MONTREAL — Cole Caufield emerged from the dressing room and took a seat on the visitors’ bench in Philadelphia on Tuesday morning, not quite sure what he was about to see.

He knew he’d be shown some video from his days at the University of Wisconsin, but that was basically it, and it would have been fair for him to assume the video would include him scoring a goal because he scored 49 of them in 67 collegiate games.

Instead, he was shown the opposite.

Caufield watched videos of himself after practice during his freshman season in Madison, Wis., in the fall of 2019, a few months after the Montreal Canadiens selected him with the No. 15 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. The Badgers were working on shootout attempts on goaltender Jack Berry, and Caufield was not scoring.

Not a single one.

He laughed as he watched the video this week, but as he was shown more, it got progressively less funny.

“Am I 0-for-3?” he asked after the second one.

He was.

“How did I not score any of them?” he pondered when asked what was going through his mind while watching those videos. He was still laughing but a bit annoyed, too.

The noteworthy part of those videos is what Caufield did after every failed attempt: He grabbed a puck, any puck, and put it in the net behind Berry while the goaltender was focused on the next shooter. The process epitomized Caufield’s identity at the time — a pure goal scorer judged solely on that trait.

“Yeah, for sure,” Caufield said, agreeing with that assessment. “I think that’s the way I am. I just like seeing it going in.”

That is how Caufield defined himself back at Wisconsin and when he first arrived in the NHL mid-pandemic. He does not define himself that way anymore, at least not solely. By learning the importance of rounding out his game since his college days, he’s become one of the most prolific goal scorers in the NHL, finishing with 51 this season, none of which were scored with the opposing goalie pulled.

“There’s always room for improvement, but I think the strides taken these past couple of years, I just always want to improve my game; set those standards and follow them and try to reach higher ones,” Caufield said. “I think definitely my all-around game has gotten better, which has led to more opportunities and more looks. And I think that’s even going to make my goal-scoring better, just by playing the right way and doing those things the right way.”

Cole Caufield’s NHL scoring by season

Season

  

Games

  

Goals

  

Points

  

2020-21

10

4

5

2021-22

67

23

43

2022-23

46

26

36

2023-24

82

28

65

2024-25

82

37

70

2025-26

81

51

88

(Source: NHL.com)

To be clear, Caufield still likes seeing it go in. He saw it go in 51 times this season. It’s the process where Caufield has grown into the man he is today, as opposed to the kid he was in Wisconsin.

“I would say getting pucks back, hunting and not giving up on plays,” Caufield said. “Those second chances that allow you to create a lot more offence than just off the rush, extending those plays too, maybe not turning the puck over as much trying to make hope plays, just trying to make the more mature play and not hoping you’re getting it back, but putting it in a place where you have a better chance of getting it back.

“That’s kind of where the better players can take over, it’s after that second touch.”

Getting that second touch is as much of a skill as being able to put a puck in the net, though they are valued much differently. You have to understand the flow of the game, its rhythms and tendencies, and apply that knowledge in real time on the ice, without thinking.

Martin St. Louis’ arrival as Caufield’s coach was a big factor in learning those rhythms and applying that knowledge.

“You get to this level and everybody’s so good and detailed; it takes you failing and trying things,” Caufield said. “We were obviously lucky enough to have Marty come in and let failure kind of happen to figure it out, with the right intentions, obviously. But he’s definitely helped a lot of us grow with confidence, and not taking the stick out of your hands was huge.

“There’s calculated ways to do it, and obviously, we’re slowly figuring it out.”

While St. Louis deserves a lot of credit for prioritizing that side of the game with Caufield, Caufield deserves at least as much credit for buying in and applying it.

“You need courage, you need the brain, and you need the work ethic,” St. Louis said. “To go win a puck, you need to anticipate, and anticipation, you have to bring pace to that, and then you have to be close enough where you can have a hard action. The way that Cole’s going to do it might not be exactly the way Slaf’s going to do it; they’re different players, different bodies, but it’s got to be part of his intentions on the ice.”

Slaf is, of course, Caufield’s longtime linemate Juraj Slafkovský, who, as St. Louis mentioned, is on the opposite end of the spectrum of NHL body types from the 5-foot-8, 175-pound Caufield. Slafkovský is a massive human and has learned to take advantage of that in the NHL. Still, Slafkovský considers Caufield’s size to be an advantage, because it allows him to catch opponents off guard.

“I think he surprises a lot of (defencemen) or a lot of players on the other team with how strong he is,” Slafkovský said, before becoming very uneasy. “Uh, I don’t want to say that he’s small because then he’s going to get mad at me, but he’s not the tallest guy, but he’s really strong for his size.

“I think that surprises guys that maybe think they have an easy battle with him, and then he catches them with his physicality.”

Lane Hutson, who occupies the same spot on the NHL’s size spectrum, has figured out how to not only defend as a 5-9, 162-pound defenceman, but defend quite effectively.

Hutson and Caufield might go about defending a bit differently, but they at least share one thing in common.

“First off, he never quits on a play,” Hutson said. “As a skilled player, in this league, you can see guys kind of quit on plays. But he doesn’t quit.”

That tenacity will serve Caufield well in the playoffs, where space will be tighter, games will be more physical, and this side of his game will need to be elevated to give himself opportunities to display the identity he had back at Wisconsin — the identity he’s had his whole hockey-playing life.

Canadiens centre Jake Evans has seen both versions of Caufield: The one that arrived in the NHL as a pure goal scorer and the one that is a far more complete player today. However, there is a correlation between the two versions, a character trait that existed back then and exists today that should help Caufield shine in the coming days and weeks.

“I know how competitive he is,” Evans said. “Everyone just sees a smile on his face, but I know how he can get annoyed when he’s not playing well or the team’s not doing great. I think just his strength, battling for pucks down low and in the tougher areas, he’s quite good at it, actually.

“I guess you look at a smaller guy that can get kind of pushed around, but he’s built strong and very competitive, so those are two good things.”