Cole Caufield finished the playoffs ranked second on the Montreal Canadiens in goals (six) and points (13), but the star winger was highly critical of his own play when asked to reflect upon his club's run to the Eastern Conference Final.
"Honestly, I sucked. That's just plain and simple," Caufield said Monday at his end-of-season availability, per Sportsnet. "I want to be a lot better. I expect a lot more out of myself, and my teammates and coaches do, too. I think there's a lot more out there. I'm nowhere near satisfied with how that went.
"Yeah, you're getting tough matchups (in the playoffs), but you get that all year, so it has nothing to do with that. I think I can be a lot better, and there's a long way to go."
The 25-year-old set career highs with 51 goals and 88 points in the regular season but was unable to produce consistently in the playoffs. Caufield scored one goal in Round 1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning and followed that up with a five-game pointless streak that carried into Round 2 versus the Buffalo Sabres. After heating up with goals in Games 3-5 in Montreal's second series, Caufield scored once in his next six contests before adding a meaningless tally in Montreal's season-ending loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Canadiens' top line of Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Juraj Slafkovsky was outscored 11-3 at five-on-five in 19 playoff games this spring and owned a 43.71% expected goals rate, according to Natural Stat Trick. During the regular season, that trio outscored opponents 33-14 and controlled 56.15% of expected goals.
This was Caufield's third playoff run as an NHLer. He's registered 13 goals and 16 assists and is a minus-21 in 46 career playoff contests.
