Canadiens’ Cole Caufield credits ‘less traffic’ for Saturday night scoring touch

MONTREAL — Cole Caufield has spent months answering questions about his knack for scoring on Saturday nights.

The Montreal Canadiens winger finally has a theory.

“I think less traffic,” he quipped. “That might be it. You can sleep a little bit longer.”

Caufield dodged the weekday gridlock in downtown Montreal before living up to his “Mr. Saturday Night” nickname, scoring twice — including the overtime winner — to lift the Canadiens past the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 inside an ear-splitting Bell Centre.

The 25-year-old from Mosinee, Wis., now leads the NHL with 38 goals on Saturdays since the start of the 2024-25 season.

It’s also the 66th Saturday goal of his career, with his 0.62 goals-per-game rate ranking seventh all-time among a group that includes legends Mike Bossy, Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky.

“Saturdays are great here. I think the other crowd, the building, the city, you can just feel it,” Caufield said. “I like being in those moments. I think those are the ones that you want the puck on your stick and you want to make a difference and be that guy, so I get excited for those.”

The five-foot-nine forward needed a little help from the Sabres to get his chance in overtime. Buffalo could have ended the game on a three-on-one rush moments earlier, but Josh Norris fired wide and the puck caromed around the boards and into the neutral zone.

Caufield then collected it in space and, after ripping a slap shot high on a first-period breakaway, calmly picked the top-left corner 54 seconds into three-on-three overtime.

“You look at that sequence, they’re going on a three-on-one, and I’m like, ‘No way,’” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said, laughing. “They miss the net, it’s a breakaway. You talk about the emotions of a game.

“I mean, I was happy it was on his stick.”

Caufield also scored at 14:01 in the second period when he hammered a shot past unsuspecting Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen after Juraj Slafkovsky beat Olen Zellweger to a loose puck behind Buffalo’s net, helping Montreal build a 3-1 lead.

After becoming the first Canadien to hit the 50-goal mark in 36 years last season, he has five goals in eight games so far in the 2026-27 campaign.

His performance this Saturday also helped soften the blow of the Canadiens surrendering another two-goal lead. Over the past 10 days, Montreal (4-3-1) built two-goal cushions and largely controlled play in two games against the Sabres and one versus Nashville, settling for a pair of nervy extra-time wins and an underserved regulation loss.

St. Louis stopped short of calling the early-season trend frustrating, but admitted the Canadiens needed to be better.

“We’re playing good games, but there are moments when there are small mental errors that hurt us,” he said. “In general, I’m proud of how we’re playing as a team, but it’s small mental errors. When you lead by two, it should be over.”

Jack Quinn cut Montreal’s lead to 3-2 in the second period with a short-handed goal assisted by Zach Benson after a heads-up dump-in from Mattias Samuelsson. Tage Thompson then tied the game 3-3 with 9:48 remaining in the third period after Josh Doan found him alone at the side of the net, something Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki characterized as a “lull.”

But why are those lulls happening?

“I feel like there can be moments in a game where one guy slips and things can kind of break down,” Suzuki said. “We have to really be mentally sharp for the whole game. As long as you’re out there, you’ve got to do your job and for the most part of the game, I thought we did that and responded well after they tied it.”

Caufield, meanwhile, said it’s good for the Canadiens to learn those lessons now instead of late in the season.

“There’s no reason to get frustrated over it,” he said. “You want to make those goals happen and separate early in the game to close things out, but we’ll get better throughout the season and look at some things.

“It’s a good learning process for us.”

DAVID’S DEBUT

Canadiens defenceman David Reinbacher said Caufield’s winner was a dream ending to his season debut and third career NHL game.

“It can’t get any better,” he said. “That was something special and I’m pretty thankful to experience something like that on a Saturday night here.”

Reinbacher, however, did not have a dream start. The fifth overall draft pick in 2023, called up from the American Hockey League after an injury to Mike Matheson, turned the puck over in the neutral zone, directly leading to Norris’ opening goal.

“I was kind of rushing it up the ice. I mean, that happens,” the 21-year-old Austrian said. “It’s just one mistake and I’m not putting my mind up for that. We won and we’re in a good mood. That’s it, so now I can learn and we keep it rolling.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2026.

Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press