Juraj Slafkovsky wasn't shy to say what was on his mind at the Montreal Canadiens' golf tournament on Monday.
Once upon a time, the Montreal Canadiens’ brass wasn’t shy with the press, and the team’s annual golf tournament was a chance to pitch the season’s “slogan.” There was that one year when they made a big deal of not pronouncing the word that started with “P”; then there was the year when the aim was “to be in the mix”; but this season there’s no slogan, according to owner Geoff Molson:
I would say that we’ve done a good job over the past three or four years building a good core group of players,” he said. “A young team still, and I think we’re just going to keep building. We’re going to keep constructing, filling gaps, and trying to get better every year. But I don’t think there’s a slogan, no.
Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes didn’t set an objective for their team either, while Martin St-Louis simply said he wants his men to keep “stacking the days”. However, when Juraj Slafkovsky took to the podium, he was much clearer than that:
Well, go further than we went last year. I feel like every year since I got here, we've made progress in the standings and gotten better. Yeah, just keep going, keep getting better, and I hope we’re in the final two; we’re one of the final two teams next season.
Perhaps that can be put down to the brashness of youth, but you can always count on Slafkovsky to tell it like it is. When he was asked about the importance of Adam Nicholas for the group and the progress he has made, the big forward said:
I don’t know if I can say that…but his balls got bigger.
That reply was one of the funniest moments of the day, along with Chris Kreider being asked if he had bumped into Carey Price. Overall, the atmosphere was really laid-back in Laval-sur-le-Lac, but you can tell that when the puck drops on the season, the young Habs will be all business and ready to have another crack at the franchise’s 25th Stanley Cup.
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