{"id":544215,"date":"2026-03-18T09:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T09:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544215\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T09:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T09:38:10","slug":"caufields-40th-of-season-the-winner-as-canadiens-top-bruins-in-overtime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544215\/","title":{"rendered":"Caufield’s 40th of season the winner as Canadiens top Bruins in overtime"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2014\u00a0The chance to make history didn\u2019t sneak up on Cole Caufield<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No Montreal Canadien had reached 40 goals in 32 years, since Vincent Damphousse in 1993-94 \u2014 back when the franchise still called the Forum home.<\/p>\n

And in a city where hockey dominates the conversation, the drought had become difficult to ignore.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys talk about it a lot,\u201d Caufield told a group of reporters.<\/p>\n

Caufield scored his 40th of the season with 22 seconds remaining in overtime as Montreal edged the Boston Bruins<\/a> 3-2 on Tuesday, reaching the milestone in dramatic fashion.<\/p>\n

The sharpshooting winger, a gifted scorer who seemed destined to get there, tapped in a pinpoint pass from captain Nick Suzuki moments after Jakub Dobes denied Pavel Zacha a hat trick on a breakaway.<\/p>\n

\u201cNick and I have been doing this for a while,\u201d Caufield said. \u201cFelt right tonight to get it done that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

“It’s what he does,\u201d added Suzuki, who quickly scooped up the puck from the back of the net before celebrating with his longtime linemate. \u201cAnd 40 is just a start for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Introduced at centre ice as the first star, Caufield tapped his chest and let out an F-bomb in astonishment as the Bell Centre crowd hit ear-splitting decibels.<\/p>\n

“Words can’t really describe the kind of feeling that you get out there with the fans behind you, it really doesn’t make sense,\u201d said Caufield, who appears to thrive under the bright spotlight in Montreal.<\/p>\n

“To play here and you know it’s sold out every night, you go on the road and it just doesn’t feel the same. \u2026 The pressure comes with playing in the best city in the world to play hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caufield\u2019s goal was his 13th career overtime winner, and league-leading fifth this season.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old American now has 40 goals \u2014 and 28 assists \u2014 through 66 games, putting him just shy of a 50-goal pace.<\/p>\n

But beyond scoring, coach Martin St. Louis pointed to Caufield\u2019s development away from the puck.<\/p>\n

“All his life, before he got here, he played with the puck a lot. In the NHL, the game is played without the puck,\u201d St. Louis said. \u201cThere are actions you need to do on the ice for your team to have the puck more. When you do that, if your team has the puck more, and Cole is on the ice, he’ll get more touches. It’s a domino effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Louis and the five-foot-eight Caufield, who like his coach was viewed as undersized when he entered the league, have worked to round out his play since the former league MVP took over behind the bench in 2022.<\/p>\n

Now Caufield is reaping the rewards.<\/p>\n

“It’s pretty special to have a guy like that be your coach and mentor,\u201d Caufield said. \u201cHe’s done a lot for my full 200-foot game, and I think without that, I maybe don’t get as many chances. We’ve been working at this for a long time, so it obviously feels pretty good, but there’s still more time to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal also secured two important points against a rival that\u2019s breathing down Montreal\u2019s neck in a tight Eastern Conference. The Canadiens (37-20-10), who had lost two straight, sit third in the Atlantic Division, two points ahead of Boston and three up on the Columbus Blue Jackets, the first team outside the playoff picture.<\/p>\n

Veteran, grit-and-grind winger Brendan Gallagher received an ovation of his own for skating in 900 NHL games, all for Montreal.<\/p>\n

Known for crashing the crease and wearing his heart on his sleeve, the 33-year-old from Edmonton became only the 13th player in franchise history to play that many in a Canadiens sweater.<\/p>\n

“It’s one of those things where you take a second to really appreciate where you are,\u201d Gallagher said after Tuesday\u2019s morning skate. \u201cI love being a Montreal Canadien, I love playing in front of these fans, and to get to do it for 900 games is just incredibly special to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadiens honoured their longest-serving player with a tribute on the big screen following the first commercial break, interrupting the drop of the puck as Gallagher lined up for an offensive-zone faceoff.<\/p>\n

The milestone also came after the five-foot-nine forward was a healthy scratch for the first time since playing in his first NHL game Jan. 22, 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you’re in a place for so long, it says a lot about your character, your human side, the presence that you bring, more than on the ice,\u201d St. Louis said. \u201cThe way he plays, it’s galvanizing. There’s a galvanizing energy. It’s not easy to play 900 games in the NHL. And the 900 games he played, it’s a lot of effort. He’s not a perimeter player. He’s a guy who’s in the paint. He takes big hits. He’s a warrior.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way he plays, it isn’t easy to get to 900 games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that he\u2019s reached 900, are Gallagher\u2019s eyes set on 1,000?<\/p>\n

“Of course. Once you hit 900, you feel like you’re that close,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’d be something that I’d like to have the opportunity to get, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014\u00a0The chance to make history didn\u2019t sneak up on Cole Caufield. No Montreal Canadien had reached 40…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-544215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}