Canadiens weekly notebook: Slafkovský's importance, Demidov on PP1, Danault's sense of purpose
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:Arpon Basu
Juraj Slafkovský is asserting his will on Canadiens opponents, Martin St. Louis' logic in selecting his top power-play unit might be flawed.
Juraj Slafkovský entered this season wanting to make a point.
The 21-year-old was tired of people using his youth as an excuse for his performance, tired of getting off to slow starts, tired of not living up to his own lofty expectations for himself.
He worked hard in Slovakia to make his fourth NHL season different from the three that preceded it — harder than he had worked the previous summer. He seemed to understand what it took to have the success he always expected to attain. It wouldn’t simply come on its own.
It was after a disappointing 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators on home ice that an angry Slafkovský spelled out his mindset in the plainest terms imaginable.
“I just keep telling myself I want to dominate, with and without the puck. Be good on both sides,” he said that night. “When Suzy’s (Nick Suzuki’s) line goes out there, I want to follow them up, to be just as good and at times maybe better. I feel like that motivates me. Simple as that.”
Slafkovský scored in that loss to Ottawa on Dec. 2. It was his fourth point in three games. It had been two weeks and a day since he was taken off the top line with Suzuki and Cole Caufield, a move that unlocked a new version of him.
But it was also his first game of a month that has traditionally been bone dry for him.
And he started it with a goal. He scored again one night later against the Winnipeg Jets. And he enters his final game of the month Tuesday night in South Florida with four goals and four assists in his last four games. That four-game stretch with eight points alone beats his production in each of his three previous Decembers in the NHL.
Juraj Slafkovský in December
Year
GP
G
A
Pts
2022-23
15
1
4
5
2023-24
14
2
4
6
2024-25
14
2
5
7
2025-26
14
6
9
15
Slafkovský also hit the new year with four goals in each of his first three seasons, and he enters his final game of 2025 on Tuesday with 13.
But it was an assist Sunday night in Tampa that demonstrated how much Slafkovský’s game has grown. An ongoing narrative throughout his career has been that Slafkovský needs to use his body more.
When there are calls for a player to be more physical, it often means that he needs to deliver more hits. But Slafkovský already does that — he led the Canadiens in hits last season. In his case, using his physical gifts is not limited to driving opponents through the boards. A player’s reach is also a physical advantage. Watch as Lightning defenceman Max Crozier tries in vain to get a stick on this puck.
Once Slafkovský used his reach to maintain puck possession, his skill kicked in, smacking a backhand pass into the slot as Crozier was taking him out to a waiting Ivan Demidov, who scored the goal that got the Canadiens’ comeback going early in the third period. That goal was nullified 36 seconds later when Pontus Holmberg scored for the Lightning, but it was Slafkovský who scored midway through the third to get Montreal back within two goals and scored again in the dying seconds to tie the game and get the Canadiens a point they fully deserved.
Since Slafkovský was first taken off the Suzuki line on Nov. 17 in Columbus, the Canadiens have played 20 games, and Slafkovský and Demidov are leading the way at five-on-five. In that span, Demidov’s five goals at five-on-five are more than Suzuki and Caufield have scored combined, with two goals apiece. Slafkovský played some games with Suzuki and Caufield in that time, but it seems rather obvious that whichever line he is on right now becomes the de facto top line for the Canadiens.
Perhaps the greatest endorsement of that notion came from coach Martin St. Louis speaking to reporters in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., after practice Monday about the recent struggles of the Suzuki line.
“I think they can do a better job at keeping pucks alive and winning some of these battles to extend the O-zone possession, (then) they’ll get their touches in space,” St. Louis said. “I just feel they lack instances of that, and I feel they’re getting frustrated a little bit.”
Hmmm, who was it that previously kept pucks alive and won battles and extended offensive zone possession for Suzuki and Caufield? It was Slafkovský. Suzuki’s frustration with his line’s performance aligns almost perfectly with Slafkovský being taken off his line. Slafkovský is that important.
What remains to be seen is what this will mean for Slafkovský’s in the second half of the season. He has always been a second-half player, but he’s never had a first half like this to build on. He ended last season with 22 points in his 27 regular-season games and ended the season before with 30 points in 33 games.
Both of those strong finishes were accentuated by the slow starts that preceded them. This year, for the first time in his career, Slafkovský has not had a slow start.
Demidov or Bolduc on PP1?
The Canadiens’ final game before the holiday break, a 6-2 win in Boston, saw Zack Bolduc take Demidov’s place on the top power-play unit. The two have alternated on the top unit often this season, despite the unit looking far more dangerous with Demidov.
After the game in Boston, St. Louis explained the move was an attempt to match the top unit with how the opponent kills penalties.
“It’s not a demotion, it’s not a promotion,” he said that night. “It’s just the way the other team kills, we’re going to attack it differently.”
St. Louis was not about to get into much detail on what triggers that decision, but something else he said in Boston on Dec. 23 might have been a bit of a tell.
“Boston brought a lot of pressure,” he said. “I would say more pressure than I thought they would, based on what we watched of their last games.”
Demidov was back on PP1 against the Lightning on Sunday, and their penalty kill is hyper-aggressive on the puck carrier.
A fair assumption here is that if the Canadiens are facing more of a passive penalty kill, St. Louis prefers having Bolduc on that top unit because his playmakers on the left side of his power play, Suzuki and Caufield, will be able to find Bolduc in the bumper spot, where he is extremely dangerous. But against a more aggressive penalty kill, having a player with the decision-making ability of Demidov will be more effective.
When Bolduc is on the top unit, he basically does not move from the bumper spot and almost never handles the puck. Here is what the setup looks like with Bolduc on PP1, with Caufield and Suzuki rotating between the goal line and the circle on the left side and Slafkovský bouncing back and forth between the goal line and the circle on the right side.
When Demidov is on the top unit, the puck regularly flows through him on the half wall on the right side, with Suzuki becoming the bumper presence the majority of the time and Caufield setting up shop in the left circle.
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Canadiens have played roughly the same amount of time on the power play with Demidov on the top unit as they have with Bolduc, and they’ve scored 11 power-play goals with Demidov compared to eight with Bolduc. But that is the only metric where the Canadiens are better off with Demidov.
Canadiens PP1 with Demidov or Bolduc
Metric
With Demidov
With Bolduc
CF/60
82.38
88.1
SF/60
43.03
49.39
GF/60
13.52
10.68
XGF/60
8.61
9.42
HDCF/60
20.9
24.03
The difference between Demidov and Bolduc on the top unit is significant from a tactical point of view — it essentially boils down to having five puck handlers as opposed to four. But it is the logic behind the switch that seems somewhat problematic.
The top teams in the league do not change their power-play personnel based on their opponent. The Canadiens’ power-play unit with Demidov joining Slafkovský, Suzuki, Caufield and Lane Hutson was first tried in the playoffs last spring when Patrik Laine got hurt, and Washington Capitals coach Spencer Carbery practically felt nauseous thinking about having to face that for the next 10 years.
Perhaps the Canadiens should make their personnel decisions based on what they would like to do, and less so on what their opponents would like to do. Underlying numbers are important, but goals are more important. And the Canadiens score more power-play goals with Demidov on the top unit.
The importance of feeling useful
Phillip Danault’s first game back in a Canadiens uniform last week was revelatory in numerous ways, but one of the most revelatory things he said was the word “purpose.”
Danault was speaking French, but said “purpose” in English.
“I was starting to feel like I had no purpose for the team. I wasn’t bringing anything to the team,” Danault said last Tuesday morning in Boston of his time with the Los Angeles Kings. “So when that happens, you feel weak, you don’t feel all that important, and that’s how I felt towards the end.”
Danault did not have a very impactful game in Boston that night, but once he returned from the Christmas break, his purpose on the Canadiens became clear. When Slafkovský tied the game against the Lightning with 3.8 seconds left in regulation, Danault was sent out to win a faceoff on the left side, something no one could do with any degree of consistency all season.
Danault won the draw, and Slafkovský scored moments later.
That is purpose.
Danault has also taken over the top job on the penalty kill and, once Jake Evans returns from a lower-body injury in four to six weeks, he will form a lefty-righty bottom-six centre combo very similar to what the Canadiens had last season with Evans and Christian Dvorak.
The team will be much better as a result. But Danault already feels the sense of purpose that he missed in Los Angeles. That faceoff at the end of regulation in Tampa provided it.
