The Real Timo
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Cole Caufield: Is this the year?
- Thread starter Lafleurs Guy
- Start date
Caufield is hilarious.
I was re-watching our goal from last night and after Suzuki scores he's making a beeline to Slaf to congratulate him for the pass...
That is until Cole gets between them like a jealous lover.
I was re-watching our goal from last night and after Suzuki scores he's making a beeline to Slaf to congratulate him for the pass...
That is until Cole gets between them like a jealous lover.
The Gr8 Dane
L'harceleur
No he shouldn't , goals aren't freebies , you actually have to score for them to count , chalking it up to *luck* or whatever is nonsense he has not played up to his potential this year , his other two line mates are also scoring a lot more than before so maybe he should be removed from that line next year and play with a guy like Dach if he wants more goals.
I like his overall game a bit more this year though
SlafySZN
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Stop the dramatics, lol. He’s been shooting around 6-7% this year after a shoulder surgery and won’t be that far from 30. With normal shooting percentage it isn’t even a question.
SlafySZN
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Cole is just happy when everyone scores lol.Caufield is hilarious.
I was re-watching our goal from last night and after Suzuki scores he's making a beeline to Slaf to congratulate him for the pass...
That is until Cole gets between them like a jealous lover.
The season after Debrincat scored 41 goals he scored 18. Just sayin....
Lafleurs Guy
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There’s no way a guy like that should have a sub 8 shooting percentage.
I don’t know what to say. He’s shooting from in close, his numbers are better across the board except the puck isn’t going in. You’d think he’d be at least around 12. Even at ten (very low for a sniper) he’d at least be hitting 32 goals.
Lafleurs Guy
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Yeah we know and he was on pace for 47 in 82 was it?
Was his shooting percentage actually higher because he was in better shooting positions and was deferred to more often?
Both his line mates are taking far more shots than they ever have previously it will make a difference.
Lafleurs Guy
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He wasn’t on pace… he scored 48 goals in his last 82 coming into this season. Those are actuals.
It shouldn’t. He’s shooting from everywhere and he’s not afraid to go to the dirty spots either.
He’s on pace for 315 shots. We haven’t had anyone do that since Guy Lafleur. He’s top ten in the league and only OV and Tavares are shooting that much and having similar results. Most guys are already over 30 goals.
Hopefully a fluke. His shooting started normalizing a while back and that made sense but to then to go 12 games? And all the commentators I’ve seen say the same thing: nobody knows why.
The last time I saw something like this was Chris Higgins and he didn’t generate near the offensive opportunities that CC does. It’s a shame because this could’ve been a career year.
Not a total waste though. His play has improved everywhere else. A good development year - but still hugely disappointing.
Last edited:
Tabarouette
ben kin
Again just to point it out, his shooting percentage isn't purely down because of chance. His expected stats are better than his real stats, but I have my doubts that the shooting percentage will fix itself if he keeps doing what he's doing
he's taking *so many* bad shots now it's ridiculous
last 10 games
he's taking *so many* bad shots now it's ridiculous
last 10 games
Honestly, it's actually somewhat good that he can still produce points without it being just goals. Wouldn't be surprised if he brings back the goals next season and keeps the assists.
Even established players have ups and down seasons. If he wasn't getting prime scoring opportunities, I'd be worried that "the league has figured him out" like someone suggested a while back. But that's just not the case. It's not only a question of shot quantity, but he's still finding the seams and getting scoring chances. It's just that he's not been able to convert. Again, if he didn't have a history of being a scoring machine, you could argue that he just doesn't have a scorer's touch, which is also not true.
All in all, I'll take an "off" season like this one where he's still going to get between 55-60 points while improving his overall game in significant ways. Pretty good for a "bad season" I'd say.
Lafleurs Guy
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That might explain some of it but there’s still no way it should be that low. And he’s got a great shot too, it’s not like he can’t fire the puck. At minimum I’d expect him to be over ten percent. 13 percent should be pretty safe to assume.
The sheer volume of shots should result in around 40 goals. On a good year it would be 50.
Btw, the ratio of high danger shots vs low is pretty much unchanged from this year to last. It’s pretty much the same thing just the volumes are higher.
Sorinth
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Even if his shooting percentage should be lower because the LD shots making up a bigger % of his shots, we'd still expect his goals to be similar to last year because he's actually getting slightly more high danger and medium danger shots per game.
His high danger shots per game this year is 0.333 last year with his 46 goal pace they were 0.304. For medium danger it's 1.076 this year and 1.043 last year.
From the eye test I do think his dangerous shots aren't in as dangerous a position as they were previously. But I think this is simply an adjustment period for him, it's pretty normal when working on one aspect of your game to overcorrect and hurt other parts of your game. Finding the right balance between shooting and playmaking or offence and defence is often a series of overcorrections until you find that sweet spot.
dackelljuneaubulis02
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The good news is he’s rounding out his game and despite the horrendous shooting percentage he’s still the top scoring 23 year old in the league.
There’s no way this lasts long term. Unless it’s injury related.
60-70 points with his awful shooting % is actually good news. Just imagine when he gets the shot back on track. More time with an improved Slaf, a likely improved PP when Mailloux and Lane arrive. Plus his own continuing improvement. Those point totals will balloon.
People calling him not a 1st liner and what not lol. Just wait and see
Lafleurs Guy
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Yeah, it’s a good development year. But it sure would’ve been nice to see a Hab score 50 again.
dackelljuneaubulis02
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I’d be shocked if he didn’t but who knows. If he stays on this line, it’ll be interesting since all 3 of them can both shoot and play make. Don’t know how the goals will be distributed amongst them.
It’s the only beginning for these 3. Sooner than later the totals will get gaudy. I’m sure of this.
Canadienna
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I'm worried about Cole's shoulder, as I'm sure many Habs fans are.
But I did love his "I may never score again" response. It shows he can joke around about it a bit and it's not too up in his brain.
I think we just have to hope he can work on his shot this summer. As good as he is at other aspects of the game, his elite level shot is what really separated him.
But I did love his "I may never score again" response. It shows he can joke around about it a bit and it's not too up in his brain.
I think we just have to hope he can work on his shot this summer. As good as he is at other aspects of the game, his elite level shot is what really separated him.
SlafySZN
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Lafleurs Guy
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I meant this year.
Seriously, with last year's percentage he'd be pacing for 51 right now. Just sucks that he's had the kind of year he's had. And he had been so consistent coming into this year too.
Maybe the shoulder had something to do with it, I don't know. He seemed to come out of it in January and got back to his old self. Then he tanked again.
I do remember about five or six games ago though that he missed three days of practice and looked really bad in the next few games. So maybe he's injured again. That would help explain things. But honestly, even with that... you'd still expect some pucks to go in. It's really, really weird.
It's a shame the goal scoring ability hasn't been there this year. That said, it's hard to really be too upset up about it when he's coming off a shoulder surgery, and when a year that's been about as bad as possible in terms of his bread and butter (goal scoring/finishing skill) still has him on pace for 24G-41A-65P. He's never really been a big assists guy at any level before this year and it's a nice silver lining to see a lot of growth in that area of his game even when the goal scoring hasn't been there. He's pretty much on pace for a Jonathan Marchessault type season in a "down year" so whatever, I'll take that.
I'm interested to see if they play him with Dach next year. I think that might be a better fit for him at even strength if we're going to keep relying on Suzuki's line to do so much defensive heavy lifting. I think they like what Slafkovsky has brought to that line as a cycle presence too and that doesnt' mesh as well with Caufield's game (although Caufield has become a deceptively solid playmaker off the cycle this year). He's looked a bit better as a two way guy this year too but I'd rather just stick a more natural two-way forward in that spot and give Caufield a more high octane line with Dach.
I'm interested to see if they play him with Dach next year. I think that might be a better fit for him at even strength if we're going to keep relying on Suzuki's line to do so much defensive heavy lifting. I think they like what Slafkovsky has brought to that line as a cycle presence too and that doesnt' mesh as well with Caufield's game (although Caufield has become a deceptively solid playmaker off the cycle this year). He's looked a bit better as a two way guy this year too but I'd rather just stick a more natural two-way forward in that spot and give Caufield a more high octane line with Dach.
Lol come on. He's on pace for 24G even this year while his shooting is about as bad as it's looked since he got drafted, stop pretending he's suddenly become Brian Gionta.
dackelljuneaubulis02
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Ah right.
I imagine it’s nagging him off and on and like what @Sorinth said about players rounding out their respective games. Both of those things and his goal scoring takes a dive.
And again pacing for 60-70 with a *likely* injury is pretty impressive. I know people specifically want goals from him but I’m sure Caufield himself wants to grow his game as much as possible. If his goals take a dip for a year to improve his game, so be it. We’ll be glad in the long run.
All he’s done for the last 6-7 years is put up gaudy goal totals until now. Why people (not you. I know you’re as bullish as I am) are thinking this Caufield is the REAL Caufield is silly. But I get it
Lafleurs Guy
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I’d agree if his shots were taking a dip. But they aren’t. He’s still generating tons of them and with those totals you’d expect him to be a 35 goal guy at least.
His game has developed but not at the sacrifice of shots. And as per the chart above the high danger ratio is the same and his volume is up. If anything he should have MORE goals.
OldCraig71
Juice Arse
This is an excellent post. It proves that my old eyes haven't been playing tricks on me. He isn't getting the quality of chances that he used to get and his goal totals reflect it. His assist totals are up because he is being forced to look for the pass option now, the space isn't there. It isn't his shoulder, he has played every game, and if there were concerns he would have missed playing time.
