{"id":635067,"date":"2026-04-28T22:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T22:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/635067\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T22:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T22:35:11","slug":"slafkovsky-to-play-for-canadiens-in-game-5-after-hit-from-crozier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/635067\/","title":{"rendered":"Slafkovsky to play for Canadiens in Game 5 after hit from Crozier"},"content":{"rendered":"

BROSSARD, Quebec — Juraj Slafkovsky<\/a>\u00a0did not practice with the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday but will be in the lineup for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; TheSpot, ESPN2, SN, TVAS, CBC).<\/p>\n

The forward was on the receiving end of an open-ice hit by Lightning\u00a0defenseman Max Crozier<\/a>\u00a0in the second period of a 3-2 loss in Game 4 at Bell Centre on Sunday. Slafkovsky went to the dressing room and returned for the third period, but Tampa Bay managed to tie the best-of-7 series 2-2.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a fast play,\u201d\u00a0Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki<\/a>\u00a0said Tuesday. \u201cI saw it coming from where I was and I was trying to give him a heads-up, (but) it just was loud in there. He said he saw him coming at the last minute so he could probably brace a little bit. but plays like that happen, and \u2018Slaf\u2019s\u2019 a tough guy. So, I think he\u2019ll want to go out and make an impact tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The No. 1 pick in the 2022\u00a0NHL Draft, Slafkovsky has three goals in the series. He ranked second for Montreal during the regular season with 30 goals, and fourth in points (73) in 82 games.<\/p>\n

The hit by\u00a0Crozier has been viewed by many observers as a potential series-chenger, but Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis is challenging his players to put their own stamp on the outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you let that moment define the series, you\u2019re putting yourself in a bad spot,\u201d St. Louis said. \u201cDon\u2019t let moments like that define it. Rewrite it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROSSARD, Quebec — Juraj Slafkovsky\u00a0did not practice with the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday but will be in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-635067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}