MONTREAL— It was a classic card game analogy from Martin St. Louis about Juraj Slafkovsky, after watching the 19-year-old immediately bounce back from being victimized on the goal Boston Bruins forward Danton Heinen scored, that really resonated in the aftermath of this 2-1 overtime loss for his Montreal Canadiens.
“It’s easier (for him to do that) this year than last year,” the coach said. “Not just because he’s older, but obviously he’s produced more. It’s kind of like the chip count in poker. He’s built his (stack), he’s got a nice chip count. So, you’re going to lose a hand sometimes, but that’s okay; play the next hand, don’t lose all your chips because you get emotional…”
In a lot of ways, but most particularly in this one, Slafkovsky is the face of these Canadiens, and not just because he’s their most promising young player. The former first-overall pick of the franchise in 2022 is now 105 games into his NHL career, past the infancy stage of his development, suddenly growing at an exponential rate after making incremental improvements and showing physical, mental and emotional maturity, and you could say the exact same about the team.
The Canadiens, too, are on the same curve.
They showed it in this game. They also lost a hand at the start, spending the first 11 minutes chasing the Bruins but failing to catch them and losing nearly every battle and getting rocked onto their heels in every race, and the goal Heinen scored could’ve put them on tilt and effectively led them to ending their night well in advance of overtime.
But the Canadiens refused to let that rattle them, and they found their balance quickly and turned this into a completely different game before Jake DeBrusk ended it 25 seconds into what is, in fact, a completely different game—three-on-three.
They shut down the neutral zone, protected the slot in their own zone, limited the Bruins to just 16 shots through the last 50 minutes and, to stick with the poker analogy, only played the premium hands-on offence.
It looked a lot like what we’ve seen from them for weeks now, which is a pretty considerable departure from what we saw from them last season.
Yes, just like last year at this time, the Canadiens are still in the hunt for the top pick in the draft. They have only won three of their last 10 games and are still much closer to a bottom-five finish than they are to a playoff spot and, as Kaiden Guhle said, that’s not where they want to be.
But Thursday’s 2-1 loss to the NHL’s second-ranked team was the 38th of 66 games the Canadiens have played decided by a single goal this season. No team in the league has played in as many, it’s already seven more than the Canadiens played over 82 games last season, and just being that consistently competitive is a sign of how much their chip count has grown.
As a result, in spite of what the standings say, they’re not straying from their strategy. And they’re starting to believe they’re closer and closer to raking in the type of big pots that will put them in a different position at the table next season.
“You look at our team last year to this year, I think there’s a big difference,” Guhle said. “It’s exciting. You never want to be okay with a loss or accept a loss, but it’s not like we’re getting blown out. Every game’s close. Still got a point tonight, which again, is not ideal; you want two points. But there’s still a lot of positives tonight, and we did a good job. Everyone played well, everyone’s been playing really well recently, and it’s fun to watch and fun to play with the group.”
He’s just 22 years old, just 106 games into his career, and he and Slafkovsky are both cornerstone pieces of the group’s core.
Nick Suzuki, 24, is the captain of it, and his 26th goal of the season—scored off an exceptional feed from Slafkovsky a little under 10 minutes after Heinen’s marker—tied a career-high. It was his 62nd point, keeping him on pace to post the best offensive output by a Canadiens player since Alex Kovalev had 84 points as a member of the highest-scoring team in the league in 2007-08.
Cole Caufield, 23, hasn’t been scoring as many goals as we’re accustomed to, but the play he made to force six-foot-five Brandon Carlo into the turnover that led to the Slakfovsky-Suzuki connection was just a sample of how he’s evolved this season.
And the Canadiens wouldn’t have hit the board on that play when they did had it not been for two other young core members driving them back into the game.
Even if Alex Newhook (23) and Joshua Roy (20) didn’t produce a point alongside veteran Joel Armia, their strong performance on Thursday was indicative of the growth they’ve experienced this season.
You add it to what we’re seeing from their young teammates, and it’s a big part of what we’re seeing from the collective.
“It’s huge,” said Guhle. “Newy’s been in the league for a few years, he’s got a Stanley Cup. He’s got a lot of experience for how young he is still… Newy brings so much speed, he’s got a good two-way game, not just a straight offensive guy…”
Neither is Roy, who’s not only proving he can play in this league but also showing he can do it against top opposition.
David Savard, who’s played 758 more games than Roy in this league, qualified the young winger’s future as “bright.”
“He’s definitely going to help us create a lot of offence in the future, and just to see him going right now and getting a good amount of minutes against good D-men—when you’re on the top two lines, you’re playing the top four on the other side—is encouraging,” Savard said. “He’s creating stuff and it’s good to see.”
Roy’s composure is the main element that’s enabled him to show off his skill and stick with the Canadiens at a time when their minor-league affiliate in Laval could really use him for their push to lock down a playoff spot.
He still needs to get faster and stronger, just as Slafkovsky needed to become more composed and find better emotional balance on the ice after his first season.
But this game provided another sample of how much has changed already for both—and for the Canadiens—in such a short period of time.
