HIGHLIGHTS
- Cole Caufield scores his 50th goal, becoming the first Canadien to hit the mark since Stéphane Richer in 1990
- The 25-year-old is one goal behind MacKinnon for the NHL lead and still chasing the Rocket Richard Trophy
- See the goal and the full story on what this means for Caufield and Montreal below
Cole Caufield is a 50-goal scorer.
The Montreal Canadiens winger ripped a wrist shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy at 6:29 of the second period Thursday, giving him his 50th of the season and the Canadiens a 1-0 lead over Tampa Bay at the Bell Centre. The crowd erupted.
Watch the goal below:
The last Canadien to score 50 goals in a season was Stéphane Richer, who did it on March 24, 1990, against the Hartford Whalers.
That was 36 years ago.
Caufield is the seventh player in the franchise’s 116-year history to hit the mark, joining Richer, Guy Lafleur, Pierre Larouche, Steve Shutt, Bernie Geoffrion, and Maurice Richard. He becomes the youngest of the group at 25.
Nick Suzuki set it up on a rush. Caufield collected the pass and snapped it home clean. He has 10 goals in his last 10 games.
With the goal he moved to 50 on the season and trails only Nathan MacKinnon for the NHL lead. MacKinnon sits at 51. The Canadiens have been on an absolute tear all month, and Caufield has been the engine. He’s in a real Rocket Richard Trophy race and there are three games left to make his case.
The Bell Centre has hosted a lot of 50-goal celebrations. Lafleur reached the milestone there six times. Shutt did it there. Larouche got his 50th on that ice.
Thursday night felt different because nobody saw this coming so fast. Caufield’s career high before this season was 26 goals. He had 40 total heading into March. Then he scored 10 in the month of March, and hit 50 with three games to play.
Montreal clinched a playoff berth this week. Lane Hutson is locked up long-term. The future of this franchise is genuinely bright.
Cole Caufield just put his name in the same sentence as the Rocket, Lafleur, and Richer. That is not a sentence I expected to write this quickly.
