Juraj Slafkovsky - Year Two

[Jaynki]

McCagg is just as opinionated as the rest of us. He gets a bad reputation from some but he's not a complete idiot. Some people look at others and once they don't like them, they think everything they say is crap.

Take McCagg's opinions with a grain of salt.... like most "insiders"

Yes but what he stated here was not his opinion. They were fact.

 

[NotProkofievian]

Yiiiikes.

 

[waitin425]

Yiiiikes.

Slaf chases Marner from the Leafs zone and keeps pace with him. Mailloux standing there and Slaf stuck to Marner, causes Marner to go wide across the ice. Mathews steps up to the gap. Slaf's attention was focused on Marner all the way down the ice. Matthews was in his six the entire time. Mailloux should have seen Matthews coming, and once Marner showed he was letting up, Mailloux's attention should have shifted to Matthews. Or......another Hab could have actually back checked. This wasn't on Slaf, and shouldn't really be on Mailloux either.

Look at these two screen grabs.....the first one shows the start of the play. We see Mailloux pivoting at the blue line and Slaf parallel with Marner. Then we see two habs behind Marner and I think one of the two Leafs is Matthews.

5 seconds later.....Matthews is streaking in on his own....while one of those Habs players is on OV controller mode in the neutral zone. Looked bad at first on Slaf or Mailloux, but honestly it wasn't them who f***ed this up.

 

[Deebs]

Slaf chases Marner from the Leafs zone and keeps pace with him. Mailloux standing there and Slaf stuck to Marner, causes Marner to go wide across the ice. Mathews steps up to the gap. Slaf's attention was focused on Marner all the way down the ice. Matthews was in his six the entire time. Mailloux should have seen Matthews coming, and once Marner showed he was letting up, Mailloux's attention should have shifted to Matthews. Or......another Hab could have actually back checked. This wasn't on Slaf, and shouldn't really be on Mailloux either.

Look at these two screen grabs.....the first one shows the start of the play. We see Mailloux pivoting at the blue line and Slaf parallel with Marner. Then we see two habs behind Marner and I think one of the two Leafs is Matthews.
View attachment 748523

5 seconds later.....Matthews is streaking in on his own....while one of those Habs players is on OV controller mode in the neutral zone. Looked bad at first on Slaf or Mailloux, but honestly it wasn't them who f***ed this up.
View attachment 748524

Its two young players that shouldn't be in the NHL who don't communicate with each other and give the opposition a terrific scoring chance. It happens.

 

[Andy]

I also thought Matthews should have been Mailloux’s man on that short handed chance when him and Slaf were chasing Marner. I will let the more technical posters weigh in though.

 

[waitin425]

Its two young players that shouldn't be in the NHL who don't communicate with each other and give the team a terrific scoring chance. It happens.

Sure, there are things these two guys could have done different.....watch that replay over and over though. There are far more egregious things going on by other Habs players that actually resulted in that scoring chance. It's also short handed! These two guys can afford to double team Marner, while the other guys take a man.

I also thought Matthews should have been Mailloux’s man on that short handed chance when him and Slaf were chasing Marner. I will let the more technical posters weigh in though.

This was my initial reaction as well. But slowing it down and looking at those screen grabs changed my perspective to neither of them being at fault.

 

[HuGort]

I honestly don't see how anyone can be a star without sound basic fundementals. Maybe you're confusing lack of fundementals with inconsistency?

I thought he's looked good this preseason but a bit inconsistent in certain facets.

Experience right, look at Tage Thompson

 

[Deebs]

Experience right, look at Tage Thompson

For sure. He did a couple of stints in the A, then graduated and it still took him a couple more years to figure it all out. It's amazing how much longer the progression time is for these big skilled players. Him, Dach, Wheeler, etc....not all of course but on average.

 

[HuGort]

For sure. He did a couple of stints in the A, then graduated and it still took him a couple more years to figure it all out. It's amazing how much longer the progression time is for these big skilled players. Him, Dach, Wheeler, etc....not all of course but on average.

I think they have to overcome size issue.

 

[NotProkofievian]

Slaf chases Marner from the Leafs zone and keeps pace with him. Mailloux standing there and Slaf stuck to Marner, causes Marner to go wide across the ice. Mathews steps up to the gap. Slaf's attention was focused on Marner all the way down the ice. Matthews was in his six the entire time. Mailloux should have seen Matthews coming, and once Marner showed he was letting up, Mailloux's attention should have shifted to Matthews. Or......another Hab could have actually back checked. This wasn't on Slaf, and shouldn't really be on Mailloux either.

Look at these two screen grabs.....the first one shows the start of the play. We see Mailloux pivoting at the blue line and Slaf parallel with Marner. Then we see two habs behind Marner and I think one of the two Leafs is Matthews.
View attachment 748523

5 seconds later.....Matthews is streaking in on his own....while one of those Habs players is on OV controller mode in the neutral zone. Looked bad at first on Slaf or Mailloux, but honestly it wasn't them who f***ed this up.
View attachment 748524

There's no scanning. Watch Juraj's head. He has no idea that Matthews is there until Matthews has the puck. He doesn't suspect that a player could be behind him, which is why he didn't scan.

 

[Deebs]

I think they have to overcome size issue.

It's a real thing for sure. That's why I'm kind of choked we're rushing Slaf. He won't be a finished product for another 3-4 years, let him marinate in the A.

 

[Captain Mountain]

Whatever these advanced stats measure, they don't match what actually happened on the ice. I'm hopeful Slafkovsky will progress, but this looks like an attempt to artificially inflate his impact.

There are valid criticisms of how gamescore is calculated, but its definitely not an attempt to artificially inflate his impact. Obviously the notion that a model applied to every player in every game has a bias to a single player is ludicrous.

It honestly captures Slafkovsky's performance in the preseason better than the hyperbole and overreactions to specific plays/situations in this thread.

Its also the preseason, people are overreacted (positively or negatively), stats or not.

 

[ZUKI]

McCagg is just as opinionated as the rest of us. He gets a bad reputation from some but he's not a complete idiot. Some people look at others and once they don't like them, they think everything they say is crap.

Take McCagg's opinions with a grain of salt.... like most "insiders"

This" bad reputation " came meanly from 1-2 members of this forum + the arrogance he used to show when he was answering to comments people were doing. The guy is the owner of recrutes.ca sees hours and hours of videos, talks to a lot of scouts, has some contacts . But of course, few "experts" of this boards were way better than him to evaluate junior players. Those experts used to jump on bad selections/predictions he has made to destroy his reputation.

I like his site, his comments/analyses are often backed with multi-videos to explain his point of view. But who is he compared to our Habs experts ?
The funny part is that a lot of members that probably never have read his site, are telling us "don't trust him , he isn't a legit, he doesn't know more than us..."

 

[Tyson]

This" bad reputation " came meanly from 1-2 members of this forum + the arrogance he used to show when he was answering to comments people were doing. The guy is the owner of recrutes.ca sees hours and hours of videos, talks to a lot of scouts, has some contacts . But of course, few "experts" of this boards were way better than him to evaluate junior players. Those experts used to jump on bad selections/predictions he has made to destroy his reputation.

I like his site, his comments/analyses are often backed with multi-videos to explain his point of view. But who is he compared to our Habs experts ?
The funny part is that a lot of members that probably never have read his site, are telling us "don't trust him , he isn't a legit, he doesn't know more than us..."

I have learned to like Grant. He is one of the few contributors on the Sick Podcast that I enjoy.

 

[waitin425]

There's no scanning. Watch Juraj's head. He has no idea that Matthews is there until Matthews has the puck. He doesn't suspect that a player could be behind him, which is why he didn't scan.

That is a fair point....but should he have to scan in that situation? He is chasing down a player who is streaking on a short handed opportunity. At some point you have to let other players on your team also make a play. Double teaming Marner from the Leafs zone in this context isn't a bad idea. There are still enough Habs on the ice to each take a remaining man.

This isn't the Yiiiikes you made it out to be, and the proof is right there in the screen grabs.

 

[Pazucha]

Matthews is way behind Anderson and Gallagher at the start but both of them decided to just let him slip through the middle.

 

[ReHabs]

Yiiiikes.

I don't think Slaf should've stuck on him when Mallioux was in position to receive Marner as they got to the d-zone. Poor play and poor awareness of his role. My first instinct is to blame MSL and his coaches tbh -- as stated, it is fair to admit Slaf doesn't have eyes on the back of his head... which is why he should've backed off and covered the RD zone where he would've immediately noticed Matthews' presence.

Gallagher's the real dog in this sequence tbh.

Mailloux isn't to blame other than for not communicating to Slaf that he's got Marner and for Slaf to back off.

Pee-wee hockey coaches, folks.

 

[Captain Mountain]

It's a real thing for sure. That's why I'm kind of choked we're rushing Slaf. He won't be a finished product for another 3-4 years, let him marinate in the A.

I don't really understand the notion that Montreal is "rushing Slaf". It seems to be conflating production and development, which doesn't make much sense. This isn't the same as the Bergevin-era Habs where the focus was on winning in the NHL and contributing to winning massively outweighed development.

Slafkovsky needs touches and to gain confidence to play his game effectively and he needs to get used to NHL speed. I don't really care if he gets that opportunity to develop in the NHL or AHL, but I think MSL is going to give him the ice time to do it in the NHL.

 

[waitin425]

I don't think Slaf should've stuck on him when Mallioux was in position to receive Marner as they got to the d-zone. Poor play and poor awareness of his role. My first instinct is to blame MSL and his coaches tbh -- as stated, it is fair to admit Slaf doesn't have eyes on the back of his head... which is why he should've backed off and covered the RD zone where he would've immediately noticed Matthews' presence.

And what was the role of the other Habs players on the ice?

 

[Seb]

It would definitely not look as bad on Slafkovsky if Anderson wasn't brain dead. What the f*** was he trying to do? And have you seen Gallagher? I think he's still in the Leafs offensive zone right now trying to backcheck. What the f*** these two.

 

[ZUKI]

There are valid criticisms of how gamescore is calculated, but its definitely not an attempt to artificially inflate his impact. Obviously the notion that a model applied to every player in every game has a bias to a single player is ludicrous.

It honestly captures Slafkovsky's performance in the preseason better than the hyperbole and overreactions to specific plays/situations in this thread.

Its also the preseason, people are overreacted (positively or negatively), stats or not.

not only it's the preseason, but Slaf was injured so he hasn't played for 9 months. " his IQ is this , his decisions are that" negative speeches don't consider at all, the context of his tenure .

 

[NotProkofievian]

That is a fair point....but should he have to scan in that situation? He is chasing down a player who is streaking on a short handed opportunity. At some point you have to let other players on your team also make a play. Double teaming Marner from the Leafs zone in this context isn't a bad idea. There are still enough Habs on the ice to each take a remaining man.

This isn't the Yiiiikes you made it out to be, and the proof is right there in the screen grabs.

Of course he should be scanning. The player he should be letting make a play is Mailloux, and he should be looking for whatever Marner's looking for.

 

[ReHabs]

And what was the role of the other Habs players on the ice?

I edited the comment and expanded on my thoughts.

If you're incapable of accepting that Slafkovsky made a bad call on this play, I think you have to take a step back and accept you're too tilted.

 

[waitin425]

Of course he should be scanning. The player he should be letting make a play is Mailloux, and he should be looking for whatever Marner's looking for.

Watch Anderson from start to finish in that video. He goes from here......

to here....

While watching Marner play hockey and ignoring Matthews. He might as well be sitting in the stands. But sure.....take a run Slaf on this to fit your "AHL" narrative. Hard to argue with you here, when you refuse to look at everyone on the ice and instead, expect Slaf to be everywhere at once.

 

[Andy]

So, I think we can conclude that the shorthanded chance from Matthews is just a breakdown from everyone on the ice and in the end a real nothing play that we should get over?

Slaf should have backed off, but Mailloux should have communicated to him, also Gallagher let's Matthews blow by him and rush into the o-zone unencumbered.

I think this a good example of everyone micro-analyzing Slaf on a shift-by-shift basis.