Cole Caufield and the Montreal Canadiens have responded to their season-opening loss with a flourish.
Fresh off capping his two-goal performance by scoring in overtime, Caufield will look to continue to heat up on Thursday when the Canadiens host the Nashville Predators.
Caufield scored from a sharp angle at 3:25 of overtime for his second goal of the game in Tuesday’s 5-4 home victory over the Seattle Kraken. His team high-tying third goal of the season came after a nifty feed from defenseman Lane Hutson, who skated in his first game since signing an eight-year, $70.8 million contract extension.
“That’s why he’s Lane. I mean, there’s really no other words,” Caufield said of Hutson’s play on the scoring sequence. “His ability to create like nobody else is pretty special, and you’ve always got to be ready when he has the puck.”
Caufield has proven to be ready by collecting three goals and two assists in his last three games — all wins. That followed a minus-3 rating in Montreal’s 5-2 setback to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Oct. 8.
The 24-year-old, however, isn’t looking behind him. Instead, Caufield is focused on the remainder of the four-game homestand.
“It wasn’t pretty, but at the end of the day we got the job done, which is huge, and now we’ve got three more in a row here,” Caufield said.
As for Hutson, registering an assist is nothing new. After all, he had a team-leading 60 last season en route to being named the Calder Trophy recipient as the NHL’s top rookie.
Hutson, in fact, had an assist and Caufield scored one of his team-best 37 goals last season in Montreal’s 2-1 victory over Nashville on April 6.
As for his contract extension that will kick in next season and run through the 2033-34 season?
“It’s a lot of money for anyone,” Hutson said, per the Montreal Gazette. “It’s definitely them putting trust in me and I got to pay it back in hard work and dedication to this team and to what we’re building.”
The Predators fell to 1-1-0 on their four-game road trip following a 7-4 setback to the Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
Nashville coach Andrew Brunette credited his charges for keeping their resolve despite trailing 5-2 with 9:18 remaining in the third period.
“I’m proud of the group and didn’t quit, didn’t deviate from how we are supposed to play,” Brunette said. “Kept going at them, but we had some bad bounces there, so all in all, happy with the group, happy with the game even though it didn’t go our way. Things to work on, things to learn, but we will move on.”
Ozzy Wiesblatt set up a pair of goals in his season debut. His first assist came at 4:05 of the second period, with Erik Haula scoring a goal to extend his season-opening point streak to four games.
The Predators need to find a spark with their dormant power play, however. They came up empty on two chances with the man advantage on Tuesday to fall to 1 for 17 on the season.
