Canadiens’ Caufield On Pace For Another 50-Goal Season

Granted, it’s early, but after 17 games, Montreal Canadiens winger Cole Caufield has 11 goals and is on pace for 54 in 84. Yes, thanks to the new CBA, the season now has two more games, and the sniper gets a bit more runway. He’s not leading the league in lamplighters; Kirill Kaprizov and Leon Draisaitl each have 16 goals in 19 and 18 games played, respectively.

That doesn’t mean that Caufield won’t be in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy this season; he still has 67 games to play. And it’s also worth mentioning that Caufield had to make do without his favourite setup man, Nick Suzuki, for six games. Furthermore, Ivan Demidov, a key cog in the Habs' power play, has skated in only two games so far this season. Last year, 11 of Caufield’s 51 goals came on the man advantage. It’s not a huge number, but it certainly helps.

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Last season, Caufield also had 12 game-winning goals; so far this year, he’s on 3. Projected on 84 games, that would give him 15. But that’s a pace he’s established without Suzuki for six games. The Caufield-Suzuki-Lane Hutson trio is lethal in overtime, and when the three are healthy, it’s almost as if Martin St-Louis has an ace up his sleeve.

When Suzuki was injured, all eyes turned to Juraj Slafkovsky to see if he could step it up a notch, but he didn’t. Meanwhile, Caufield shone even brighter than usual; he put up 6 points in as many games. Slafkovsky did have four points in those four games, but two came on the power play and weren’t exactly hard to get. The big Slovak even said himself on Thursday night that he has been playing like “shit”. Now that Suzuki is back, Slafkovsky looks much better and should contribute more, if he can play consistently. That too should help Caufield reach 50 goals mark this season.

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