It’s in the early part of his fourth shift that Juraj Slafkovsky makes the play that kickstarts his most productive outing in over two weeks.
It comes at a pivotal moment of what turns out to be a 4-3 overtime win for his Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday — on the shift that immediately follows them giving up the first goal to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Montreal’s Christian Dvorak pulls the puck back on the ensuing faceoff, and that’s when Slafkovsky pops into motion to make himself an outlet option for Kaiden Guhle.
The six-foot-three, 225-pound winger receives the pass from Guhle on his side of centre, and then he crosses the red line, flips the puck deep into the Blue Jackets’ zone, storms past Dante Fabbro and forces Ivan Provorov into committing a turnover.
Slafkovsky never relents on the sequence. He keeps his feet moving the whole time, he applies the necessary pressure on Provorov and, in the process, starts a bounce-back shift for his team and sets the tone for what kind of night he’s going to have.
It’s the kind the 20-year-old hasn’t had in too long — with the goal and assist he registers being his first points since posting three assists in a 7-5 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 11 — and he needs to take the momentum from it.
Go back and watch how he generated those plays in Buffalo, and you’ll see they were made of the same stuff he did before scoring Montreal’s first goal in their first comeback win of the season.
And it’s simple stuff, really. Stuff Slafkovsky hasn’t been doing enough through the first 22 games of this season.
That’s why he was on the fourth line to start Tuesday’s game against the Utah Hockey Club. It’s why he spent the final 13 minutes of that one watching from the bench.
But Slafkovsky earned his ice time in Columbus, and he certainly earned all 14 shifts he played after three decent ones to start the game.
“I was moving a little better and doing good things,” Slafkovsky told reporters after the game.
We’d suggest Slafkovsky moving a little better led to those good things.
That forecheck on Provorov was the first example of it.
Slafkovsky’s charge up the ice less than four minutes later was another, leading to his unassisted goal — a ripping wrist shot through Elvis Merzlikins.
And then there was Slafkovsky’s strong backcheck on a second-period power play, which he completed by stripping Damon Severson of the puck before throwing a perfect bank pass up the ice to give Cole Caufield a breakaway.
It was fitting that Caufield, who changed numbers from 22 to 13 to honour the late, great Johnny Gaudreau, broke a five-game drought by potting his 13th of the season in the 13th minute of the frame and celebrated under the banner that bears Gaudreau’s name and number.
Beautiful moment, no doubt.
It was enriched when the first person into Caufield’s arms was Slafkovsky, who appeared as though the weight of the world had fallen off his shoulders.
It’s been a struggle for him for too long, but perhaps this game was the start of something different.
Slafkovsky pushed hard through the end of it, which came when Nick Suzuki scored 42 seconds into overtime.
Now Slafkovsky needs to bank what he did both early and late and build on it.
“I found he had a lot of consistency in his game,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis.
It hasn’t been the case on most nights, even if Slafkovsky has 13 points in 19 games and is still on pace to best the 50 points he put up last season.
“Pace” is the word St. Louis has repeated often to describe what’s been missing from Slafkovsky’s game. He’s talked about him needing to play with it both mentally and physically, about him needing to keep his feet moving, about him needing to get to a more direct style of play, and about him taking what the game is giving him at a given moment rather than trying to manufacture something that isn’t there.
Slafkovsky did all of that in Columbus from a line with Brendan Gallagher and Christian Dvorak, and it propelled him to put up points when he got on the ice with Caufield and Suzuki.
He will end up back with those two eventually. It’s where he belongs in the long run.
But it’ll happen sooner than later for Slafkovsky if he keeps doing what he did on that kickstarting shift early in Wednesday’s game.
