Juraj “Tkachuk” Slafkovsky: We won’t have seen him for long

Most were excited about the idea of seeing Juraj Slafkovsky play with more confidence and intensity.

Finally, we were seeing the real power forward, the Slafkovsky of the second half of the season.

He seemed to have understood that he cannot play like Jack Hughes, that he has assets that the latter does not have and vice versa.

Without saying that he has been playing poorly recently (he still has three goals and three assists in his last eight games), some may have noticed a lack of intensity from him recently.

This is the case of Gilbert Delorme, who spoke about this topic on Le Club du Matin on BPM Sports.

Delorme mentioned that Slaf was lacking intensity lately.

« He needs to take advantage of his large frame. He needs to be tough to face and right now, he’s not. These guys need to step-up in the middle of the playoff race. » – Gilbert Delorme

As Gilbert Delorme said, it takes this type of player every night.

To that, Greg Lanctot (another host of Le Club du Matin) added that on the power play, Slafkovsky is the weak link.

Lanctot also believes that when Ivan Demidov arrives next year, it will be Slafkovsky who will make way for him to take his place on the first power play unit.

It’s hard not to agree with that.

On the other hand, I had my own idea to revamp the two power play units and it could be done as early as this year if we want to shake things up a bit.

If Slafkovsky can reposition himself, his presence can be very beneficial, and what is less beneficial is putting Patrik Laine and Cole Caufield on the same unit.

They are your two natural shooters and putting Caufield on the right wing doesn’t seem to be working as well as when he played on the left (where Laine is currently).

This would allow us to balance the two units a bit more by having an excellent scorer on each unit.

In short, Martin St-Louis could/should act in one way or another to make Slafkovsky understand that the team needs his physical presence.

He could “punish” him by removing him from the first power play unit.

Who would replace him? That’s another debate, but personally, I think Emil Heineman deserves an audition on the left wing with the top offensive players. And that’s even if it’s a bit more difficult offensively for the Swede lately.

His shot (especially on reception) could do a lot of damage. And if Patrik Laine were to miss tomorrow’s game (flu), Heineman could definitely be an option to take his place.

In rapid fire

– Joshua Roy and Martin St-Louis spoke to the media. [Canadiens]

– Nicolas Cloutier made some good points about Joshua Roy’s recall. [Nicolas Cloutier]

– Jean-Charles Lajoie believes that it’s a huge lack of respect for the players that Kent Hughes did not go get a depth player at the trade deadline. [JiC]