Montreal and Vegas played a game that looked like most of the games this series: tight-checking, low-scoring, and on a knife's edge of mistakes. The Habs were able to hold on to a 2-1 lead for a large chunk of the night, but a third-period goal sent it to overtime again. Alec Martinez was able to pinch down low and slam home a rebound early in the final frame and that 2-2 score carried us to OT.  

The Small Goals Boy a.k.a. Goal Caufield a.k.a Cole Caufield did it again, this time with a solo effort that will go on the highlight reel:

this was nasty by Cole Caufield pic.twitter.com/nBjPcMBGEA

— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) June 25, 2021

Just an absolutely dynamite goal. It is hard to imagine this team being where it is without him.  

Again in this series, overtime didn't take long as 99 seconds into the first OT, Artturi Lehkonen went shelf on Robin Lehner, sealing the win. It was an excellent pass from Phillip Danault, and a great finish from Lehkonen. It was a good time for that line to get on the board for their first goal against Vegas in the six games.

As a Habs fan, you'll excuse me if I'm brief. I have a beer I need to drink.

I will have more in depth on the losing team from this series in my Ramblings next week.

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Yesterday's Ramblings covered Cole Caufield briefly. The point was to get people thinking about his true upside in the NHL in general, and with the Habs specifically. I want to talk about that for a minute.

Let's get this out of the way: I think Caufield is a future all-star, and maybe as soon as 2021-22. But as I've been talking about for the last couple weeks, coaching matters and so does a player's role. Let's talk about Montreal coaching for a minute.

At this point, I have to assume Dominique Ducharme is the coach next year. It's hard to imagine an interim coach taking a team to (at least) one game from the Cup Final (as of Thursday afternoon) and getting canned. So, what has the ice time been like under Ducharme?

Claude Julien was fired on February 24^th. That gives us about six weeks under Julien and about 10 weeks under Ducharme in the regular season. Under Julien, the only forward playing over 18 minutes a night was Nick Suzuki, and Tyler Toffoli was the only additional forward playing over 17 minutes. Under Ducharme, again, Suzuki was the only forward over 18 minutes with Toffoli over 17 minutes. Both Danault and Anderson cracked 17 minutes as well but just barely. In other words, the ice time distribution didn't change much under either coach.

That is what worries me here. Since getting into the lineup in Game 3 vs. Toronto, Caufield is averaging 15:22 in ice time a night. The playoffs aren't the regular season, but knowing what we know of Ducharme in the regular season, is Caufield going to jump three minutes a game in TOI in four months' time? Doubtful.  

When it comes to Caufield, I truly believe the sky is the limit. If it all falls into place, he's a perennial all-star scorer. But there's a difference playing 21 minutes a night on Connor McDavid's or Brayden Point's wing, and playing 16 minutes a night on Nick Suzuki's or Jesperi Kotkaniemi's wing. It will be interesting to see what the ADP is on him come September, because it may be higher than I'm willing to stomach.

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Yesterday in my Ramblings, I started a little series where I discuss one question I have – from a fantasy perspective – about each team in the league. I'm trying to get this done before the Entry Draft and free agency, so that we can adjust what we need to after. Let's get to our four teams today: Anaheim, Florida, Edmonton, and Dallas.

Can Trevor Zegras instantly be a 1C?

The thing is, he may not even be asked to be a 1C right away. The team still has Adam Henrique around and Sam Steel is likely to be a middle-6 centre for them as well. We could see Zegras go into 2021-22 as the pseudo-2C, where he and Steel kind of take turns being the 2C depending on the game and the situation.

Zegras actually had a good year. Here are his impacts from HockeyViz, which show a neutral impact on offence and a big impact defensively:

That may surprise some people, given that Zegras's puck skills are what was hyped with him as a draft pick. All the same, if he's showing above-average defence as a rookie in a bad situation, *and* he has all those puck skills, what's he going to look like in 2-3 years? I bet something special.

But 2-3 years from now isn't 2021-22, and the team still has a ways to go in their rebuild. The pieces are starting to assemble, but the Megazord is far from complete. I wouldn't begrudge someone for taking a late flier on Zegras, but I do think he's seriously capped with what he can do with that roster.

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Is Sam Bennett's small-sample performance replicable?

This may be one of the bigger questions across the fantasy hockey community this offseason. If we do believe Bennett can come close to repeating what he did down the stretch in Florida, then we're looking at a point-per-game player who can post three shots a night and over 100 hits in a season. In multi-cat leagues, that's close to a first-round pick. That is why it's really, really important to figure out just how great he can be.

What was sustainable and what wasn't? First, the shooting percentage.

Ok, so Bennett shot 15.4 percent, and that's way higher than his career average to that point (about 10 percent). So if we cut his goals rate by a third, he goes from six goals in 10 games to four goals, which paces out for over 30 goals in a full season. That's still just fine!

Bennett also jumped to nearly 21 shot attempts per 60 minutes. That is high for him, but he has a season over 16 a few years ago. And we have to remember that Florida was one of the most high-octane offences in the league this year: even before Bennett got there, the team was second in shot rate and 10^th in goal rate. He also jumped right to a line with Jonathan Huberdeau, one of the top offensive wingers in the league. He might not get back to 21 shot attempts/60 next year, but I do believe getting to the high teens is possible, which means his shot rate shouldn't fall off a cliff, even if it does decline.

We might think the team had unsustainable shot rates with him on the ice, and it was a bit high at 10.75 percent at 5-on-5. But he played with Huberdeau, who, again, is a great playmaker. Even if it comes down to 9-10 percent, they should still score at a very high rate.

I am optimistic here. I am usually on board with fading guys who produce out of nowhere, but all the pieces fell into place for Bennett here. I may be a buyer in September.

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Can Jesse Puljüjarvi put up points?

This is a question I'm going to raise briefly now but get into more later this offseason. Obviously, any player skating with McDavid at 5-on-5 and often on the PP has a high ceiling. But despite all those minutes, Pulju's production this year paced out to 22 goals and 37 points per 82 games. Not really that great considering his frequently line mate.

It is a fair question to ask because there are players who are great at forechecking, getting to the net, and shooting, who aren't high-points players. Brady Tkachuk, Brendan Gallagher, and Max Pacioretty are all guys who bring a similar fantasy profile to Pulju – McDavid as a line mate excepted – and none of them have ever had a 70-point season (yet). Again, I will dig into this more in another Ramblings, but the type of fantasy league may matter a lot for Pulju's value.

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Who will be Dallas's PP1QB?  

It seems like John Klingberg should have the inside track as he has for years, but Miro Heiskanen did earn some top PP minutes with Klingberg on the roster, especially as the season wore on a bit. Now, the team did split their PP units at times so it can be a bit muddled, but Klingberg should still be the guy here.

I guess the better question is: who needs the role for fantasy value? Heiskanen has played to nearly a 40-point pace over his first three seasons without much top PP time. Heiskanen can be a 40-point guy without the PP time. I'm not sure Klingberg has the same skillset to be a 40-point guy without that same PP time.

The bet is still Klingberg here but this could be a topic of conversation right up until the first puck drop.