“Situational Scoring”: Cole Caufield is in a league of his own

Michaël Petit
“Situational Scoring”: Cole Caufield is in a league of his own
Credit: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

As we all know, Cole Caufield is an excellent goal-scorer and knows (very well) how to find the back of the net in clutch moments.

In fact, Caufield led the league in game-winners and overtime goals this season.

He doesn't just light the red lamp—he often does so at the most crucial moments.

In the playoffs, he will certainly be a force for the Montreal Canadiens.

To further highlight the importance of his goals this season, The Hockey News website has a specific statistic for him called “Situational Scoring.”

If you're comfortable with English, the term speaks for itself. For those who'd like a proper translation, it would be “situational production.”

Basically, the statistic reflects a player's production in various different situations during a game. For example, there's the first goal of the game, game-winning goals, overtime goals, goals that give the team the lead, goals that tie the game, and so on.

At first glance, you'd think Caufield must be at the top, and he is. However, his lead over the second-place player is incredible.

Ken Campbell, who wrote this article for The Hockey News, notes that thanks to this wide lead, he's placing Cole Caufield on his Hart Trophy ballot (Most Valuable Player).

Here is a screenshot of the standings in question:

(Credit: Screenshot | Data Wrapper / The Hockey News)

Interestingly, Nick Suzuki is also ranked 9th in this standings, but let's just say he surely owes a lot to Caufield (or vice versa, or a bit of both?).

In short, the lead of more than 13 points over MacKinnon, who is in 2nd place, is quite impressive. By the way, if you want to know exactly how the scoring system works for this advanced statistic, the article in The Hockey News explains it very well.

Although advanced stats “mean what they mean,” this one in particular is very interesting.

Obviously, every goal scored counts, but a goal scored when the game is already a blowout, one way or the other, is more or less significant.

We can therefore conclude that even if Caufield isn't scoring at the same pace he did this season, we can assume that these will surely be important goals.

Besides, it's perfectly normal to produce less in the playoffs than in the regular season, so let's not worry too much if Caufield doesn't score, say, five goals in the first round.

Even if he scores just one or two, they'll most likely be important in the series.

I'm really looking forward to seeing if the first line will slow down or remain as productive as they were during the regular season.


In a nutshell

– The former Habs player has now scored his 27th career playoff goal.

– Vinzenz Rohrer scores his first goal in his first AHL game.

– The Devils quickly jumped on the opportunity.

– The Blue Jays hand the Arizona Diamondbacks a beating.

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