Cole Caufield must stop being offside in his team’s goals

If the Canadian wants to win hockey games, he absolutely has to count on Cole Caufield. The latter is excellent in extra time (three goals already) and has two power play goals. One of them is in overtime, against Detroit.

But five against five? It’s harder.

Did you know that in 15 games this season, the Canadiens scorer has only one goal in five-on-five play? It’s really harder for him to stand out this season in this aspect of the game.

Why am I saying this? Because the one who is (well) paid to score is more invisible when he is not scoring. Not the most responsible player on the ice, let’s say… which is fine when you score.

But here I feel that on the ice he wants to cheat a little so that he can find his way.

Sometimes the markers do it yesterday too, in a 5-2 defeat of CH, that also happened. CH didn’t equalize on Christian Dvorak’s shot because Ti-Cole was offside… and the Canucks took advantage of the opportunity to put the game out of reach after that.

Not ideal, let’s say.

If it happens once, that’s one thing. But it also happened against Detroit on Sean Monahan’s disallowed goal. Also last November 2ndCaufield was talked about for offside in the goal.

Obviously, if the refs were calling the game, it wouldn’t be a problem… but mostly it’s up to Caufield to step up and be able to not hurt his team in important situations.

At least Caufield also has nine assists, giving him 14 points in 15 games. But let’s say that even if he is doing better, he remains first and foremost a top scorer.

But okay. Caufield’s play is not the only thing to remember from this game.

What caused the Montreal Canadiens to lose last night (in a rare Sunday night matchup) to the Vancouver Canucks, a club that has started the season well?

1. Will Josh Anderson ever find the back of the net?

He worked hard yesterday. However, although he and Juraj Slafkovsky (a total of 13 shots from both) played well, they failed to score. That must be embarrassing…

2. At least Josh Anderson can tell himself that if he can’t score, he’s forcing his opponents to shoot penalties. He leads the league with 14 penalties in 15 games.

This means that he sends his opponent to the dungeon almost every night.

And yesterday, in the 12th game out of 15 this season, CH scored on the power play. The club is in the top 10 in the NHL in efficiency powerful game with 23% efficiency.

That’s nothing.

3. CH may have scored five goals, but two were into empty nets. Therefore, CH did not lose the match because of Jake Allen.

But Casey DeSmith was better. Did CH replace the right guy – oh and forget it.

4. I don’t know what’s going on with the equipment, but yesterday Nick Suzuki and Brendan Gallagher were forced off the ice because their skates were acting up.

It reminds us of David Savard during his “warrior shift” earlier this year…but he blocked the shot.

5. Even if we are talking about the second game in two nights, the Canadian must learn to constantly work hard. Yesterday, the second period was difficult and that’s where the match was lost.

That’s part of it game, That.

6. The best players of CH did not have a year difference. Nick Suzuki (-4), Cole Caufield (-2) and Sean Monahan (-3) were not the most dominant in the lineup yesterday.

Mike Matheson is also -3 in over 23 minutes of play.

Expansion

The Canadian, who is in the midst of a three-game streak in four nights, has the day off today. Makes sense, given how busy it is. The Sunday holiday is therefore Monday this week.

This week, CH will host the Flames (Tuesday) and the Golden Knights (Thursday) before traveling to Boston on Saturday night. Will Cayden Primeau play this week or not?