The Habs played a hard fought game yesterday against the Minnesota Wild. Apart from the final score of 4-1, the game was much closer and there was some animosity in the air between the two teams. It's true that playing each other twice in one week can create some tension. With the game already out of reach for the Tricolore, Juraj Slafkovsky was sneakily hit near the CH players' boards with less than two minutes left on the clock. While at first glance the hit was still legal, the fact remains that since the Slovakian was off balance and late in the game, the result could have been very dangerous. A fight broke out afterwards and Jake Evans tried to avenge his teammate. Canadiens head coach Martin St-Louis had a calm view of the late-game event, mentioning that you always have to protect yourself, even at the end of a shift. <Slaf was at the end of his shift, he was burned, he wanted to do the right thing by getting to the red line, he said. Sometimes it's better to protect yourself. I would have to look at different angles to see if it was something dangerous or not. It's not an easy league. - Martin St. Louis</q> The Quebec coach added that the first overall pick will have to learn from this and stay alert at all times on the ice. <q>You have to be alert until the end, the Hockey Hall of Famer acknowledged. It was an end of a shift, an end of a game. It's fast and there's a lot of guys who want to keep their position in the league. So they try to do everything and impress every time they're on the ice. So you never let your guard down, because you can get pinched. It's hard enough to move Slaf. But he was at the end of a shift, tired. He didn't have the same strength. - Martin St. Louis Fortunately, there was more fear than harm, as Slafkovsky ultimately suffered no injuries on the play. There is no doubt that he will have learned from this sequence, because the NHL is very far from being like hockey in Europe. Players always want to finish their checks and Slaf will have to remember that. <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/TVASports/status/1587656953077145601'> </a></blockquote></div>