Fan criticism of Juraj Slafkovsky is unjustified.
At least that’s what Louis Robitaille said during his appearance on the show “La Poche Bleue le midi” on Monday.
“It’s not fair to the youngster. We have to take our gas equal with it and we have to relax a little. It wasn’t extraordinary, but it was very good. Was he expected to be Alex Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby at his first rookie camp? I didn’t expect that at all! He did a lot of good things. Now, I think he will have to adapt to the speed of the game. He will have to find his rhythm and take his bearings over the next few weeks. But there are a lot of positives with him.”
The coach of the Gatineau Olympiques also draws a parallel between the first choice in the most recent draft and the situation of Cole Caufield last season. Several people had lost confidence in him before Martin St-Louis came to help him relaunch his season.
“You have to stay calm, ‘cuddly’. We were talking regarding Cole Caufield when he started and we were expecting things. We wanted Dominique Ducharme to give him more ice cream. The young person must live moments like that. It’s the same with Slafkovsky. He will have more difficult moments and bad sequences where he will be less good. We’ll give him a chance.”
Watch the segment in question in the video above.