Tuesday, during the day, the team photo of the Laval Rocket and photos taken at the team's practice caused a lot of talk, as we saw a Cole Caufield looking demoralized. Some saw it as a sign of frustration and dissatisfaction for the young Habs forward.
However, according to Laval Rocket head coach Jean-François Houle, the truth is that Caufield showed up in the minors with a more than positive attitude.
It's not easy, everything happens so fast, but in the last two days, he was very positive," said Houle, during an interview with Jean-Charles Lajoie. Today, we could see that he was a step above some players. He is an elite player. Playing in the American Hockey League may not be something he wanted, but it's happening everywhere. Josh Anderson played 100 games in the AHL, Phillip Danault played 150 games and Martin St-Louis, who had an incredible career, played 100 games as well. So it's not something that surprises me."
The 20-year-old right winger is indeed not the first player to go through a situation like this. In addition to the Habs players mentioned by Houle, one could go even further and name Leon Draisaitl, for example. After playing 37 games in the National Hockey League at age 18, the German had to go through junior AND the AHL before establishing himself in the NHL full time and eventually becoming one of the best players in the league.
The demotion was not a move against Caufield, but a personnel move to help him regain his confidence and work on details in his game, as the former Armada head coach also explained.
"Cole's goal is for him to touch the puck a little bit more and gain confidence. He can be here a long time, as well as he can be here two games. In the AHL, you never know and it depends on what the team wants up top. If Cole plays this weekend, he's going to play with Poehling and Harvey-Pinard. He's going to play on the power play and he'll get a lot of ice time. He'll get his bearings. He's a good player and players like that always find a way to move up."
So it's only a matter of time before "Goal" Caufield is back on the big club's roster. Until then, he will have a chance to play on a unit that could make flames, alongside Ryan Poehling and Rafael Harvey-Pinard.
