So when newhook looks good its a positive sign but when slafkovsky looks bad its a non discussion?
Not how this works
People are idiots
I enjoy my Habs way more when I don’t read peoples opinions on Reddit 🤣 pumped for this year !!