2023-11-13 15:55:22
We were entitled to a whole weekend sports in Quebec, particularly in Montreal.
The Carabins won the Dunsmore Cup on Saturday.
The Alouettes then offered a historic defensive performance to overcome the powerful Argonauts at home in Toronto. It was a seventh consecutive victory for the Sparrowswho will have the chance to win the Gray Cup next Sunday evening in Hamilton (against the dominants Blue Bombers).
We see what an involved owner and a coach close to its players (and respected by them) can do to a club…
Saturday night, the Canadiens surprised the best team in their conference – and enemy always – in front of his fans at the Bell Centre. It was Cole Caufield Kaiden Guhle who settled the debate in overtime, after seeing Samuel Montembeault multiply spectacular saves for more than 60 minutes. The people there had paid a high price for their ticket, but they got what they paid for!
Unfortunately, Montreal’s great story came to an end on Sunday evening as Casey DeSmith and the Canucks came to spoil the party at the Bell Centre. Stay that the final score (5 to 2) does not represent the pace of the game: Jake Allen was as solid as Casey DeSmith, the Canucks scored two goals into an empty net and they only got five more shots than Montrealers. The match could have gone either way, to quote Martin St-Louis.
A goal disallowed following an offside by Cole Caufield (again!?) possibly changed the game alone. It was that kind of match.
But the player who has been the most talked about since last night in Montreal is Juraj Slafkovsky. He was cleared from the scoresheet, he finished the game at minus-2, he didn’t distribute any hits… but he got six shots on goal (and saw the Canucks players block several others as well). Slafkovsky was named third star of the match and therefore best CH player against the ‘Nucks.
Martin St-Louis even said after the game that Slafkovsky played his best game of the campaign.
St-Louis: “This is the match where Slafkovsky looked the most comfortable this season.”
— Marc Antoine Godin (@MAGodin) November 13, 2023
Mike Matheson also threw flowers to his young teammate after the match.
Matheson on Slafkovsky: “He was incredible tonight. He was everywhere on the ice.”
— Anthony Martineau (@Antho_Martineau) November 13, 2023
I think I agree with them. Slaf was also good in the season opener alongside Kirby Dach, but he was probably even better last night.
Several people also wanted to praise Slafkovsky yesterday on social networks.
It’s certain that if you look at his HockeyDB profile, you’re disappointed with Slafkovsky’s stats, especially for a 1st overall pick.
But if you focus on what he does on the ice, you’re probably confident. It’s not producing but it’s clearly coming! #CH #Habs #Canadiens
— Marc-Olivier Beaudoin (@MOBeaudoin1) November 13, 2023
In the loss to the Canucks, Juraj Slafkovsky took his game to another level.
Reportage ⬇️ #rds #ch— Luc Gelinas (@LucGelinasRDS) November 13, 2023
Stay that in the end, Slafkovsky only has two points – including a single goal – in 15 games since the start of the season. It displays the worst ratio points par match of the whole team.
It only has a differential of minus-6 in 2023-24.
He has the chance to play on the first line alongside a guy like Nick Suzuki, the team captain, or on the second unit with Cole Caufield on the other side.
He is a first overall pick.
He misses several chances to score – which he gets, at least -, notably having been unable to pass OR to shoot at the start of the match yesterday, when he was two against one with Nick Suzuki I think…
I wonder one thing: why fans – and the journalists/columnists – are they also ” friendly “ with Juraj Slafkovsky? Why do we all keep ourselves a little embarrassed before daring to criticize the great Slovak’s game? Are we being too easygoing when it comes to the young Habs attackers?
I’ve been reading all the positive things that have been written about Juraj Slafkovsky over the past few hours and I say to myself:
Imagine if he had more than 2 points in 15 games. That would just be CRAZY.
(People encourage him a lot despite his difficulties. CH fans are the best in the world)
— Maxime Truman (@MaximeTruman) November 13, 2023
What are we going to do when he scores three goals?
Attention ! I’m not saying we should necessarily throw (bigger) rocks at him more often. I’m just thinking out loud about why I’m doing this too ” kind “ in which I also participate as a columnist and sports editor?
I have several possible answers. Sorry for the long text that follows; This is not the kind of subject that can be summarized in three paragraphs… or even worse, with a catchy title that everyone has fun commenting on without having read the text attached to it.
1. The Canadiens fans are the best in the world. They cheer for their team – even when it goes nowhere like last year – and they buy into the rebuilding of Kent Hughes/Jeff Gorton unflinchingly. They are not afraid to support their club and to be more subjective than objective. After all, that’s what loving a team is all about.
Even though many try to tell you that fans Montrealers are too negative and on the verge toxic/unhealthy, This is not the case. Look at other sports, elsewhere on the planet, and dare to compare…
2. The media is nowhere near as negative and bug seekers what do some people try to make you believe? (including the coach himself). They are often there to relay the words of the coach ET to support them. Especially since Martin St-Louis is in office. He deserves more positive than negative coverage, even though the team has lost more games than it has won. In short, the people who gravitate around the club are practically all tinged with positivism boosted on steroids.
3. It seems like we all feel compelled to overweight our positive comments about Slafkovsky due to all the negative comments (or critiquesI should say) which have been addressed to him over the past year and a half.
Average performance becomes good performance…
A good performance becomes an extraordinary performance…
We want to rebalance things… bring the pendulum back to the other side
We forget, however, that with only two points in 15 games, the pay of the yield of Slavs is still in the negative. The glass is not yet half full, to use a popular expression.
Why do people feel so invested in a mission to balance public opinion? It’s special, don’t you think?
We didn’t have that mentality with Jonathan Drouin in recent years…
4. We saw Slafkovsky being booed as soon as he was selected in the very first row and we feel bad for him. Still today…
We therefore try not to mix the decision of Hughes, Gorton, Bobrov and Lapointe with the (young) person that is Slafkovsky.
5. We are rational and we are aware that we must be patient with a kid only 19 years old. The NHL has become a league where it is difficult to have success before the age of 21 or 22. Not all guys are Connor Bedards…
Jack Hughes had a 21-point season in 61 games before becoming the player he is today (20 points in 10 games in 2023-24).
Quinton Byfield, Alexis Lafrenière (what a goal he scored yesterday!) and Jesperi Kotkaniemi all had difficult times before produce in the best league in the world. Perhaps we say to ourselves that we should have been more patient with McCarron KK… deliberately forgetting that high draft picks have also become “busts” in recent decades. #Pouliot #Yakupov #Etc
Statistics this season…
Quinton Byfield: 2G+11A=13PTS in 14 games
Alexis Lafrenière: 7G+4A=11PTS in 14 games
Jesperi Kotkaniemi: 6B+7A=13PTS in 15 matches3 young people who did not produce quickly and who some called “busts”.
PATIENCE!!!!!!!!! ????
— Marc-Olivier Beaudoin (@MOBeaudoin1) November 13, 2023
Stay that as people in the organization often tell us, the NHL is not a development league. It is a league of results. Shouldn’t its athletes – if they play there, rather than being in the American League, the junior league or in Europe – be judged on their results? I’m asking the question.
And… why don’t we have the same restraint when it comes to commenting on Shane Wright’s (non)performance? Because people in Montreal are not supporters of Wright, but rather of the Canadian (and Slafkovsky). #Emotions #NotRational
6. We all see Logan Cooley having success in Arizona and we try in our own way to help Juraj Slafkovsky blossom. As we would do with a child, we tell ourselves that by encouraging him so much, he will eventually unlock. We want to support him, not harm him, help him.
We all want to see him succeed… and we all hope that the people who send him to Laval in their fabulations will not be right. If Slafkovsky is praised everywhere and he finally manages to collect points consistently, we will all forget this idea of sending him to Laval (and the WJC). This is what we want to happen.
But the more I think about it (writing these few lines) the more I also come back to the fact that in Montreal, we don’t always take our equal gas when it comes to the sacrosanct Montreal Canadiens.
The most intense will say that we are bipolar…
On Saturday night, Slafkovsky had a difficult game and was benched at the end of the game. In the eyes of many, Slafkovsky was then a flop.
The next day, this same Slafkovsky was used at the end of the match and boomhe is extraordinary… he will become a Joe Thornton ! He finally degenerate and the best is yet to come ! Big weekend at the opposite end of the spectrum of success for CH #20!
I think the mantra that I gave myself 15 years ago when I launched the site explain a little / quite a bit all the patent: you have to be positive when there is reason to be positive, and negative when the portrait is negative. I will never be one cheerleaderhe said hater. I will always be tinged with neutrality in my emotions… because yes, sport remains entertainment where emotions take over. Let’s leave it to the fans to praise Slafkovsky and stick a little more to the facts in the media.
The important thing is not to fall into extremes. The Canadian cannot be praised by the majority, but still finish in the cave. Someone should not canonize Slafkovsky one day, then describe him as the worst player in history a week later. This is where it doesn’t make sense!
Never too high, never too lowas the English say.
In short, Slafkovsky is having a difficult season – and a difficult start to his career. He has just had a very good match and we hope that he will be able to follow in the footsteps of several young players before him. But nothing is decided and for the moment, there are more question marks and uncertainty than reasons to get nervous with him. Patience, on both sides!
Stay that the fact that a majority of fans being behind Slafkovsky to applaud his small successes proves one thing: Canadian fans are the best in the world. It’s as if they want Slaf to work so badly that they’re willing to put on their rose-colored glasses, overly encourage him, and fall into wishful thinking without questioning.
All they have to do is stay a little further away from extremes, both when things are going bad and when things are going well. You knowthe famous joke of “It smells like the Stanley Cup… we’re getting our chairs ready for the parade”it was not invented for nothing!
Prolongation
– Casually, Connor Bedard (9) and Leo Carlsson (6) already have more career goals than Juraj Slafkovsky (5)drafted a year earlier first in the draft. Adam Fantilli has four, one less.
– I am quite certain that David Reinbacher will be entitled to the same treatment as Slavs when he makes the jump to North America.
– I didn’t know where to say it; I’m going to do it here. After seeing RDS experience all kinds of technical difficulties on Thursday evening, TVA Sports went on break while the game was in progress and they had to summarize for us what we had missed when they returned from the break on Saturday evening. Please be better.
– Eat it.
Is Kingsley made responsible for Headlines at the Toronto Sun?#Alouettes ???????? #CFMTL pic.twitter.com/TeNweD3Ka4
— Nilton Jorge (@NiltonJorge) November 13, 2023
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#Canadiens #fans #world