The playoff-bound Montreal Canadiens host the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night and Cole Caufield has history to chase down.
The Canadiens (45-22-10, 100 points) clinched their second consecutive Stanley Cup Playoffs appearance on Sunday, despite having their eight-game winning streak snapped by a 3-0 loss to the visiting New Jersey Devils.
Montreal’s ticket to the postseason was punched by virtue of the Detroit Red Wings’ 5-4 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Sunday afternoon.
“You wake up from your nap and you’ve clinched your spot,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “We didn’t have our fastball tonight, but it’s not like we didn’t play well. Our execution was off, but we had good structure.”
While the playoffs have been secured, three Montreal players still have individual milestones hanging in the balance.
His next tally would make him the seventh player in franchise history to reach the half-century mark in goals and the first in 36 years. The last was Stephane Richer in 1989-90.
Caufield’s next goal would also place him alongside Hall of Famers Maurice “Rocket” Richard, Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion, Guy Lafleur and Steve Shutt, along with Pierre Larouche as Montreal Canadiens’ 50-goal scorers.
Caufield had two golden opportunities on one-timers from the left circle for No. 50 in the third period on Sunday night within seconds of each other. But Devils’ goalie Jacob Markstrom quickly moved across the crease to stop both shots.
“Coming to the rink, everyone was in a pretty good mood,” Canadiens’ captain Nick Suzuki said. “Our goal ever since we started camp was to get back in the playoffs, and we’ve secured that. But we’ve got big games ahead to try to get home ice and possibly first in the division.”
Suzuki has 95 points (27 goals, 68 assists) and a chance to be the fifth different player in team history with 100 points in a season. He would join Lafleur (six times), Shutt (two), Peter Mahovlich (one) and Mats Naslund (one), who was the last to reach the mark in 1985-86.
Defenseman Lane Hutson has 74 points (12 goals, 62 assists), six away from joining Hall of Fame member Larry Robinson (twice) as Montreal defensemen to reach 80 points in a season.
The Panthers (37-37-3, 77 points) are coming off back-to-back weekend thrashings at the hands of the host Pittsburgh Penguins. Florida, which has also dropped five of seven, was outscored by a combined 14-6 in the two games.
The score was 5-2 on Sunday.
The two-time defending Stanley Cup champs were also officially eliminated from playoff contention over the weekend.
“Better than it was yesterday,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said after the Sunday loss. “Got behind it a little bit, but I don’t think we’d given a whole lot to get behind in that manner. Had some good penalty kills, some good action on the power play. Scored a goal. That’d be about it.”
Carter Verhaeghe and Cole Schwindt scored Florida’s goals Sunday.
“They were better than us,” Verhaeghe said. “They were just better than us through the whole game. I mean, last two nights, they’re a really good team. Tough playing them. But we obviously have to play better.”
Panthers’ defenseman Dmitri Kulikov returned after missing two games with a broken nose.
