Juraj Slafkovsky had Darnell Nurse in front of him and nowhere obvious to go, 1:49 into the second period at the Bell Centre with the Montreal Canadiens and San Jose Sharks level at 1-1.
So he flipped the puck over Nurse, skated around him, collected it again on the other side, cut straight across the goalmouth and tucked it around Alex Nedeljkovic.
The NHL’s own account posted it under the heading Goal of the Season. TSN went with “unbelievable.” Supporters of the team he scored it against weren’t inclined to argue.
“Honestly not even mad, that goal was f***ing pretty,” one wrote.
“That’s filthy, dear God. Montreal made the right pick,” said another.
“Goal of the year candidate,” a third offered, with somebody else adding: “Haven’t seen a better goal so far this season.”
Was Slafkovsky worth the first overall pick?
Montreal took him first in 2022 and spent a couple of years listening to people question it. He is now 22, on a first line that has produced 12 goals and 25 points across nine games this season, and he had already set up Montreal’s opening goal before the one everybody is replaying.
That first one was its own piece of work. He batted a bouncing puck through a defenseman’s legs to carry it over the blue line, skated onto it while two Sharks chased the bounce, and found Nick Suzuki charging down the middle for a shot that went bar down.
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He finished the night with a goal, an assist, a plus-2 and 17:16 of ice time. The goal itself will outlast the result.
Montreal led by two in the third period and lost. Macklin Celebrini scored twice, the second on a power play 2:13 into overtime after Jakub Dobes was penalized for interference, completing a 4-3 San Jose comeback.
“I felt like we had some chances in the third and stuff, but we gave them too much,” Slafkovsky said.
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