Canadiens Takeaways: Slafkovsky adapting, Suzuki hot in the dot, Xhekaj tearing twine

Juraj Slafkovsky snuck behind coverage and, as he saw the puck filter back to Mike Matheson at the point, flashed to the front of the net.

It would take a deft manoeuvre of his six-foot-three, 230-pound frame to screen six-foot-seven Ottawa Senators goaltender Mads Sogaard from the incoming shot, and he knew it.

Slafkovsky executed by pivoting more towards the slot, leaving Sogaard partially blind to the incoming shot from Matheson on Saturday.

The gigantic Dane made a last-second reaction save and lost hold of the rebound, and that’s when Montreal’s big Slovakian quickly swept it through his legs to open the scoring for the Canadiens.

It was Slafkovsky’s first shift of the game. It started with him smiling at Dominik Kubalik, who was lined up across from him on the opening faceoff, and it ended with him grinning even wider as he celebrated his second goal of the pre-season.

Everything that happened in between, over just 33 seconds of play, was emblematic of how much more comfortable the 19-year-old has appeared over these last three weeks than he did over his first months in a Canadiens uniform. And everything we saw after that, over his remaining 13:59 of this 6-4 Montreal win, only served as further confirmation of that.

Slafkovsky was a consistent presence on the forecheck and backcheck. He used his body effectively, and for more than just setting screens — both taking checks and dishing them out. He made strong plays in his own end and creative ones in the offensive end, and he put himself in the right spots at the right time to have the puck on his stick frequently.

“He played a good game tonight, and he’s starting to learn the game a bit more,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis told reporters at Canadian Tire Centre. “We talk about being connected and balanced on the ice, and he appears encouraged because he knows that the game is easier when it’s played with the other four guys on the ice.”

It’s one of the biggest adjustments Slafkovsky had to make in transitioning to NHL hockey, and the one he struggled most with in a rookie season that saw him produce just four goals and 10 points in 39 games. 

“Big guys like him use their size and abilities individually until they reach the NHL, and then realize it becomes impossible to do it all by themselves at this level,” said St. Louis. “You have to understand to play with the other four players on your side and the five on the other team.”

Slafkovsky is advancing in that process, and he exhibited that throughout this training camp.

Now he must take the confidence earned from it and carry it into the regular season.

A key stat for Nick Suzuki

With a goal and an assist in Saturday’s game, Nick Suzuki finished the pre-season with seven points in four contests.

It didn’t seem to matter that there was a revolving cast of wingers on his right side, as four different ones auditioned for the role; Suzuki was able to dominate just the same.

We know, it’s just pre-season, and Suzuki has had fairly productive ones since debuting with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017.

Where he hasn’t shone is in the faceoff circle, where he never won more than 50 per cent of his draws in any year.

This time around, Suzuki won 32 of 51 draws for a 62.7 per-cent efficiency rating. He pulled back 11 of 15 against the Senators on Saturday.

We don’t expect the 24-year-old to have that type of success come regular season, but we like his chances of getting over the 50-per-cent mark. It’s something Suzuki hasn’t done in the NHL yet, never topping 49.6 per cent in a season, but he served notice over the last three weeks that he’s prepared to take a step in this department.

A telling stat

With a goal in Saturday’s game, Michael Pezzetta finished with one more tallied than Jesse Ylonen and Emil Heineman combined.

Neither Ylonen nor Heineman necessarily needed to score to steal a chair in the Canadiens’ lineup, but it surely wouldn’t have hurt either of them if they had.

Heineman showed he could still bring a physical dimension as a contribution to a game to help make up for when his heavy shot doesn’t find the back of the net. Ylonen, who has a larger body of work to judge, showed last season he could be an effective special-teams player but failed to show in pre-season he’s ready to be regularly counted on in those situations and at five-on-five.

We expect to see both of them play games with the Canadiens at some point this season, but not before building up their games in Laval, with the AHL’s Rocket.

Arber Xhekaj puts his hands to better use in pre-season

Against a Senators lineup armed with punch chuckers, Xhekaj kept his knuckles gloved, just as he had throughout the pre-season.

The heavyweight didn’t register a single fight in four games.

Smart move, as far as we’re concerned, considering Xhekaj will be tested often enough in that capacity when the games really matter.

In this one, Xhekaj put his hands to better use, scoring Montreal’s sixth goal with a wrist shot that tore the twine behind Sogaard.