Two Montreal Canadiens forwards going through some extended goal scoring slumps broke out in a big way in the team’s 5-3 win over the New York Islanders on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
Josh Anderson scored two goals, his first two with a goaltender in the net since March, and Cole Caufield scored his first goal in the month of December. What stood out for me with Anderson’s game wasn’t just the two goals, but that he looked a lot more like the Anderson who has had success in the past.
Anderson has had chances, but most of them were generated for him not by him, which is the opposite of how his success has come. On Saturday, he led the team in individual expected goals for, and he was in the top half of expected goals for when he was on the ice. I’m not saying that Anderson is back, but maybe the pressure of the slump being over means he can focus on the things that made him successful in the past.
The 2023-24 Canadiens, with the injuries to Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook, need Josh Anderson to be successful and they are a better team when he is producing. It was good to see him score, and then it was good to see him start doing positive things and that led to his second goal.
Caufield went seven games without a goal, but unlike Anderson, he was still one of the better players on the team in that span. Just because he wasn’t producing offence didn’t mean he wasn’t generating offence, and that goes for Juraj Slafkovský and Nick Suzuki as well since the trio was put together.
What has stood out for me with Caufield is that he has always been defined by his goals, even going back to his draft year. A lot of the time when goal scorers aren’t scoring goals, they aren’t contributing positively. Caufield has really become a great player and is more than just his goal and point totals.
Having said that, so much of Caufield’s identity is scoring goals and you could see the relief when the puck went in the net. The reward at the end of the day is still important and it was nice to see that line, and Caufield in particular, rewarded.
Caufield’s goal made the game 4-0 but it actually ended up as a really important goal because the Islanders scored three straight goals in the third period. The Canadiens’ third period doesn’t really bother me. Only three teams have had less time playing with a lead in 2023-24 than the Canadiens have. Even including Saturday night, they have only had 403:03 in all situations with a lead.
Coming out into the third period with a 4-0 lead is simply something the Canadiens haven’t done very often. Teams need to learn to play with a lead, and this will be a learning experience for the Canadiens.
The good news for them is that they still came away with the two points in regulation, so it’s a learning opportunity without the harsh lesson.
