The Cole Caufield breakout season appears to be on hold for an undetermined amount of time.
The Montreal Canadiens right winger, 21, left Monday night’s home game vs. the Calgary Flames after taking a heavy hit from Calgary Flames center Trevor Lewis.
The Canadiens ruled out Caufield for the rest of the game due to an upper-body injury before the end of the second period.
An extended absence would be a major blow to Canadiens team counting on Caufield as its premier goal-scorer this season while hanging on the periphery of the Eastern Conference wildcard race. He had a team-high 16 goals through 27 games while forging excellent chemistry on the Habs’ top line alongside captain Nick Suzuki.
Caufield has been scoring at close to a 50-goal pace, but that doesn’t do justice to how great he’s been since the Canadiens brought Martin St. Louis in as head coach last season. Caufield had just one goal and 15 points in 30 games under Dominique Ducharme but finished with 22 goals and 35 points in 37 games under St. Louis. Including this season: Caufield has 38 goals and 60 points in 65 games with St. Louis. The 5-foot-7, 174-pound Caufield has revived his career under the diminutive Hall of Fame coach.
On top of losing Caufield, the Habs’ forward corps was already decimated going into Monday’s game, missing Paul Byron (hip), Jonathan Drouin (upper-body), Brendan Gallagher (lower-body) and Sean Monahan (lower-body), not to mention defenseman Michael Matheson (lower-body) and David Savard (upper-body) and goaltender Carey Price (knee).
The Habs entered Monday’s game with a 13-12-2 record, good for sixth in the Atlantic Division, five points out of a wildcard spot but with two games in hand on the New York Rangers, who currently occupy the last playoff rung in the East. The Habs remain a rebuilding operation, having selected Juraj Slafkovsky with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, but a jump from a .335 points percentage last season to .515 entering Monday was a large improvement.
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