2023-12-13 09:00:00
Since he has been at the helm of the Canadiens, Martin St-Louis has often repeated that he will not teach Cole Caufield to count goals, and that a scorer like him never forgets how to shoot. Instead, he wants to polish the rest of his game to make Caufield a more complete player.
Part of the equation is true this season. We observe that Caufield’s trio kills plays more quickly when they are in their territory, that the young winger is more dynamic on the forecheck, and that he is even more physically involved to a certain extent. We also see him penetrating the offensive zone in control of the puck more often than he did in the past.
But has he forgotten how to score?
Caufield has just three goals at 5-on-5 since the start of the season and hasn’t scored on the power play in the last 15 games.
The diminutive winger arrived in Montreal after record seasons in the college ranks in terms of goals scored. He scored from all angles. He also took the National Hockey League (NHL) by storm, scoring an average of 35 goals in his first three campaigns.
However, this year, at the rate things are going, Caufield is heading towards a production of 20 goals.
Although he was 22 years old, the American remained faced with the same challenges as the others: past successes are not necessarily a guarantee of the future.
Some star NHL players have managed to change their angles of attack over the years in order to remain unpredictable. On the other hand, an old hand like Alex Ovechkin has always applied the recipe that made him dominant on the power play for years, but he is suddenly no longer able to stand out.
Adapt or die doesn’t just apply to veterans who hang on; this is also true for young people who must constantly add new strings to their bow.
The league evolves and you have to evolve all the time, said St-Louis. You have to reinvent yourself as a player. It’s part of having a long career to be successful. Cole is going through this right now. He’s a young player and it’s not an easy league.
I know he hasn’t forgotten how to score goals.
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A goal scored at short distance against goalkeeper Jordan Binnington, of the Saint-Louis Blues. (archive photo)
Photo : AP / Jeff Roberson
Its place in traffic
Caufield is faced with two distinct realities: his problems at even strength and his problems on the power play.
At 5-on-5, advanced stats suggest he’s as dangerous as ever. His trio scores fewer goals, of course, but the scoring chances are a little more numerous, his shot volume is on the rise, lark.
However, the attacks to which he and Nick Suzuki had accustomed us, such as these famous climbs made dangerous by cross passes entering the zone, are much less frequent. Caufield’s shots from tight angles, at the height of the goal line, no longer fool anyone. And the attacker who scored on 13.2% of his shots at 5v5 before this season only obtains an efficiency rate of 4.5% this season.
This doesn’t sound like Cole Caufield.
These statistics tend to regress towards the mean, Suzuki argued.
It’s true, good players always adapt in the end, even if a shot success rate can remain abnormally low for an entire season.
Nathan MacKinnon posted an efficiency rate of 6.3% at 5-on-5 during the COVID-shortened season in 2020-21. It has never been below 10% since.
Sidney Crosby, who visits the Canadiens on Wednesday with the Pittsburgh Penguins, posted a conversion rate of 7.1% during the 2017-2018 season. He also never fell below 10% in the following six campaigns.
In short, it happens even to the best.
But the Canadian is not going to watch Caufield go down and tell himself that time will sort things out.
In a way, Caufield has become the face of a new campaign that St-Louis is making with its players, namely to spend more time in the heart of the enclave.
According to the coach, this is one of the keys for Caufield to start taking advantage of his chances again.
Where are these chances? It’s rare that they are outside (the enclave) all the time. The chances are within.
Skilled players who like to handle the puck on the perimeter are sometimes harder to convince that this type of approach is necessary. But if Caufield wants to throw from different spots, and take advantage of a differently positioned goaltender and defense, he needs to position himself elsewhere from time to time.
The teams that create the most attacks in traffic, by the way, have double the goals that the Canadian has scored through deflections.
St-Louis is not asking its attackers to all transform into Brendan Gallagher and continually pay the price in heavy traffic. Nor is it about taking up residence in front of the net to obstruct the goalkeeper’s view.
It is, on the one hand, bringing the puck to the net yourself from time to time instead of always passing to a teammate. And on the other hand, it’s about reading the game carefully in order to identify the right moment to add chaos to the bottom of the slot. Unusual routes among several opponents are likely to create confusion in defensive coverage.
The Canadian knows something about it, because he is himself a victim.
Caufield agrees that he is one of those who would benefit from doing it more often.
It’s not really about having a presence in front of the net, it’s about arriving inside the crease and taking the other team by surprise, Caufield said. We can always be around the net more often. These passages can allow us to recover returns and loose pucks. It’s a question of timing and to be indoors more often.
A vanished advantage
The other reality facing Caufield is that his production has become sterile on the power play.
The doctor’s prescription to correct this discomfort will not be the same as for numerical equality, but there is also a remedy to be found there. If the offensive indicators remain encouraging at 5 against 5, everything is down on the numerical advantage side, with opposing inferiorities who have found a way to handcuff it.
Sure, it’s frustrating not having chances, but creating movement and getting the puck to guys in better spots is what makes a five-man offense work, Caufield noted. We have one more player than them, so someone should be released. So I’m trying to find different ways to get out in the open and get more opportunities.
The fact that Suzuki has been moved to the goal line and that the right circle is now Juraj Slafkovsky’s business could change things. Sean Monahan has suddenly become much more threatening in the center of the slot, and Slafkovsky is often the player most exposed to throw. Right-handers Suzuki and Caufield are on one side and on the other, there are three left-handers ready to take one-timers.
This may not help Caufield in the short term, but if the Canadiens start generating threats in multiple spots, other teams will have no choice but to stop cheating on Caufield’s side, and that should then help him. report.
Caufield doesn’t miss the net more often on the power play, but his shooting opportunities are rarer. The responsibility also falls on his teammates to free him.
I think for us it’s just about having a few different threats and generating more power play shots from everywhere, and that’s mostly what we’re talking about right now.
But at the end of the day, when I get opportunities, I have to take advantage of them.
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