Juraj Slafkovsky’s three-assist game versus Buffalo was a hot topic of discussion between Brian Wilde and Tony Marinaro last night on Tony’s Sick Podcast.
Marinaro noted that Slafkovsky gave us all a glimpse of what he might one day become on a consistent basis at the NHL level.
“You know it’s funny because Slafkovsky yesterday… and I understand he can’t play like that all the time because if he would, he’d be a dominant power forward in the National Hockey League, but Slafkovsky gave us a glimpse once again,” said Marinaro. “He gave us a couple of those glimpses last year…last night, he gave us a glimpse of how effective and how good he can be.”
Wilde concurred with Tony, and pointed out that we can expect highs and lows from a 20-year-old playing in the NHL.
“I think that’s what It’s all about out too,” said Wilde. ” I’m looking at it here, and I just explained in great detail how it’s a progression as a team. But It’s also progression and regression as individuals too because you as an individual…in this case, Slafkovsky here…are trying to continue to develop your game, and then once you take it on a different avenue, sometimes the other avenue tends to get forgotten too. If he’s in the process of learning, and you’re concentrating on the thing you’re trying to learn, you can kind of forget and lose touch with what you’ve already learned, and it doesn’t always come together in a linear way either for individuals. But we have to remember the dude’s 20, and he’s third on the team in scoring, and it’s his third year in the NHL.
And when you consider the big gamble that everyone thought they’d took. On that night I pulled everybody on Twitter – 86 percent wanted Shane Wright. Eighty-six percent before the pick. Seven (percent) wanted Cooley, and seven wanted Slafkovsky.
They (management) got it right, because as much as I really like Cooley, I’ll take the big package in the playoffs. I’ll take the guy who can be the power forward and do what he’s doing.”
