Another day, another incredible feat for Montreal Canadiens' sniper Cole Caufield. It's not just about the Canadiens' records, either; he's making his way in the NHL record books as well.
When Montreal Canadiens sniper Cole Caufield scored his 47th goal of the season against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night, he also scored his 26th goal in as many games. That’s a feat that has only been achieved by three other active players: Auston Matthews, David Pastrnak, and Sidney Crosby. While some may be surprised to see that Alex Ovechkin is not on that list, it’s not overly surprising. Even though the Washington Capitals captain is a picture of consistency, having scored 30 goals in 20 seasons, he remains a sniper who can be streaky at times.
Furthermore, that goal was Caufield’s 27th go-ahead goal of the season, which is the third-highest total in league history. He just overtook Pastrnak, who had 26. Pavel Bure is second with 28 go-ahead goals in 1999-00, and Brett Hull is first with 39 go-ahead goals in 1990-91; that year, he scored 86 goals. While it’s pretty much impossible that he could catch up to Hull, I wouldn’t bet against him overtaking Bure.
It’s also worth mentioning that Caufield has not scored a single one of his 47 goals in an empty net. Against the Bolts on Tuesday, Martin St-Louis finally put him on the ice in a 6-on-5 situation with an empty net at the other end of the ice. As luck would have it, Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Caufield ended up taking off on a three-on-one, but the captain elected to put the final nail in the coffin himself and not pass the puck to his sidekick.
Asked if he was proud that he didn’t score any of his goals in an empty net, Caufield replied:
Honestly, you don’t really think about it. You’re just trying to win, and we’ve got guys that do a hell of a job up there when we’re up a goal or two. Those guys take a lot of pride in it, and those are the guys we count on with a couple of minutes left. Honestly, you’ll take all the goals you can get, but at the end of the day, taking two points and finishing it the right way is pretty big too.
When the net is empty, Caufield isn’t thinking about his chase for 50 goals; he’s thinking about protecting the lead and getting the two points in the standings. He’s a team player, and even though he’s aware of what he’s doing right now, he’s aware that it hasn’t happened in Montreal in 40 years, but he’s not losing sight of what really matters.
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