'Olympic experience should help me to lead more,' Juraj Slafkovsky says ahead of Canadiens' stretch run
From an individual perspective, the Milano Cortina Olympics couldn’t have been more satisfying for Juraj Slafkovsky.
Making his second consecutive appearance for Slovakia in the Winter Games, the Canadiens’ winger again was his country’s best player, with four goals and eight points in six games.
But unlike 2022 in Beijing, when Slafkovsky was only 17 yet was named the tournament’s most valuable player after scoring seven goals, a
second consecutive bronze medal
eluded Slovakia’s grasp.
“I was just trying to do my best out there every time I was playing,” Slafkovsky said after Wednesday’s practice in Brossard — his and captain
‘s first with the Canadiens since returning from Italy. “I tried to help my team. I think at the end, it was decent. Obviously, it could have been better with a medal (but) I liked it.
“I had a good start,” he added. “Maybe I could have done a little more at the end there … but I can’t really change what happened now.”
Slovakia fell 6-1 to Finland, which included Slafkovsky’s Montreal linemate
, in the bronze-medal game on Saturday. The Slovaks trailed 2-1 after the second period before the Finns scored four unanswered goals in the final 8:27, the last into an empty net.
“It sucks,” Slafkovsky said. “You’re super-close at the end. You have one period to go. You’re down one goal. It kind of slipped away. That sucks. For sure, it’s motivation. I want to be good here now for the rest of the season.”
It might seem like a distant memory, but the Canadiens were one of the NHL’s hottest teams (4-0-1) before the three-week Olympic break, thanks in no small measure to the play of Slafkovsky. He had an assist in
Montreal’s 5-1 win at Winnipeg
on Feb. 4, giving him 21 goals and 45 points in 57 games.
The Canadiens (32-17-8) are second in the Atlantic Division as they prepare for Thursday’s resumption in play against the New York Islanders at the Bell Centre
(7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN Radio-690, 98.5 FM).
The game marks the return of injured forward Alex Newhook, who
hasn’t played since Nov. 13 after suffering a fracture to his right ankle
. The injury, which required surgery, occurred after Newhook collided with Dallas defenceman Ilya Lyubushkin and slid awkwardly into the boards. The mishap ruined a good start for Newhook, who had six goals and 12 points in 17 games while playing on a line with Kapanen and Ivan Demidov. He’s expected to play with Jake Evans and Alexandre Texier against the Islanders and should also receive time on the Canadiens’ second power-play unit.
“The Olympic experience should help me to lead more,” Slafkovsky said. “I want to play with pace and play fast. But at the same time, know when to slow the game down and pick my place.
“I feel like my game is growing pretty much every game since I got here,” he added. “I like where it’s going. For sure, there’s still much I can be better at. But it has been a good season so far. Now we have the final stretch and then the playoffs. I want to finish hard and finish good.”
The great unknown after the Olympic pause is how teams will respond. The Canadiens were hot, but that was three weeks ago. And while the team started practising again last week, nothing simulates game conditions.
“We have to be good defensively,” Slafkovsky said. “Don’t let the other teams get many chances. We know if we’re good defensively, we’ll get our looks, and we’ll be good offensively if we start with good defence.”
Coming out of the break,
Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis
‘s message to his players is simple — compete.
“You jump right in, and can you hit the ground running?” he asked. “To me, it’s not trying to be perfect. There’s going to be things we need to tighten up and things we need to get better at. We attacked some of the things coming off the break we felt we needed to tighten. We worked on that. And now, it’s just go play.”
With a full complement of healthy bodies at St. Louis’s disposal, it appears the healthy scratches will be forwards Zachary Bolduc, Joe Veleno and Patrik Laine, along with defenceman Jayden Struble.
