Montreal Canadiens: Juraj Slafkovsky Given Huge Opportunity Tonight
The Montreal Canadiens have had a logjam of forwards since the beginning of training camp. There were a handful of young players looking to make the team, but there simply wasn’t room for them.
Juraj Slafkovsky, the first overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, was the lone exception. He cracked the veteran-laden forward group and has not been sent down yet.
He did deal with a minor injury, and a two game suspension for a hit from behind, but he remained at the NHL level all season. Recently, he has been stuck on the fourth line, not getting a lot of offensive opportunity while playing alongside Jake Evans and Michael Pezzetta.
No offence to those two players, but they are bringing something close to no offence to the ice every night. Evans has zero goals and one assist in 18 games this season and Pezzetta is scoreless in five outings. Not exactly the best linemates to bring out Slafkovsky’s offensive game.
That changes tonight. With Mike Hoffman injured and out of the lineup, Slafkovsky will move up and play on the team’s second line in his place. The big Slovakian winger will be alongside Christian Dvorak and Brendan Gallagher when the team takes on the struggling Buffalo Sabres this evening.
Slafkovsky has performed well on the ice and looks to be improving as the season goes along, but he has three goals and four points in 13 games played. Fourth line or not, 18 year old or not, that is not a lot of production.
Dvorak started the season slowly, with zero points in his first seven games. Since then, he has scored four goals and nine points in his past 11 games. Gallagher is coming around as well, scoring five points in his last six games which is far better than the one point he had in his first six games.
Dvorak and Gallagher certainly aren’t Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, but they are much better offensive players than Slafkovsky had been playing with recently.
Slafkovsky earned an NHL role because he showed off plenty of talent and skills in training camp. He brought plenty of speed, size, vision and an impressive shot but he didn’t have the chance to show those off with fourth line minutes.
Tonight will be a huge test for the first overall pick. Let’s hope he takes advantage of the opportunity and the line with Dvorak and Gallagher are producing plenty of scoring chances tonight against a team that is having a hard time shutting down their opposition right now.
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