I liked seeing Juraj Slafkovsky get angry at the end of the game.

In the world of sports, rebuilding is all about starting afresh on a new footing, with young players who will hopefully take the club to the top.

At present, this is exactly what the Montreal Canadiens plan to do.

However, in such a reconstruction, care must be taken not to make defeat something normal and trivial in the eyes of the young players.

Because obviously, there will be far more defeats than victories in a rebuild, and that’s where the danger lies.

The danger is that young players will tell themselves that it’s okay to lose, because once the time comes to win and dominate, this mentality will have been imbued in the players, as was the case with the Edmonton Oilers for several seasons.

The Oilers had many fine young players, but they had learned to accept defeat and live with it.

This is exactly what the Habs must avoid.

Fortunately, so far, I’m really confident that it won’t happen.

Why not?

Because, night after night, despite the defeats and less-than-stellar performances, we’re seeing some extremely competitive young players who don’t like to lose.

This is particularly true of Juraj Slafkovsky.

The young Slovak is a great competitor, and he clearly demonstrated last night that he hates to lose.

I’ll leave you to watch the following sequence.

Notice anything?

Let me help you out.

As you can see, Juraj Slafkovsky is seen banging his stick against the boards after the game-ending siren.

Well, I loved seeing that reaction.

Slafkovsky’s simple gesture shows just how much he wants to win and make a difference for the Montreal Canadiens.

In the clip, the young Slovak is frustrated at being robbed of a goal in the dying seconds of the game, when he had a completely empty net.

If it hadn’t been for defenseman John Carlson’s save, Slaf would have sent the Bell Centre into euphoria by sending everyone into overtime.

So it’s the frustration of having missed his chance to make the difference that comes out on this stick swing.

Slaf wasn’t frustrated with his game(with good reason), but frustrated at having missed this precise opportunity.

Again, I loved seeing it.

Why did you love it?

Because it shows how much the kid wants to win and wants to help his team win, even though he knows full well that the Habs are one of the worst teams in the NHL and won’t make the playoffs.

So, despite the mounting defeats, the Habs are making good progress for the future, and that bodes well for the future.

It’s really great to see Slafkovsky being competitive like this, after not having had a competitive, winning situation with the Habs since his arrival in the NHL.

He fits in very well with the team’s values, and with the competitive sides that Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield have developed by winning their way to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021.

Both of them came very close to winning the Stanley Cup, and were very important players in the Tricolore’s career.

I can’t wait to see them back in the playoffs, this time accompanied by Juraj Slafkovsky, who I think will be an excellent playoff player.

In short, despite the losses and the difficult season, there’s a lot of positivity around the Montreal Canadiens right now, and it’s all thanks to these guys, whom we love a lot, and who also love each other a lot.

Never change Juraj Slafkovsky pic.twitter.com/Th30CbMPmV

– /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) February 18, 2024

In a Rafale

– That would be awesome.

– To be continued.

– A file to keep an eye on.