Juraj Slafkovský’s game is taking steps, and it has nothing to do with scoring goals

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MONTREAL — Juraj Slafkovský stood at his locker answering questions after scoring in a second straight game, and he was wearing the price of doing business.

He had a scratch on his cheek and another one or two on his neck. He was nicked up just about everywhere.

And he didn’t care. His Montreal Canadiens were back on the winning side.

Two days earlier, before the Canadiens’ game against the New York Rangers, Slafkovský’s coach, Martin St. Louis, was asked what he was seeing in the young power forward’s game even though, at the time, he had one power-play goal and no assists in five games.

“Slaf is fine,” St. Louis responded. “I think, offensively, would he like his touches to be a bit better? Yes. But I feel it’s like the rest of our team. Defensively, he’s been really, really good. And again, it’s not just in our zone defensively. It’s winning pucks back. It’s tracking. It’s doing what you’re supposed to do when we get back into our zone.

“He’s been very good.”

Slafkovský scored that night against the Rangers, a game the Canadiens lost 4-3, and did so again Monday night in a 4-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres, the game that left him standing at his locker wearing the nicks and scratches. They came from what has made him good this season despite the previous lack of production.

Slafkovský has always been someone who has defined himself by production and evaluated his own play through that limited lens. There have been countless quality games over his three-year NHL career where, at the end, his evaluation was summarized with a quip.

“No goals, though,” he’s said over and over.

So, after scoring in two straight games, Slafkovský was told about St. Louis’ comment Saturday morning about the quality of his defensive game.

“I honestly think the last two games weren’t as good defensively for me,” he said. “But before that, I felt like I was playing good, it just wasn’t going in. I didn’t get the luck to get it in. But it has to go in at some point, and hopefully it’ll just keep going in.”

St. Louis often says Slafkovský needs to play to his identity to have success. He said it again Monday night. And that identity is to be heavy with pace, to impose a physical toll, to use the advantage his 6-foot-3, 225-pound frame affords him.

That means finishing hits on the forecheck, which Slafkovský has done consistently this season; he leads the team with 18 hits. It also means taking the puck to dangerous areas of the ice and to play through people. That has been a bit less consistent.

Still, there is another aspect to playing physically, something Slafkovský wore in the form of scratches and nicks at his locker after the game.

With a little under five minutes left in the game, Slafkovský drove the net after a Cole Caufield shot on goal and took a little whack at Sabres goalie Alex Lyon in case that puck popped loose. Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin took exception. Slafkovský took exception right back. The Sabres’ biggest offensive threat, Tage Thompson, further took exception right back.

A scrum ensued, and the result was Slafkovský and Thompson going to the box for two minutes with the Canadiens ahead 3-2, removing one of the primary sources of a tying goal for Buffalo for nearly half the remaining time in the game.

Tage Thompson goes after Slafkovsky after they tried jumpin’ Dahlin #LetsGoBuffalo #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/fHytZzI54Q

— Buffalo Hockey Moments (@SabresPlays) October 21, 2025

I asked Slafkovský after the game if, knowing it was Dahlin coming after him, he was trying to get Dahlin to join him in the penalty box and severely hurt the Sabres’ chances of coming back in the game.

“Yeah, for sure,” Slafkovský said. “I mean, he gives me a cross-check. I’m also trying to defend myself. I’m not just going to let people cross-check me. So he’s got to expect to get it back.”

It worked out, as one of their best forwards wound up in the box for two minutes with less than five minutes to play.

“One of our best players is in the box for two minutes,” he responded with a big smile.

He knew that’s not what I meant, but that’s Slafkovský’s sense of humour at work.

“I’m just saying,” he insisted, “two good players in the box.”

On Tuesday after practice, St. Louis was asked if that is an element of the physicality he would like to see from Slafkovský, and he didn’t seem overly inspired by it. He didn’t think about it much and somewhat dismissed the question. Those other elements of Slafkovský’s physicality — finishing his hits, temporarily eliminating opponents, and being more of a bull in a china shop — seem more important to him.

He acknowledged that those moments happen in a game, and at that point, with the score being what it was, it was important for Slafkovský to manage it properly by bringing someone to the penalty box with him.

“In those situations, you’re in game management mode a little bit, so you’ve got to make sure it’s even, at worst,” he said. “He did that.”

Slafkovský is doing a lot this season. This was just one of those things that doesn’t show up on the scoresheet. He creates space for his linemates, Caufield and Nick Suzuki. He keeps pucks alive in the offensive zone and, as St. Louis was very clear in pointing out, he tracks back and disrupts the opposing team’s offence before it can get started.

When St. Louis was asked Saturday morning if Slafkovský can see that, if he can appreciate the solid defensive play when the goals and assists and points are not coming, he was definitive.

“Absolutely,” he said.

When Slafkovský was asked that same question after the game Monday night, he paused, and he smiled again.

“I’m trying,” he said. “Trying hard.”

Slafkovský expects big things for himself not only this season, but this month. He’s been a slow starter every year he’s been in the NHL, and he’s tired of it. Scoring two goals in two games will surely alleviate any potential concern he had that it was happening again.

But to fully mature as a player, Slafkovský’s understanding that his game is about more than goals and assists — that it’s doing his part to ensure team success and executing the details only he can execute on his line — will be just as vital as scoring goals.

In other words, try harder.

This news was originally published on this post .

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