Call of the Wilde: Caufield shines as Canadiens fall to Islanders in shootout – Montreal

After one of the worst performances of Martin St. Louis’ tenure Thursday night against the Los Angeles Kings, the Montreal Canadiens looked to bounce back from that embarrassment on Saturday against the New York Islanders.

Montreal has the worst analytics in the entire NHL by a significant margin. They had to become stricter and enforced overtime. The Islanders won it in a shootout that took nine rounds to determine a winner. Oliver Kapanen and an absolute snipe from Emil Heineman were the scorers in the shootout for Montreal.

Despite the loss, a respectable game for the Canadiens overall. It is a beginning after the brutal fighting that preceded it.

Wild horses

It was uplifting who got on the scoresheet for Montreal in this game. Logan Mailloux scored his first goal in the NHL. It was a beauty. Jake Evans spotted Mailloux coming in from the point. From the corner, Evans gave a perfect pass to Mailloux’s stick.

Mailloux shot a snapshot into the far corner to tie the game at two. It was Mailloux’s first game of the season. He teamed up with Lane Hutson for most of the night. It was a look to the future as Mailloux looked at ease throughout the match.

A very unusual shift occurred with the Christian Dvorak line caught on the ice for four minutes with the Mailloux-Hutson partnership inside the Montreal zone. Oliver Kapanen has lost his stick, and if that happens, things could end badly.

Despite all this, the endurance shown by the defenders was remarkable. Although the Isles looked like a short track team running laps around the perimeter and not really creating anything, four minutes is still quite a challenge to be on the ice.

Just seconds after the service was over, the couple could be seen grinning. Desperately searching for oxygen would have made more sense. They had no trouble with air at all. Mailloux will have an NHL career. He’s got the goods. He is already strong enough defensively and will become more comfortable with time.

The opening goal was classic Cole Caufield. He took one shot that was saved and then made a near-impossible angle to the side of the net for the rebound. He actually found the rope on the other side, right before the goal line. Not many shooters can cut that angle.

The tying goal for the Canadiens with just two minutes left was also a Caufield special. He took Slafkovsky’s pass, then turned and shot from about ten yards. There was nothing special about it, except that scorers know how to score goals. They sense when a shot at an unusual time could surprise a goalkeeper. That’s what happened to force overtime.

Caufield has scored six goals in six games this season. Caufield is trying to become Montreal’s first 40-goal scorer since Vincent Damphousse in 1994. He’s off to an excellent start. Imagine the line playing better than what Caufield could do.

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The leader in goals this season is Nikita Kucherov, who has seven.

Wild Goats

One of the most worrying aspects of the club this season, if not the most worrying, is the play in the front line. If one was given this season, it was thought to be the first line. Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky could be expected to play good hockey. It felt like it was known that they would score goals, defend well and provide the basis for the rebuild.

Last year, when they came together midseason, they spent weeks in the league’s top 10 in shot share. They played a lot of offensive zone hockey and had a 60 share. It looked like the Canadiens had a true number one line.

In the last 41 games of the season, the team scored 53 goals. Pro rata that is 106 goals and that would have been in the top six of the entire competition. Their shot share dipped a bit last season, but they didn’t relent at all. Everyone believed that number one line was in the back, so time to work on number two.

This season, 5-on-5, the Suzuki line is being demolished. Sure, they’ll be dealing with the other club’s best players, but that didn’t seem to matter last year. This season the line has a Goals Expected share of only 38 percent. They are one of the worst lines in the league in these crucial statistics.

There’s too much hockey being played in their own zone, and they just have to figure out what’s gone wrong since their first two months together last year.

It all leads to losses due to too many goals conceded. It’s a young hockey team. There is a lot to learn, and we should start with that. They don’t look like a structured club. Montreal is the worst goal-expected club in the league by a wide margin. They have way too much talent for that.

The Canadiens Goals projected share is 38 percent. At 31st in the league are the Philadelphia Flyers at 42 percent. The Carolina Hurricanes lead the league with a 67 percent share of expected goals.

The Canadiens can rest assured that Samuel Montembeault will only steal so many games. Ultimately, they need to be the better team and spend more of the game in the offensive zone.

Wild cards

Something feels right in Laval. It’s been years since the Rocket lived up to their expectations. For a long time it felt like the prospects were talented enough to be among the top teams, but they have struggled every season to get a playoff spot.

Introduce Pascal Vincent as the new head coach, and it will pay off immediately. It’s not just that the Rocket have three wins in their first four games, it’s also the way they’re going about it. Game four on Saturday afternoon at Place Bell, the Syracuse Crunch managed just 23 shots as the Rocket won 1-0 with Connor Hughes getting the shutout. Owen Beck scored the only goal.

The Crunch looked for a goal over the final two periods to equalize. Often this leads to crooked ice due to human nature, but Laval was so solid that they allowed little in their own area. Looking at the Rocket Saturday, organized was the best word to describe them. They played with structure.

Vincent has been coaching since 1995. He has had stints as an assistant in Winnipeg and as head coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets. He also coached Team Canada at the Under-18 World Cup. The man knows coaching and you can see how neatly he makes the Rocket play.

He also had a significant amount of talent in his lineup, but so did other Laval clubs that underperformed. Filip Mesar is at the top of the score list. He hasn’t excelled in North America yet after previously feeling so comfortable in a professional league in Europe.

Mesar assisted the game winner on Saturday for his fifth point in four games. Logan Mailloux is second in points with four in just two games played. Alex Barré-Boulet also has four points from two games. Joshua Roy has three points from three games. Adam Engstrom is also looking strong so far.

What a masterful signing by GM Kent Hughes to get Barré-Boulet. He had signed a one-way deal, meaning he will get NHL money in the AHL. That’s masterful because Hughes knew he had to send the veteran through the waiver wire. No one would pick him up knowing they had to pay NHL money to play in the minors.

Hughes knew the Quebec-born player would ignite the fan base in Laval. Hughes also knew the winger was a hugely successful player at the AHL level. Barré-Boulet has essentially been a point-per-game player in the American Hockey League since 2019, including in 2023, where he had 69 points in 58 games. Very smart move by Hughes.

It’s early, but it feels like it’s going to be a better season for Laval. So far they are tied for first place. The only problem could be if the roster is robbed due to injuries in Montreal. Nothing can be done about that. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen again.

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Montreal sportswriter Brian Wilde brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after every Canadiens game.