Cole Caufield’s game trending in right direction for Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens took down the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games, and they’ve gotten out to a 2-1 series lead over the Buffalo Sabres, and they’ve done so without much production from star winger Cole Caufield.
After finishing second in the NHL with 51 goals in the regular season, Caufield has just 2 goals through 10 Stanley Cup Playoff games, both of which came with the man advantage.
The American gave Montreal the lead for good in Game 3 on Sunday night with his second of the postseason, but he’s largely been quieted, only recording more than two shots on goal twice in these 10 games.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL video coach Steve Peters were joined by Marco D’Amico of BPM Sports Radio to discuss how Caufield finding the back of the net could go a long way toward making him as impactful as Montreal needs him to be for a Stanley Cup run.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Speaking of momentum, I want to talk a little bit about Cole Caufield because I think a lot of people who maybe aren’t Montreal Canadiens fans, maybe weren’t even watching every game of the Tampa series will just sit here, look at the stat line and go ‘Oh, damn, 2 goals in 10 games for Caufield.’ Both of them coming on the power play, hasn’t found the back of the net at even strength yet in these playoffs. For a guy who was a 50-plus goal scorer, obviously that was noted throughout the year, are you surprised at the struggles? And then I guess, I liked his game yesterday, take the goal out of it, I felt like he was a bit more involved. He was getting his shot off from some dangerous areas… Do you feel like Caufield’s game is trending in a good direction even if maybe the goals aren’t eye-popping right now?
Marco D’Amico: Absolutely. I thought he was fantastic in Game 2; he just hit a post. It just sucks that way, but it is what it is. When you’re a goalscorer, sometimes you’re streaky, sometimes you’re snakebitten. Even in Game 3, he had a golden opportunity on the power play right before he scored where he was again streaking across the blue paint, and the puck happens to go off his skate instead of his stick, or else that was an easy tap-in as well from Lane Hutson. Sometimes it’s just about finding the details in your game, and I think when you look at the way he scored his 51 goals this season, they weren’t all as pretty set-up plays on the power play. In fact, I don’t think he scored in bunches on his famous one-timer from the left circle in a long time. A lot of his goals came at 5-on-5, a lot of his goals came from causing turnovers and going back the other way or from taking advantage of open ice. It was the details in his game, and I felt like at a certain point in time in the playoffs, you have to readjust those details given the amount of space and time that you have. He’s been able to do that now.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…