Slavin's defensive work big reason for Hurricanes' Cup Final run

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Jalen Chatfield offered some words of advice for the Vegas Golden Knights and, really, any opponent on the ice when Jaccob Slavin is out there for the Carolina Hurricanes.

"Man, don't sauce the puck through that guy," Chatfield said. "It's getting knocked down." 

Slavin is arguably the best in the NHL at knocking down pucks that dare come through his path in the defensive zone. He might be the best in the world. If there was a way to measure it, Slavin would probably be No. 1 in the NHL in hand-eye coordination.

He's not overly physical. He's not overly fast. But he is arguably -- and it might not even be arguable at this point -- the best defender in the NHL because of his stick work, his body positioning, and his confidence that nothing and nobody will get through him.

Slavin is the pillar of Carolina's back end and must be at his best when the Stanley Cup Final resumes in Las Vegas on Saturday, when the Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights play Game 3 at T-Mobile Arena (8 p.m. ET; ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC).

The best-of-7 series is tied 1-1 after the Hurricanes won 4-3 in overtime on Thursday.

"I mean, I knew 'Slavo' was good, I didn't know he was this good," Carolina defenseman K'Andre Miller said. "He does so many little things that go unnoticed whether it's his stick positioning, his body positioning, closing guys in the corner, closing the best players in the world in the corner, just being a beast."

Slavin is essentially the Hurricanes version of Cale Makar, of Quinn Hughes, of Zach Werenski, of Matthew Schaefer; it's just that his game is a 180 from theirs.

"They have the same impact, just different, obviously," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "Those guys you mentioned, we know who they are -- when they're on the ice, you know it, and you have to account for it," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. "It's a little different when you have a player like Jaccob. You know he's out there too, but it just doesn't show up as much. But I think the same value. Whether you score a goal or you keep one out of the net, it kind of counts the same."

Slavin, unfortunately, was actually guilty of putting a puck into his own net in Game 2. He knocked it in at 18:39 of the third period, the game-tying goal going to Mark Stone, who was the last Vegas player to touch it before Slavin inadvertently put it in.

But that type of play is bound to happen at times when you're a defenseman that seems to have his stick involved in every defensive sequence when he's on the ice.

In fact, it's no surprise that Slavin said his favorite player growing up was Nicklas Lidstrom, the seven-time Norris Trophy-winning Hall of Famer from the Detroit Red Wings.

Lidstrom was also never known as the most physical or fastest defenseman in the League, but he was without debate the best defender in his era because of his ability to close plays and turn defense into offense with his stick and his body positioning.

"I hear from some of the older guys that have come through the locker room talking about dumping the puck in on him and he's knocking it down, and you can't get it by him, that kind of stuff," Slavin said. "I try to model my game after that and definitely growing up watched that."

Slavin credits his youth baseball career for his hand-eye coordination.

"I played a lot of baseball," he said. "I think being a multi-sport athlete growing up was huge for development and obviously has helped me a lot in my hockey career. Since only focusing on hockey, just continuing to work on it." 

Success in baseball, especially at the plate, is all about hand-eye coordination and the ability to make contact with a fast-moving object.

"Just a contact hitter, no power," Slavin said, describing himself on the diamond. "A lot of bunting down the third base line and running it out."

Which means a lot of watching the pitch come in, his eyes and his hands working in sync to find the baseball so he could drop down a bunt.

In hockey, it's the same thing, his eyes and hands working in unison so he can find the puck as he sees it with his peripheral vision, knocking it down as it comes across him, oftentimes starting Carolina's push the other way or keeping it in the zone at the offensive blue line.

Slavin said he never surprises himself when he does knock down a puck.

"No, because I go into it with confidence thinking I'm going to do it, so if I miss it that's when I get a little bit surprised," he said. "If I'm going for it, it's all or nothing so I'm hoping I get it."

It's more than just his hand-eye coordination that makes him elite at what he does. Slavin regularly corkscrews players he's defending. 

"So, I don't know if this will make any sense, but I go against him when he's on the (penalty kill) and I'm on the power play in practice, and he's so good at knowing what you're about to do and what you're trying to do that sometimes I'll have to short-circuit myself and do something totally different than what I would like to do," Hurricanes forward Taylor Hall said. "So, if I push the puck out here, he knows, 'OK he's probably going to try to sauce this pass,' so he's going to try to knock it down. So, I won't sauce it, I'll get it out there and almost fan on the pass. I've seen some guys kind of just start to really overdo it when they have to play against him because he really can put you in a blender like that."

Slavin credits that ability as a "learned skill over the course of my life," aided by sister, Jordan, who was a defenseman at the University of North Dakota after playing boys hockey until she was 14 years old.

"Once she played girls hockey, obviously you can't hit so she had to rely a lot on her stick, on her positioning and being able to watch that (helped) as well," Slavin said. "I was never a physical guy, so I always relied on my stick and my skating, really just anticipating where the play is going to be going, where the open lanes probably are and knowing where the other guys on the ice area, just being able to read and hopefully try to defuse."

Slavin has been doing it for years to little fanfare until recently.

The 32-year-old has never finished higher than fifth in the Norris Trophy voting (2019-20) in his 11 NHL seasons, but that's probably because he has never finished with more than 42 points (four goals, 38 assists), which he had in 2021-22. An injury limited him to 39 games this season. He had eight points (one goal, seven assists).

But he started to get more notoriety last season, when he was Team USA's top shutdown defender at the 4 Nations Face-Off, where he was paired with Brock Faber of the Minnesota Wild. 

He had that same assignment of going against Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Macklin Celebrini at the Winter Olympics in Milan. 

Slavin was brilliant.

Team USA went 18-for-18 on the penalty kill, with Slavin playing a massive role. Slavin helped the United States capture the gold medal in a 2-1 overtime win against Team Canada; Slavin was a plus-1. McDavid, Celebrini and MacKinnon were shutout.

"The world got to see it with him playing in the Olympics and 4 Nations," Chatfield said. "Nothing shy of greatness is what comes from him every night."