Caufield takes aim at joining the Canadiens' 50-goal club

NEW YORK (AP) — Minutes after scoring his 48th and 49th goals in the Montreal Canadiens' seventh consecutive win, Cole Caufield was as on target with his humor as he was with his shot. Asked whether he's thinking about reaching 50 goals and catching Nathan MacKinnon for the NHL lead, Caufield deadpanned, "No." After a brief pause, he smiled and said, "Yeah," and laughter ensued. "We're focused on our team game and winning games, and I think individual stuff comes with that," Caufield said. "Doing the right things, you get more chances and opportunities. Obviously, it helps when you're winning games and stuff." The Canadiens are winning enough to emerge as a contender to hoist the Stanley Cup and end Canada's drought that dates to their championship in 1993. They've raised a Cup banner more recently than they've had a 50-goal scorer, and Caufield has a chance to be the first member of the storied franchise to get to that mark since Stephane Richer in 1990. "I didn't know it was (nearly) 40 years," teammate Alex Newhook said. "It's been fun to watch. It seems like he keeps scoring every night. We're happy for him. We're pushing for him. Hopefully he keeps this thing rolling." Caufield rolled out of the Olympic break — after not making the U.S. roster — with 17 goals in 17 games, the most of any player in the league. His 83 points are already 13 clear of his previous career high. "He's on a tremendous heater right now," Canadiens captain and leading scorer Nick Suzuki said. "He's just playing the right way, doing the right things and he's getting rewarded for it." Caufield wasn't always this complete of a player. Undersized at 5-foot-8 and 175 pounds and counted on to produce to offset some defensive inefficiencies, he got sent down to Laval of the American Hockey League in the fall of 2021 when he had no goals and just one assist in 10 games with the Canadiens. "I think it was worth it," Caufield said, crediting coaches, linemates and others for helping him round out his play. "There's still a lot more room to grow in my game. I think progressing every year with the team and the staff that we have, it's pretty easy to kind of find yourself working every day. I think it's just an addiction to kind of find ways to get better." Opponents have noticed the progress from Caufield, who turned 25 in January. "He thinks the game at a real high level," New York Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. "It's the combination that gives him the competitive advantage that he has. He's a really good player." Sullivan, a two-time Cup champion who also coached the U.S. to gold at the Olympics, called Montreal "one of the emerging teams in the league" because of the mix of high-end skill and speed all over the roster. The Canadiens move the puck around at a rapid pace — on the ice and into the net. Caufield is a big part of that. Among players with 100 shots on net this season, only two are scoring at a higher rate than his 21.2%, tormenting goaltenders and delighting teammates happy to pick up another assist. "I enjoy it," linemate Juraj Slafkovsky said. "You have a goal-scorer like this, you can always pass to him and there is a big chance it's going in." That's what we're trying to do. I hope he can get (to 50) as soon as possible and get a lot more." The gravity of the situation isn't lost on Caufield, who would be just the seventh Canadiens player to score 50 goals in a season, joining Richer (twice), Guy Lafleur (six times), Steve Shutt, Bernie Geoffrion, Pierre Larouche and Maurice Richard. If he passes MacKinnon and finishes with the most in the NHL, he'd also win the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy named after one of the most decorated players in franchise history. Caufield insists he's "still hungry." This pursuit, followed by an even more important one in the playoffs, keeps him that way. "Certainly it's a good feeling to be producing, but at the end of the day I think I've grown a lot as a player and I'm just going to try and continue to do that," Caufield said. "For me, right now, I still feel like there's more out there." ___ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl