Slafkovsky Knows What He Has To Do
Juraj Slafkovsky played a very physical game on Saturday night - Photo credit: Marc DesRosiers-Imagn ImagesJuraj Slafkovsky knows what he has to do to feel good about himself and to help the Montreal Canadiens going forward. Speaking to the media after the Habs' 5-2 win over the Ottawa Senators, the young Slovak explained what he used his 4 Nations Face-Off break for.
While teammates Joel Armia, Patrik Laine and Samuel Montembeault were on international duty, Slafkovsky, who's country wasn't in the tournament, had ample time to reflect:
Like I said, this year I don't like my play. I was thinking about it during the beak and I had to change something coming back
The 20-year-old is aware that success comes from consistency and that he must be able to bring that kind of play in every game to help his team and feel good about himself:
I was winning a lot of pucks on the forecheck, playing the body, making the other players uncomfortable on the other side. That's important and if I bring that every night, I just help my line, yeah we scored two goals today.
The power forward also added that he wanted to shoot more going forward, explaining that if he looks at the statistics after a game and sees no shots, he feels awful.
Clearly, Slafkovsky is coming to grips with what's expected of him and what he needs to do to be successful, what he mentioned in the media availability is the very reason why Kent Hughes and co. decided to pick him first overall.
The physical attributes he has are great, but they only become remarkable if he learns to use them to his advantage. Watching him play on Saturday night, he was lightyears away from the 18-year-old who looked like Bambi on ice in his first NHL games. He's gone from being to prey to being the hunter. The Habs brass has always known he had the attributes to do that, but now that the youngster has understood it, he may just become a gamebreaker.
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