When we all saw Cole Caufield doubled over on the Montreal Canadiens’ bench last night, most fans assumed the worst. Initially, it was thought that Caufield was injured in some way, but after the game, Martin St-Louis confirmed that he had just been dealing with an illness. Relieving though that was to hear, it required some line juggling for the coaches during the game, and the Habs managed to hold on to a lead they created in the first period to topple the Toronto Maple Leafs by a score of 3-1.
With the team’s top sniper not quite up to filling the net for them, players like Oliver Kapanen had to step up.
Excellent work by Demidov, gets it to Newhook, down to Oliver Kapanen who goes out front and scores his 20th of the year.
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) March 10, 2026
1-0 #Habs pic.twitter.com/SzmoMVAQor
This would have been one of Kapanen’s best games in a Habs uniform even if he didn’t have that goal to show for it. He looked fast, was anticipating plays well, and generally seemed to be a step ahead of the Leafs on every shift. It certainly didn’t hurt him that Ivan Demidov was everywhere in that game, even while being double shifted during the Caufield down time, but it was a very strong overall effort from Kapanen that kept that line humming even when their most dynamic player was on tired legs.
Add in goals from Jake Evans – who could have easily had a hat trick if not for Joseph Woll – and Phillip Danault, and the Habs got enough from their secondary scoring to secure an important, albeit expected regulation win. With the way the Leafs are playing right now, the Habs should outplay them. They did, but goals were tough to come by with Woll playing as well as he did in net. Normally, you’d expect the usual suspects to be the ones to break through on a hot goalie, but it was a very welcome sight for a couple of unlikelier candidates to step up.
It wasn’t that the top line played badly. Nick Suzuki looked great, Juraj Slafkovksy was a demon on most of his shifts, and even Caufield’s numbers were very good before he started skipping shifts due to his illness. That isn’t something to get wildly excited about against a Leafs team that has essentially entered tank mode, but it was still nice to see the team’s secondary scoring step up with the top line missing its finisher.
The good news is that it doesn’t sound like Caufield will miss any time, and will be with the team when they’re in Ottawa tonight. Whether he’s feeling well enough to play his regular workload remains to be seen, but they’ll get two days off for him to rest and recover before they take back to Bell Centre ice on the weekend.
Whether or not he can go, the hope will be that their secondary scoring can show up for them again, as they’ll be taking on an Ottawa Senators team that has been a tough out for them so far this season.
Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be back tonight to discuss the Habs’ visit to the Senators.
