BROSSARD, Que. — Juraj Slafkovsky stood stunned, with his voice tremoring and his eyes locked in a 1000-yard stare.
“We just have to play better, and we will,” Slafkovsky kept saying after sobering losses to the Washington Capitals last April.
His demeanour betrayed the confidence he wanted to portray following the first two games of his Stanley Cup Playoff career.
It was clear the experience shook Slafkovsky.
But by the time five games were played and a promising season had come to its abrupt end, it also became clear it had transformed him.
Countryman Eric Cernak saw that transformation as soon as Slafkovsky returned to Slovakia and joined him for their summer routine.
The Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman, who will face a much more hardened Slafkovsky than the one who got tenderized by the Capitals last spring, said the change was unmistakable.
“We have the same strength coach, so we work out and skate together, and I could see the difference right away when he was working hard and going for every single workout and skate with a different intensity,” Cernak told us prior to a 4-1 win for the Canadiens over his Lightning on Mar. 31.
“He clearly came prepared,” Cernak continued. “The way he’s played, the confidence he’s played with, it’s been amazing.”
It led Slafkovsky through the best of his four NHL seasons. He set career highs with 31 goals and 74 points, emerging as a dominant power forward three years ahead of schedule—in his 22nd year on the planet—and carrying himself with the swagger he had only hoped to have but couldn’t find with the Canadiens’ backs pinned to the wall in that Washington series.
An all-star performance at the Olympics in between prepared the 2022 No.1 overall pick for what’s coming next.
It was in Milan that Slafkovsky started every game as a marked man and finished it as an assassin. He posted four goals and eight points in six games and willed Slovakia to the semifinals.
In the process, he proved to himself what he wasn’t able to prove to himself last spring.
“I was able to see that I can actually go out there and do what I want and need to do in meaningful games against the world’s best players,” Slafkovsky said, “and now I know I can bring the same energy to playoff games.”
His voice was steady as he said it. His demeanour was confident, relaxed, and revealed the value of experience gained.
Seeing that from Slafkovsky and other members of this Canadiens team—ahead of a matchup with the most playoff-hardened team of the 16 challenging for this year’s Cup—made it easier to believe they can rise to the challenge in front of them.
You think of Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov, among other young players who went green into last year’s playoffs and emerged from them black and blue, and you know they’ll also be much more ready for Sunday’s Game 1 in Tampa.
The lessons have sunk in.
“I was maybe a little less assertive as I wanted to be as a player,” Hutson said. “I feel more assertive in trying to help any way I can.”
Demidov came over from Russia last April and arguably would’ve gotten enough out of the two regular-season games he played while the Canadiens were trying to clinch a playoff berth if that was all he was exposed to before this season.
But getting in the five games he played against Washington had a massive influence on how he trained over the summer to author the most productive rookie campaign of any first-year player in the league.
To see Demidov score 19 goals and post 62 points was one thing, but Hutson feels he also offered evidence he can level up when it matters most—now.
“You can tell down the stretch, these last couple games, he’s hungry,” Hutson said. “We talk about the playoffs all the time, how exciting it is here and what we want to do to help us win, and he’s so hungry to do whatever it takes to win, and it’s definitely fun to see.”
The Canadiens are hoping that what they’ll get from Arber Xhekaj, Jayden Struble and Kaiden Guhle will be anything but fun for the Lightning to see.
The bruising back-enders also had their first experiences in the playoffs last spring, and they also took their hits like the rest of the Canadiens.
But Struble was more assertive down the stretch of this season than he was at any point last season—he was at his most aggressive in last week’s 2-1 win over the Lightning at the Bell Centre—and Xhekaj has recently found a better balance between asserting himself physically and managing the other key elements of play.
“I find he’s playing good hockey,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “He’s playing physical, playing to his identity, and he got some good reps down the stretch… I like what I saw.”
Results for Guhle were just as reassuring. Especially to his teammates.
“Guhles is going to be awesome for us,” said Kirby Dach. “Big, rangy defenceman who plays hard and physical in front of his own net. He can eat big minutes, he’s a bit of a pain in the ass to play against, so we’re definitely lucky to have him.”
Experience has brought Guhle and the rest of the Canadiens to another level, and that showed during this 106-point season.
“There’s ups and downs through a playoff series, there’s ups and downs through a game, there’s emotion that comes with it,” said St. Louis, “so having gone through it, I think it helps you.”
It may not have felt that way to Slafkovsky in the moment, but it certainly feels that way to him now in hindsight.
“Honestly, I grew a lot from that,” he said. “It was really hard. On TV, you can just watch and see all the plays developing, and everyone can figure it out on TV. Me too. I see what should happen. But on the ice, it’s way different. There’s a lot of physicality, and it’s way faster.
“But I realized it’s the type of game I love. It’s what I play for.”
He saw it first-hand at the Olympics, and he knows Slafkovsky is just one of the young Canadiens more prepared for this year’s playoffs.
“Even if they have a young team, those guys have been there for a few years and have gone through stuff together,” he said. “It was only a matter of time before it started clicking, and everybody was playing winning hockey. That’s what they’ve done. Marty, as the head coach, has experience. Even if they’re young, they know how to manage winning those hard games, and I think that’s important.”