12 goals in 13 games: Cole Caufield’s shoulder is healed

After four games, the Canadiens are in the mix. This morning, the Montrealers (2-2-0) are in 8th place in the East, the final playoff spot…

But they have seven teams behind them, at one point or zero(and/or one or two games in hand on the Habs). In short, the Canadiens are currently well placed to miss the playoffs by a point or two, which would be a success for Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes (being in the mix until the end), but also a disaster in my eyes(no man’s land/remote choice for rebuilding).

We all agree that the Canadiens’ goaltenders will have to be more consistent, and that the Montreal defense will have to tighten up its game (and give away fewer shots than it takes).

But there are two reasons to be optimistic about the Habs’ offensive game: Lane Hutson and Cole Caufield.

There’s been a lot of talk about Hutson in recent days, but a little less about Caufield. And yet…

As the guys at HFTV would be singing if they were up at the time of writing: Caufield’s on fire, your defence is terrified!

His start to the season has been nothing short of phenomenal.

This morning, Caufield is the second-highest scorer in the entire Bettman circuit (four goals). Only Dylan Guenther (five) has found the back of the net more than Caufield so far in 2024-25. And the extra goal Guenther has is an empty-net goal…

Don’t forget that Caufield also had quite a late season in 2023-24, scoring eight goals in his last nine games.

When I look at the goals Caufield scored at the end of last campaign, as well as at the start of this year’s calendar, I come to a hypothesis: Cole Caufield’s shoulder is fully healed/recovered.

Cole Caufield scores the first goal of the season for the #GoHabsGo

Nice setup by Dach and Slafkovsky. 1-0 Canadiens. pic.twitter.com/djSOX8lw8o

– Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) October 9, 2024

An athlete who undergoes major shoulder surgery can usually return to play six months afterwards, but often needs another six months to heal completely.

Caufield has been 100% since (approximately) February, which is great news for the Habs, who will pay him close to $8 million a year until June 2031.

No, Caufield will never be the unanimous choice because of his size, his style of play (Martin Lemay doesn’t like him that much), his enthusiasm and/or what he does on a nightly basis.

But the important thing is that he’s back to filling the net. Because no, he’s not paid to make passes or hand out checks. He’s paid to put it in.

And right now, he’s putting it in.

Extension

Before the start of the campaign , Mise-o-jeu offered the following bet: Cole Caufield, plus or minus 29.5 goals. The MOJ thinkers therefore thought that, logically, Caufield was heading for a 40-goal season.

But with four goals in four games – and many bets taken on the over – MOJ has since decided to increase the number of goals on which to bet over/under to 39.5.

As much as I’d say yes to 30 goals, I don’t think Caufield will be able to score 40. It’ll come down to between 30 and 40 in my opinion…