Cole Caufield must do a better job of answering journalists’ (soft) questions

The Red Wings play two significant games in the next 36 hours. Enough to make Kent Hughes and the Habs’ management jealous…

The two Canadiens-Red Wings games will determine two very different things for the two teams:

1. Whether the Wings make the playoffs. They should be fully motivated against the Habs. #CourseToThePlayoffs

(Credit: NHL.com)

2. What will be the Habs’ percentages in the lottery abacus. And where the Montreal club will stand in the subsequent rounds.

Canadien fans will still have a few things to look out for in their team’s last two games for several months to come.

Is Lane Hutson (already) NHL-calibre?

Will Nick Suzuki manage to score 80 points this season? And will Slaf get 50?

Will Cole Caufield reach the 30-goal plateau, having scored his 26th and 27th of the season on Saturday night in Ottawa, an NHL personal best for him?

Will Kirby Dach play one of the last two games? He’s been training with a regular vest for some time now, but his doctor made it clear before operating on him: you’re not supposed to play again in 2023-24.

And – although not many people are talking about it – will Mike Matheson get three more points in the team’s last two games? If so, that’ll give him 65 points, the highest total for a team defenseman since Chris Chelios in 1988-89! Still!

How’s it going, Cole?
Yesterday’s most-read article on the site was the one in which my colleague Michaël Petit defended Cole Caufield for foolishly answering a reporter during his post-game press briefing on Saturday.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? On Saturday, after scoring two goals – and dropping the puck in a shootout – Cole Caufield was clearly not in a good mood in the team’s dressing room. When a reporter – who appears to be Dave Lévesque of the Journal de Montréal – asked him if he was starting to get the hang of losing (a lot) to the Senators.

Cole’s response: “It’s great!”

Dumb shit like this reminds me why I stopped paying attention to pressers like I used to pic.twitter.com/rGUpAqQ8Dc

– HFTV (@HFTVSports) April 14, 2024

Worst of all, the journalist in question wasn’t even referring to the eight straight losses to the Sens (since 2022), just the team’s last two. #Soft

To all those who take exception to the question asked by the reporter in the CH locker room (whether I like you like Michael or not like ******): guys, what’s wrong with asking a player if he’s starting to get the hang of losing to the same team over and over again… who, moreover, is a division rival?

I don’t get you.

The purpose of a journalist is to ask questions. Not to flatter guys 100% of the time after a loss in a losing season.

To get good content, you have to be able to ask the right questions. The right questions.

When I have a guest on the Stanley25 podcast, I try to find the right/real questions… the ones that will give us the right/real answers. It was the same when I had guests on BPM Sports…

Seriously, post-game press briefings have become flat and pointless. Everyone plays a role as if we’re in a summer pocket play in Port-Cartier, and everyone’s OK with the empty answers too often given by athletes and coaches.

And when a journalist sometimes dares to ask a real question, other members of the media claim that he or she should never have gone there in the first place? Let’s see… what’s with this demand for self-censorship?

Cr*ss, Cole Caufield wasn’t asked if there was a connection between the fact that NOBODY has seen him in bars for two, three weeks and the fact that he’s scored seven goals in his last seven games.

They didn’t ask him if being quieter – because he has been for some time – made him better on the ice in the best league in the world . Those would have been good questions, but then, I would have understood the anger of some.

Not when you ask him if it’s starting to play on the guys’ minds to always get away with it against the Senators!

Renaud Lavoie and Anthony Desaulniers defended Cole Caufield this morning on BPM Sports, refusing to criticize Tortorella Caufield for foolishly answering reporters’ questions. We get upset when Torts doesn’t answer journalists’ questions, but not when it’s Cole Caufield?

Guys, the journalist is by definition the intermediary between the fan and his favorite athletes. He’s in the field to ask good questions, dig and report info of interest to citizens/partisans. To respond curtly to a journalist is to respond indirectly curtly to the partisans.

You know what? Caufield was probably frustrated at losing the puck in the shootout – he’s been making highlights all over the place this weekend – and he let his negative emotions speak for themselves in his post-game scrum. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s not cool either. And we don’t have to crucify any journalist for the question that was asked in Caufield!

A colleague mentioned to me this morning that Caufield, who has a temper (which is a good thing in the first place), was probably angry at the Montreal media for daring to talk about his life off the ice.

First, he mustn’t mix Dave Lévesque and Jean Trudel, hehe! And your temper, you’re better off using it against your opponents on the ice than against a journalist in the dressing room…

Secondly, if Renaud Lavoie, Maxime Lalonde and Gilbert Delorme bring this delicate subject to the morning airwaves – from whatever angle – it’s not the fault of independent blogs and podcasts either. It’s an editorial choice on the part of a mainstream media outlet, that’s it.

No matter how much you defend yourself by saying that you came out publicly to say it was crap, the rumors that Cole Caufield has a condo downtown or that he hangs out at Marcus and Moretti, you’re still bringing those rumors into the mainstream media. And no, it’s not crap, by the way, but I digress…

Everything’ is always in everything’.

Back to the main point of this piece, in my opinion: according to many people, Cole Caufield has been living a more settled life lately – has the Habs talked to him? – and is much more productive on the ice. Is there a correlation between the two? Or is it just coincidence?

Good question!

If not, is it the lack of pressure from a meaningless end to the season that’s given little Cole a new lease on life?

QUESTION OF THE DAY IN THE MORNING CLUB:

What phrase best sums up Cole Caufield’s 7 goals in 7 games?

Don’t miss the Morning Club every day, Monday to Friday from 5.54am! #question #clubdumatin #hockey #NHL #caufiled #goals #canadians

– BPM Sports (@BPMSportsRadio) April 15, 2024

Cole Caufield wants to perform – he proved it with his short answer Saturday night – and he’s doing it right now. I just hope someone on the Habs sits down with CC22 and makes sure that what he’s doing right now, he’s going to keep doing next year. Whatever it is, it’s working.

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