Even though the Canadian is still a long way from a playoff spot and his squad has been strengthened by the departure of Sean Monahan to Winnipeg, forward Cole Caufield appears to have kept the best for the rest of the regular schedule, offensively speaking, the less.

By picking up an assist in Tuesday's 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals, the No. 22 seed extended his streak of games with at least one point to 10; This is also a personal career highlight for the former University of Wisconsin Badgers.

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Additionally, the 23-year-old will be one of the Habs' few truly reliable offensive sources due to injuries to some key players – most notably Kirby Dach, who has been out this season since October – and the Monahan trade. Here is the conclusion of the season. With 17 goals and 40 points in 50 games so far, he should surpass his best individual stats in a season unless injuries spoil everything.

However, the tone of the conversation was completely different after the Habs' first 30 games, in which Caufield was limited to eight goals. Except that his head coach Martin St-Louis never lost trust in him, quite the opposite.

“I know we've talked a lot about Cole. […] Some said: He doesn't score, he doesn't do anything good. However, I didn't see that. “Maybe that’s the impression you get when you rely solely on statistics,” the coach commented before the duel on Tuesday, as reported by the Sportsnet network. He's a young player who will score goals in this league and it's easy for a guy of that age to just stick with it. If you think about it, a scorer has the puck on the blade of his stick 5-10% of the time. [de son temps de jeu]. What does he do for the remaining 90%?

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So if we draw a reasonable conclusion from St-Louis' comments, Caufield's play without the puck, as well as his decision-making and positioning in certain situations, are more convincing. Of course everyone is happy for the Canadian when he hits the target, but there is more than that, the pilot remembers.

“I think he was judged on that 5-10%. [de son temps d’utilisation] and that everything else he worked hard on was ignored. There has been a great improvement, he has made significant progress, emphasized St-Louis. Cole hasn't forgotten how to score goals and we've seen that recently. However, I like the commitment of a young person who is usually known as an outsider. We need more than just goals to get to where we want to be together.”

The Canadian takes over by playing two afternoon games, Saturday and Sunday, during the traditional Super Bowl weekend. The Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues will face each other at the Bell Center.