What a puck: Slafkowski's heroics give weary Habs fans hope

Content of the article

Things changed for Habs fans on Tuesday night.

Ahead of the showdown with the Philadelphia Flyers, a meaningless game for the Canadiens, Habs fans outside the Bell Center talked to me about the pain of supporting a team making the playoffs for the third straight season. has missed the postseason six times in the last decade.

Content of the article

Content of the article

That's a poor record for any team and an absolute travesty for CH, who once — yes, I mean it long ahead of time! — set the gold standard that a hockey team can achieve. Let's look at this a little further. Let's take a look at the hubs of this century. The most important franchise in NHL history has missed 11 of 24 playoff appearances so far in the 21st century.

Basically, this century comes with three magical playoff periods — Halak's spring in 2010, 2014 when Chris Kreider fired Carey Price and, of course, 2021 when a not-so-good team came to a halt. was CH's biggest on-ice miracle since the turn of the century, defeating three much better teams in the Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets and Vegas Golden Knights to reach the finals.

At 6pm on Tuesday night, Habs fans lamented their fate and hoped for a brighter future. A few hours later, that future looked much brighter. What happened? It was a slav!

Juraj Slafkowski, the first overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, scored his first NHL hat trick and in one epic game ended the debate that has raged since that draft day. Most of us have known this since early 2024, but now everyone knows — this guy is a star!

Content of the article

Content of the article

Not only did he score three goals, but he did it in style. The first came from the blue line off a Mike Matheson howitzer off his skates, the second on a really nice pass from Nick Suzuki, and the third … that's a story in itself.

Rafael Harvey-Pinard made a huge hit on the Flyers' Eric Johnson, then headed to the bench. Slaf jumped onto the ice to replace him and, reading the play perfectly, went up the puck, caught a perfect pass from David Savard and slid it past Philadelphia netminder Samuel Ersson. In the 2014 playoffs against Boston, I saw P.K. I know I'm not the only one who has seen that epic goal by Subban, where he jumped out of the box and tried to score in the game.

Smart hockey watchers already knew Slafkowski was good, but now everyone knows. He scored two goals in his first 29 games and many of us wondered if he would learn the ropes better in Laval. He now has 34 points in his last 41 games and 19 goals and 48 points in 78 games.

In other words, he will be a big part of this rebuild, making the leap from the developmental blues to competing in the best hockey league in the world. It's been a difficult century for Bleu Blanc Rouge so far and nothing is certain, but it's fair to say that the team hasn't had a young nucleus that looks so promising in the last 24 years.

Content of the article

In addition to Slough, you have Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Alex Newhook, Kayden Goulet, Arber Hekage, Jayden Struble, who are pretty obvious, and Lane Hutson, David Reinbacher, and Logan Maillow coming soon. All are under 25 years old. Therefore, you have reason to feel confident.

But let's not talk about how bad it was.

“We expect legitimate superstars, and we haven't had any other than goalies for at least 40 years,” said Habs fan Kevin Putnam, who traveled all the way from his Yukon home to catch a game at the Bell. Central Tuesday. “It's one of those things. You are a fan. You come, you support them, and you hope it changes eventually. It has to turn around eventually, right?

That was before the game, maybe before things started to change.

But Putnam is your classic 21st century Habs fan. It's hard for him, but you just have to grin and bear it and when things seem bleak, think of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“We've been to the finals a little longer than them, we're going through a little bit of a rebuild and we'll be back before they do,” Putnam said. “That's what I told my friends who are Leafs fans. At least we won (the Stanley Cup) when we had color television.”

[email protected]

twitter.com/brendanshowbiz

Content of the article

Content of the article