Cernak, Slafkovsky put friendship aside for 1st round series between Lightning, Canadiens

TAMPA -- At the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, Erik Cernak shared a room at the athletes village with his Slovakia teammate, Juraj Slafkovsky. In the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Eastern Conference, Cernak will once again find himself on the ice with Slafkovsky, but the two friends will be wearing different jerseys.

On the eve of Game 1 of the best-of-7 series between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Montreal Canadiens at Benchmark International Arena, Cernak set the record straight. The friendship will be set aside for the next few days.

"It's always cool when I play against Juraj," said the 28-year-old Lightning defenseman after practice at TGH Ice Plex on Saturday morning. "He's obviously a great player. I spend a lot of time with him in the summer in Kosice. I always love being on the ice against him in the NHL. Our competitive spirit comes out quickly and we both want to put on a good show.

"He's a really good friend, but we're getting into a different stage of the season. These are the playoffs. We're going to find ourselves on the ice going against each other in this series, and there won't be any friendship."

Slafkovsky also flashed a slight smile when thinking about his shifts against Cernak in this series.

"I'm putting that friendship on ice for the first round," echoed the Canadiens forward on Friday following the team's practice in Brossard, Quebec. "I'm going to head into the corners against him, just like I'll do against all the other Lightning players. I think it'll be special to face him. I just want to end up coming out on top so I can rib him about it over the next few months."

At 5-on-5, Cernak will likely be deployed against the Canadiens' first line, comprised of center Nick Suzuki and wings Cole Caufield and Slafkovsky. Cernak will be accompanied on the Lightning blue line by the 36-year-old veteran Ryan McDonagh, the team's oldest defenseman.

Cernak and McDonagh will need to find a way to slow down a 50-goal scorer in Caufield (51), a 100-point scorer in Suzuki (101), and also a powerful young scorer in Slafkovsky, who finished with 30 goals and 73 points.

Selected by Montreal with the first overall pick at the 2022 NHL Draft, Slafkovsky set career highs in his fourth season with the Canadiens, reaching the 30-goal and the 70-point plateau for the first time.

That progression has not surprised Cernak in the slightest.

"He's really improving, he's made a big leap this season to establish himself as a great wing," said Cernak. "I had the chance to play with him at the Olympics for Slovakia, so I spent a lot of time with him. Those were some great moments.

"I really like the way in which he handles everything going on in his life. He has a lot of pressure on his shoulders for a young player. There were a lot of people doubting him, largely the fans, but also from the media and with the advanced stats guys. But I knew he'd end up becoming a dominant forward. I never doubted his potential. I could predict that it would only be a question of time for him. He needed to gain confidence and maturity. There are some who said that he'd never become a near-point-a-game player. But that's already the case, and he's only just turned 22. I'm happy for him."

If Slafkovsky has begun to shine under the bright lights of Montreal, a city where hockey is a religion, he has become an even bigger star in his home country. Cernak has witnessed that up close.

Slafkovsky and Cernak helped Slovakia reach the semifinals of the men's hockey tournament, where they lost 6-2 against the United States and then fell short in the bronze-medal match against Finland, 6-1. Slafkovsky, who scored eight points (four goals, four assists) in six games, was named to the tournament's All-Star Team. That followed the 2022 Olympic tournament in Beijing, when Slafkovsky was named Tournament MVP after leading all players with seven goals and leading Slovakia to their first Olympic hockey medal, a bronze.

"Juraj's a huge star back home," said Cernak. “After working out at the gym in the summer, if we go out to get a coffee or something to eat, it's impossible to pass unnoticed. There are always people waiting for him to ask for an autograph or a photo. He gets recognized everywhere. He's handling all this attention and pressure so well. He's growing up as a man, but also as a hockey player."

In Kosice, Slafkovsky has watched Cernak huff and puff while pumping iron like a demon in the gym.

"I've been fortunate to learn from him during my off-season training. He's always going 100 percent in the gym, even if he has just come off a long playoff run," said Slafkovsky. "He only has one gear, and that's fifth gear. I've incorporated that mentality into my own training. He's helped me become a better player. I'll definitely want to take everything I've learned and use it against him in this series."