Caufield’s Big Night Adds To The Credibility Of His Mister Saturday Night Moniker

There’s something about Cole Caufield and Saturday nights. Once again, in the Montreal Canadiens’ 4-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres, the sniper scored two goals, including the overtime winner. The game didn’t start well for the trigger-happy forward, though; in the first frame, he went in alone on Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and, instead of showing off his smooth hands, wound up taking a slapshot in motion that missed the net entirely. Seeing a Canadiens player miss an opportunity on a breakaway isn't rare, but seeing the Mosinee, Wisconsin, native do it is quite out of the ordinary.

The diminutive winger didn’t wait long to make up for the mishap; 14 minutes in, he got a close-range chance when linemate Juraj Slafkovsky poked the puck away from Olen Zellweger and straight onto Caufield’s stick. The puck was buried instantly, giving the Habs a 2-1 lead. That was his 65th Saturday night goal, and before the night ended, he added a 66th, the overtime game-winner. It stood as his first game-winner of the season and, of course, his first overtime goal of the new campaign. Last year, he led the league with 12 game-winning goals and five overtime goals.

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While some do not like the pressure of playing in a market like Montreal, Caufield revels in it:

“Saturdays are great here. I think the other crowd, the building, the city, you can just feel it,” Caufield said. “I like being in those moments. I think those are the ones that you want the puck on your stick, and you want to make a difference and be that guy, so I get excited for those.”

The Canadiens have a couple of players like that, guys who live for those moments, Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov, for instance, but with the young Russian on IR at the start of the season, Caufield’s contribution becomes even more important. Coach Martin St-Louis thought all hope was lost when he saw the Sabres get a three-on-one in overtime:

“You look at that sequence, they’re going on a three-on-one, and I’m like, no way,’” he said, laughing. “They miss the net; it’s a breakaway. You talk about the emotions of a game. I mean, I was happy it was on his stick.”

With the game on the line and coming in hot in front of Luukkonen, Caufield made no mistake; he picked his spot and sent a quick wrist shot right by the masked man to the back of the net, sending an already buzzing Bell Centre into a frenzy. He was understandably named the first star of the match, and as he came on the ice for an interview, the 21,000 Habs faithful assembled for Saturday mass chanted his name in unison.

When the media got to speak to the man of the hour in the dressing room, he was understandably all smiles and bore an uncanny resemblance to the smiley face embroidered on the socks he wears post-game. He got the socks in a golf shop, and they are a bit longer than the others he has, so they're more comfortable, which is why he wears them; the smiley faces are just a lucky coincidence, but he wears them well.

38 of his 66 Saturday night goals came since the start of the 2024-2025 season, and in that season and the following one, he set near-career marks for game-winning goals, with 8 in 2024-25 and 12 last season. How many will he add this year? It remains to be seen. But it's fascinating that 36 of his 174 career goals are game-winners, and that 14 came in overtime. That, right there, is being a gamer, a player that delivers when it’s most needed. The Canadiens can thank their luck star: at the 2019 draft, the Florida Panthers chose Spencer Knight and the Philadelphia Flyers chose Cam York, leaving them with an incredibly talented winger who was thought to be too small for the league at number 15, but has delivered big performances ever since.

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