#FreeCayden: Cayden Primeau must be “freed

The Canadiens put an end to their four-game losing streak last night in Detroit, winning 3-2 in overtime. It seems they needed to get away from the Bell Centre to get back to winning ways…

The team finally scored the first goal of the game yesterday. Let’s hope they can do the same in their two games this weekend in front of their home fans…

Cayden Primeau or Marc-André Fleury?
Cayden Primeau kept goal as if he were Marc-André Fleury against the Wings: he was efficient (.931), notably at the expense of Alex DeBrincat in overtime, he let in a shot he should have stopped and he sometimes looked like a goalie from the early 2000s.

But in the end, it worked and Primeau won his first game since Kent Hughes became GM. You know, being compared to Marc-André Fleury, one of the best Quebec goaltenders in NHL history, is a nice touch when you’re a #3 goaltender.

In fact, Primeau is the goaltender who has posted the best statistics so far this season for the Habs.

Unfortunately, it’s clear that the CH staff doesn’t have (much, at least) faith in him… otherwise, they would have given him more than two starts out of 14 over the past few months…

The coach doesn’t seem irritated whenasked about Primeau…

And Kent Hughes has reportedly already traded Jake Allen or Samuel Montembeault.

Primeau had to wait six games for his first start this season, then six more for his second. If the past is any indication, he’ll play his next game on November 22 or 24 in California. This means that somewhere along the line, he’ll have gone almost a month without playing a single game. This can’t go on. It’s got to change. Kent, do you hear me? #FreeCayden

Cole Caufield in overtime vs Cole Caufield 5-on-5
Since Cole Caufield hadn’t found the back of the net in his last five games, Martin St-Louis dared to take him away from Nick Suzuki. At least at 5-on-5…

Still, it’s funny to see that what Dominique Ducharme’s detractors were raving about wasn’t all that badly received last night, but hey…

The Suzuki – Caufield divorce worked out in the end. Suzuki finished with two points and Caufield with the winning goal in overtime.

But the divorce wasn’t really a divorce at all: the guys continued to “see” or ” date ” each other on the power play and in overtime (both 3-on-3 and 4-on-3). And it was precisely under such conditions that the two lads collected their points.

Let’s call it a “break ” and not a real separation. And they’re likely to be back together at 5-on-5 sooner rather than later…

But separating them wasn’t a bad decision in itself: the trios were more balanced, Alex Newhook, Josh Anderson, Christian Dvorak and Juraj Slafkovsky had a good game overall… and the team picked up two points in Michigan.

My only concern is this: yes, Cole Caufield is the NHL’s leading overtime scorer…

But real hockey is rarely played 3-on-3 or 4-on-3 when it counts for real. Caufield has scored only two goals in 12 non-overtimegames… and none in the last 10 games.

And one of those two goals was scored on the power play. That means CC has just one 5-on-5 goal in 2023-24.

We all know he’s capable of filling the net at 5-on-5, but he’ll have to start doing it again sooner rather than later. That’s what he’s paid for.

Does MSL need to reunite or separate the Caufield-Suzuki duo to achieve this? Fortunately, that’s not for me to decide…

Prolongation

– Cole Caufield (13 points in 13 games) is currently the Montreal team’s top scorer and second-highest scorer. Sean Monahan is directly behind and ahead of Caufield in both categories. [Canadiens]

– The CH is currently 6th in the very strong Atlantic Division despite its .500-plus record, so if the playoffs started today, it wouldn’t make them. [Google]

– I was more bored with Ben Chiarot than Jeff Petry during last night’s game. How about you?

– RDS experienced some technical difficulties last night… and several people said on social networks that they liked having access to the game with the sound of the crowd, but not that of the descriptors/analysts. Would you like this option to be available when NHL games are broadcast on a Web giant like Apple TV?

– No Canadiens players were injured yesterday. Yesssssssssir!

– Mike Matheson had just two assists in five games before last night’s game; he got three points against the Red Wings. He’s hard to follow, Mike… #Constance