Canadiens passing first test without Caufield 'a big building block' for their culture

MONTREAL — Martin St. Louis was right. 

The Montreal Canadiens’ coach knew it would be impossible to replace the scoring a healthy — or even unhealthy — Cole Caufield had been providing his team through its first 46 games. Caufield had accounted for 26 of his team’s 118 goals on the season, personally notching 17 of its 85 goals at 5-on-5, and St. Louis couldn’t reasonably suggest any player on the Canadiens could fill that void.

So, what he said, after the news dropped Saturday morning that Caufield had been playing hurt for weeks and was in need of season-ending right shoulder surgery, was that the Canadiens’ most important task would be replacing the 22-year-old’s undying enthusiasm.

That wasn’t going to require a conscious effort on Saturday night, but it will require one moving forward — when the Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t in town for a game on the national broadcast, when the Bell Centre isn’t rocking at full tilt, when the goals are hard to come by and Caufield’s megawatt smile is far removed from the bench and the locker room.

But Saturday night’s game, which the Canadiens won 3-2 in overtime after falling down 2-0 through 20 minutes, was exactly what the doctor ordered for the Canadiens after a grim prognosis for Caufield left them reeling Saturday morning.

“I think it makes the boys believe that whoever’s on that train, we need everyone to keep the train going,” said St. Louis. “Sometimes you lose key guys, but the train has to keep going. It’s the responsibility of the guys on that train to take care of the standards, the culture, and how we do things, and I think a night like tonight is a big building block of what we’re going for.”

Josh Anderson, who was visibly emotional in his post-morning skate availability just moments after the Caufield news became public, was a conductor against the Leafs. He scored Montreal’s first goal 1:46 into the second period, recorded three shots, four attempts and six hits in the game, and played like a man possessed. 

Kirby Dach, who was later described by Canadiens goaltender Samuel Montembeault as being one of the biggest sparkplugs on the team both on and off the ice, did everything but score on his 22^nd birthday. He was dominant over his 22:49, with much of it played against Toronto’s top two lines, and he played with a passion that can take his game to new heights.

“He’s so big, so powerful, he can do a lot of good things in this league, and you’ve seen that this year,” Anderson said. “But when he plays with a little bit of an edge, he’s very hard to play against.”

But Dach and Anderson weren’t the only ones to fit that description, and it was vital that they weren’t.

The Canadiens got that energy and enthusiasm from Michael Pezzetta, Alex Belzile and Rafael Harvey-Pinard, with the latter punctuating a great shift against Auston Matthews’ line by scoring the first goal of his career at the Bell Centre to tie the game 2-2. It’s what they got from David Savard, who blocked a game-high six shots. It’s what they got from Nick Suzuki, who had an assist and played 25:39 to lead all players in ice-time. 

And it’s also what they got from Rem Pitlick, who took Caufield’s spot on Suzuki’s wing, assisted on Anderson’s goal, and scored the game-winner 2:14 into overtime.

It’s what the Canadiens will need from everyone to advance their culture as both goals and wins prove more elusive in Caufield’s absence. His loss was enormous. Piled on top of injuries to Juraj Slafkovsky, Jake Evans, Jonathan Drouin, Joel Armia, Brendan Gallagher, Sean Monahan, Kaiden Guhle and Jake Allen, it’s insurmountable for a team that could only win half the time with everyone healthy. 

But that doesn’t mean the Canadiens can’t continue to grow by replicating the type of performance they had Saturday.

They were badly outplayed in the first period, but they weren’t outhustled. They pushed back with a dominant second and fully deserved the result they got in the end after fighting hard through the third and overtime.

“It’s a day full of emotions, and nerves, and excitement, and all those things,” said Pitlick. “We had some tough moments as a team, we had some great moments as a team. Same for me. There was so many ups and downs, and it was nice to come out on top.”

How far they carry that good feeling will depend on what they can manage emotionally under different circumstances.

It shouldn’t be too challenging for the Canadiens to be enthusiastic about facing the Boston Bruins at the Bell Centre on Tuesday. Same goes for divisional games against Detroit and Ottawa between now and the end of the month.

But they have 31 games to follow without Caufield, and they will be challenged much more through those than they were on this night.