Slafkovský Leads Montreal Toward Game 6 Elimination Chance — Pointage Canadien De Montreal
Juraj Slafkovský helped put pointage canadien de montreal in position for a Friday night finish. The Canadiens reached Game 6 with a chance to eliminate the Lightning after his defensive work helped fuel Wednesday’s win. He said he felt trusted in that role and wanted more offense too.
Slafkovský’s Game 5 workload
Slafkovský played more than 19 minutes in the Canadiens’ victory on Wednesday and stayed on the ice for the final 153 seconds while Tampa Bay attacked with six skaters. He said he likes to defend even when it does not always show, and his series has backed that up. He finished the regular season eighth among NHL forwards in blocked shots with 78.
“Je ne regarde pas cette statistique. Ici, la glace est plus petite, donc tu es plus proche, tu peux réduire l’espace. J’essaie de tout faire pour aider le gardien et si c’est de bloquer un tir, je vais le faire,” Slafkovský said when asked about the blocked-shot total. That willingness has become part of his value in a series where his line with Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki was neutralized and then broken up in the last game.
Montreal’s young core
Slafkovský opened the series with a hat trick in Game 1, but he had not recorded a point since. He also fought Brandon Hagel and took a hard hit from Max Crozier in the center of the ice in Game 4, then responded by leaning into the defensive side of his game. “Ça arrive. Je me suis tourné, je l’ai vu arriver, mais je n’avais pas d’espace. Il m’a bien frappé. Tant mieux pour lui. Il ne joue pas beaucoup, ça lui a peut-être permis de jouer plus. Je dois l’accepter. Ça importe peu si je me fais frapper, c’est comment je reviens,” he said about that sequence.
The broader weight of Friday’s chance reaches beyond one forward. Slafkovský, Kaiden Guhle, Lane Hutson, Ivan Demidov and Jakub Dobeš were not part of the Canadiens’ 2021 Stanley Cup run, which makes this their first real chance to close out a playoff series in the NHL. Montreal beat the Golden Knights of Vegas in the Western final that year, and this group now has a chance to finish one itself.
Friday night in Montreal
At 22, Slafkovský said he wants more from his scoring touch while keeping the rest of his game intact. “J’aimerais marquer plus, mais il faut juste continuer à travailler fort et ça va rentrer. Je m’attends à plus de moi et quand ça va arriver, je vais le prendre,” he said after Game 5. His beard also got a mention Friday morning, when he said, “J’ai commencé il y a trois semaines,” and teased Caufield with, “Cole, comment va ta barbe ?”
That is the balance Montreal now carries into Game 6: one winger contributing in a shutdown role, a young core getting its first crack at ending a series, and a chance to turn Wednesday’s win into a series closeout on Friday night.
