Call of the Wilde: Montreal Canadiens handle Chicago Blackhawks

The Montreal Canadiens have been playing their best hockey of the season. The Hawks jumped out to a two-goal lead Friday but the Habs scored five straight leading to a 5-2 win.

The Montreal Canadiens have been playing their best hockey of the season, heading into the Blackhawks game Friday night in Chicago with points in four straight games. Chicago promised an opportunity to add to the success, but every night in the NHL has a chance to surprise.

The Hawks jumped out to a two-goal lead, but then the Canadiens joined the contest with five straight in a 5-2 win.

Wilde Horses 

The case has been made since Juraj Slafkovsky first donned a Canadiens uniform that he had a terrific shot. While he was scouted as having a high-quality shot, unfortunately, two seasons into his career, it isn’t something that he has shown a lot. The entire NHL has taken note that he is deferring to Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield and keeps passing instead.

A new chapter has been added to the Slafkovsky development arc recently – goals. Oddly, though he is still not shooting, the goals are finally coming. Make it two in two games for Slafkovsky, and they were big goals.

Against Minnesota, with only three minutes remaining, Slafkovsky showed brilliant hand-eye coordination by somehow managing to deflect a puck that was about to hit him in the stomach.

In Chicago, Slafkovsky was in front of the net fighting with a Chicago defender for a rebound. He won the battle for an easy tap-in tally. Surely, he will begin shooting from 20 feet soon, but for now, the new wrinkle of being just too hard to handle physically has led Slafkovsky to success in the blue paint.

In his first season, everyone could see all of that size and strength, but he could not use it in any capacity. It was concerning as he lost puck battles and often was the player getting rocked, instead of the player doing the rocking.