Should the Montreal Canadiens panic because of Cole Caufield's lack of production in these playoffs? No, they shouldn't.
By all accounts, Montreal Canadiens’ sniper Cole Caufield had a fantastic regular season. He became the team’s first 50-goal scorer since Stephane Richer, was a big contributor to Nick Suzuki hitting the 100-point mark, scored 18.3% of the team’s goals, and contributed to 32% of the team’s offensive output.
However, since scoring his 50th goal of the season against the Tampa Bay Lightning on April 9, he’s only scored two goals. One in the last three games of the season, and a single one in the eight playoff games that he has played so far. Is it time to panic? Is Caufield the kind of player who can only perform in the regular season? No, it’s not, and he is not.
In the first game of the second round against the Buffalo Sabres, Caufield was rushing his plays in the offensive zone, passing the puck as quickly as he could. Why? Because he has become accustomed to the kind of defense that Tampa had. The Bolts forwards were all over him and his linemates in the blink of an eye when they had the puck, but Buffalo plays a different game.
On Wednesday night, Caufield had more time, but he didn’t take it, which is why he had two shots on goal but no blocked or missed attempts. Going forward, the sniper just needs to adapt to this new opponent and take the time it’s giving him. Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky looked more comfortable than the diminutive winger in Game 1. The captain had three shots on net, three blocked attempts and one that missed the net altogether. As for Slafkovsky, he had four shots on net, two blocked attempts, and one shot off target.
In other words, the top line had nine shots on net but also had 16 attempts. In the first game against the Lightning, Suzuki had no attempts on net, Caufield had two shots, and Slafkovsky had seven shots and nine attempts, most of which came on the power play. In that sense, last night’s performance was an encouraging sign.
Of course, a loss in Game 1 wasn’t what Montreal wanted or needed, but this is a best-of-seven series. The Canadiens have time to work with, and Buffalo still needs to win three more games to move on. The Habs are not about to wave the white flag here. Caufield will adapt to the pace of this series and show that he can perform in the playoffs as well.
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