Juraj Slafkovsky - Year Two

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Better game, but it seemed anytime there was an incoming hit, or battle, Slaf lost it.

He seems somewhat weak on his skates, but more like he doesn't know how to use his size. He doesn't know when to lean in.

I'm assuming they keep him up, as this group seems to have a bit of an ego, too. Not like Bergevin, but still one where they won't send him down.

Gotta put him in o-zone starts and 3rd line, assuming the lines, at least the top 3 are played fairly often and 2nd line pp unit.

Slaf scored tonight.

Where are the haters now?

You can score and still have a bad game.

That said, he didn't have a bad game, but wasn't a game to really instill confidence.

 

[Gally11]

I thought he was physically engaged tonight. He looked even stronger than Dach at times.

He's going to be a beaut. Don't know how it will translate into the points column, but he's going to be a crucial player in the playoffs eventually.

I found a few of Dach’s passes seemed to be slightly off tonight if he were clicking a bit better I think they would have had a few more scoring chances the way Slaf was moving

 

[le_sean]

Getting better and better as preseason goes on. Not a surprise since he hadn’t played in 6-7 months.

 

[SlafySZN]

‘’I’ll f*cking kill you, eh?’’ - Slafkovsky to Parker Kelly sometime in the 1st period.

Slaf adapting well to canada

 

[Mrb1p]

You are allowed to post for 24 hours

 

[MadMslm]

Good game by Slafkovsky.

In his first two periods, he didn’t look lost on the ice without the puck. Even did a good back check to cut a pass that could have been dangerous. Some of his board battles were convincing this time around.

Third period was a bit harder, he walked a few times in other players lanes. A bit weak on some battles where he fell down.

You can see he’s more alert on the ice, a few times some players came to hit him and he was aware of it. Places his body well to limit most of those hits. Just wish he was a bit more physical, I didn’t like to see Grieg hit him a few times with the gloves, he should impose his will on the ice.

On the powerplay, he needs to process the action at a faster pace. The play died a few times on his stick because of it.

In the end, it’s a positive showing. If he plays like that every night, he definitely belongs.

 

[BehindTheTimes]

Best game I’ve ever seen him play. Let’s see if he can do this in a regular season game.

I fell asleep halfway through the 2nd and thought he was mostly invisible other than the goal and a nice back check shortly after.

It’s progress from last year, so that’s good.

 

[Jaynki]

Better game, but it seemed anytime there was an incoming hit, or battle, Slaf lost it.

He seems somewhat weak on his skates, but more like he doesn't know how to use his size. He doesn't know when to lean in.

I'm assuming they keep him up, as this group seems to have a bit of an ego, too. Not like Bergevin, but still one where they won't send him down.

Gotta put him in o-zone starts and 3rd line, assuming the lines, at least the top 3 are played fairly often and 2nd line pp unit.


You can score and still have a bad game.

That said, he didn't have a bad game, but wasn't a game to really instill confidence.

At this point, the one who have ego are the one who cant change their position and still call for him to go to the AHL when he is clearly, without any doubt an NHL player, and a good one.

 

[Shawnathon]

I fell asleep halfway through the 2nd and thought he was mostly invisible other than the goal and a nice back check shortly after.

It’s progress from last year, so that’s good.

He scored a goal so the optimists are going crazy as usual. It wasn’t as impressive as the posts in this thread would suggest.

 

[George Lebay]

At some point during the season, are we going to regret the Habs did not draft Cooley? (I don't want it to happen. I'm not a Slaf hater. I want him to succeed as a 1st draft pick with us.. just wondering)

 

[Ajhccwrs]

People still forgetting, you don't win in the playoffs with dipsy doodle players. Just ask the leafs.
You win playoffs with players like Slaf. He's going to be a monster.

 

[waitin425]

Don’t do this.

Works both ways....ill reconsider my position as the season goes on. By 10 games if he looks like trash for sure. And certainly by game 41

 

[WeThreeKings]

At some point during the season, are we going to regret the Habs did not draft Cooley? (I don't want it to happen. I'm not a Slaf hater. I want him to succeed as a 1st draft pick with us.. just wondering)

No regretting anything until 5 years post draft.

If Slaf develops into a top line player with his combination of size and skill, and the Habs draft Catton in the top 7 of this year's draft. Everything works out because Catton is every bit as good as Cooley.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

At this point, the one who have ego are the one who cant change their position and still call for him to go to the AHL when he is clearly, without any doubt an NHL player, and a good one.

That's the thing, there is doubt and a lot of people question it.

You're the first person to call him a good one at this point.

Possibly in January he's sitting with 10, 15 goals and being a force out there with his size and then yes you'd call him a good one, but his season last year didn't show it and you can't go by his pre-season play, because it's pre-season. You're just hoping it's a pre-cursor to what we can expect.

Players who have been more offensively productive have been waived.

Connor Timmins had like 2g 4a in 3 games before being hurt.

Calling Slaf a "good one" at this point is someone who can't change their opinion, because their ego is in the way, or hope and they so badly want Slaf to be successful they can't face reality. Right now, he is not a "good one".

Let's hope Slaf and the rest of the team can stay fairly healthy and let's see him pot 20 this season (or more) and go from there.

 

[HitHard]

That's the thing, there is doubt and a lot of people question it.

You're the first person to call him a good one at this point.

Possibly in January he's sitting with 10, 15 goals and being a force out there with his size and then yes you'd call him a good one, but his season last year didn't show it and you can't go by his pre-season play, because it's pre-season. You're just hoping it's a pre-cursor to what we can expect.

Players who have been more offensively productive have been waived.

Connor Timmins had like 2g 4a in 3 games before being hurt.

Calling Slaf a "good one" at this point is someone who can't change their opinion, because their ego is in the way, or hope and they so badly want Slaf to be successful they can't face reality. Right now, he is not a "good one".

Let's hope Slaf and the rest of the team can stay fairly healthy and let's see him pot 20 this season (or more) and go from there.

Chill out.

KK has seriously traumatized this board.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Chill out.

KK has seriously traumatized this board.

Nah, being blind to obvious plays is what hurts the Habs.

Slaf played a better game, scored a goal by going to the net. Made a nice, hard pass to the centre to set someone up, I forgot now.

I'm pointing out the flaws he has and needs to work on. It's not like his only flaw is the defensive aspect of the game, he has little issues throughout his game. You see it, too. He'll have a nice play, or even a great shift and then his next one he'll look bad.

I'm hoping, if healthy he finishes with 20g and 40, or 50 points. Would be a solid 2nd year and shouldn't be out of expectations.

 

[morhilane]

At some point during the season, are we going to regret the Habs did not draft Cooley? (I don't want it to happen. I'm not a Slaf hater. I want him to succeed as a 1st draft pick with us.. just wondering)

You should just watch Arizona this year and overanalyze Cooley like people are doing with Slaf here so you can tell us.

I personally don't give a rat ass about Cooley or Wright. Habs drafted Slafkovsky so I'm going to root for him and support him.

 

[Ezpz]

I thought he had a good first period. Second wasn't as great. Didn't watch half of the third.

In the first he was in the right positions the majority of the time. He was doing the right things in the offensive zone and covering the right guy defensively and backchecking hard. In the second I saw him lagging behind the play, losing defensive coverage, or making non-sense passes that lead to breakaways against, but only on a couple shifts. Improvement is what we want to see and I think he's improved even in this training camp because in the first few games he was bad at all of these things and the negatives were every shift.

I still don't see elite skill but I'll be patient.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

That's the thing, there is doubt and a lot of people question it.

You're the first person to call him a good one at this point.

Possibly in January he's sitting with 10, 15 goals and being a force out there with his size and then yes you'd call him a good one, but his season last year didn't show it and you can't go by his pre-season play, because it's pre-season. You're just hoping it's a pre-cursor to what we can expect.

Players who have been more offensively productive have been waived.

Connor Timmins had like 2g 4a in 3 games before being hurt.

Calling Slaf a "good one" at this point is someone who can't change their opinion, because their ego is in the way, or hope and they so badly want Slaf to be successful they can't face reality. Right now, he is not a "good one".

Let's hope Slaf and the rest of the team can stay fairly healthy and let's see him pot 20 this season (or more) and go from there.

I raised this before, Slaf was on pace for a decent rookie year before the team went into its annual dark ages style slump.

There were definitely times he looked like he belonged last year. It was an uneven season and being on a tire fire team didn’t help.

But some people are painting it as though he was God awful the whole time and that’s not true. From mid Dec on he had zero points in 15 games before getting hurt but the whole team sucked. How is Slaf supposed to score on the third line when his team is barely scoring two goals a game? Caufield was a quarter of our goals over that stretch. Without him we’d have been well under two goals a game.

 

[Jaynki]

That's the thing, there is doubt and a lot of people question it.

You're the first person to call him a good one at this point.

Possibly in January he's sitting with 10, 15 goals and being a force out there with his size and then yes you'd call him a good one, but his season last year didn't show it and you can't go by his pre-season play, because it's pre-season. You're just hoping it's a pre-cursor to what we can expect.

Players who have been more offensively productive have been waived.

Connor Timmins had like 2g 4a in 3 games before being hurt.

Calling Slaf a "good one" at this point is someone who can't change their opinion, because their ego is in the way, or hope and they so badly want Slaf to be successful they can't face reality. Right now, he is not a "good one".

Let's hope Slaf and the rest of the team can stay fairly healthy and let's see him pot 20 this season (or more) and go from there.

Its irrelevant what happened last year.

Dont look backward. I wont argue if you think he should have played AHL last year.

Thing is we are this season and looking in front of us. I am sorry but Lias Andersson and Philippe Maillet will be our 1st liner in Laval. If when looking at Slaf THIS season you see an AHLer, i just don't know what to tell you.

Slaf is currently is entering his window of maximum growth for the next three years. He has nothing to do in the AHL. He is not being kept up because of egos.

 

[Yasuo]

If he can be our Brady Tkachuk that would be huge.

 

[George Lebay]

You should just watch Arizona this year and overanalyze Cooley like people are doing with Slaf here so you can tell us.

I personally don't give a rat ass about Cooley or Wright. Habs drafted Slafkovsky so I'm going to root for him and support him.

Oh my god. Ok!

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

I raised this before, Slaf was on pace for a decent rookie year before the team went into its annual dark ages style slump.

There were definitely times he looked like he belonged last year. It was an uneven season and being on a tire fire team didn’t help.

But some people are painting it as though he was God awful the whole time and that’s not true. From mid Dec on he had zero points in 15 games before getting hurt but the whole team sucked. How is Slaf supposed to score on the third line when his team is barely scoring two goals a game. Caufield was a quarter of our goals over that stretch. Without him we’d have been well under two goals a game.

That's why I'm hoping the team is healthy, too, so Slaf doesn't have to with AHLers. They give it their all and it's a great story for them and all, but there's a reason they're perpetually stuck in the A.

Its irrelevant what happened last year.

Dont look backward. I wont argue if you think he should have played AHL last year.

Thing is we are this season and looking in front of us. I am sorry but Lias Andersson and Philippe Maillet will be our 1st liner in Laval. If when looking at Slaf THIS season you see an AHLer, i just don't know what to tell you.

Slaf is currently is entering his window of maximum growth for the next three years. He has nothing to do in the AHL. He is not being kept up because of egos.

I don't see an AHLer, I see a player that could use some time there to refine his game.

Nobody from the 2022 draft should have started in the NHL. I said as much before the lottery draft even happened and then after it passed.

NHL teams are getting scared to keep a high pick from the NHL. Management's need to realize a lot of top players don't need to go straight into the NHL.

Unless Celebrini had a season like Fantilli, I wouldn't bring him in right away, either. This is just for future reference as the Habs will be in the running for him.

There's nothing wrong with sending a player back, something the Habs should have done last season.

Oilers did it with Draisaitl. Sent him back to junior after a tough half of a season. No idea why the Habs didn't look to send Slaf down to Laval, or back to Finland. Likely gets people coming out of the woodwork saying he's trash because the team sees he needs work.

Nah, it's called being a team that tries something, sees it isn't working and tries to get the player back into the best possible position.

If he stays and it's looking like he will, show improvement in:

Better decisions with the puck/more consistent good decisions. He makes good plays, but then bad plays.

Don't get absolutely wrecked as much as you did last year.

Bonus, defensive work, but that can wait until you get the offensive side of fhe game down.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

That's why I'm hoping the team is healthy, too, so Slaf doesn't have to with AHLers. They give it their all and it's a great story for them and all, but there's a reason they're perpetually stuck in the A.

I’d have put him in the AHL last year as well. One reason being exactly what happened- we went into another crazy slump. That part did nothing to help him.

Just saying that it wasn’t all bad. By mid December it was actually starting to look like it was a good call to have him in the NHL. He was improving and putting up points…

 

[eklund the clown]

I thought he had a good first period. Second wasn't as great. Didn't watch half of the third.

In the first he was in the right positions the majority of the time. He was doing the right things in the offensive zone and covering the right guy defensively and backchecking hard. In the second I saw him lagging behind the play, losing defensive coverage, or making non-sense passes that lead to breakaways against, but only on a couple shifts. Improvement is what we want to see and I think he's improved even in this training camp because in the first few games he was bad at all of these things and the negatives were every shift.

I still don't see elite skill but I'll be patient.

Isn't he like 19 years old and injured half of his first season.Let's give the kid a chance