The Montreal Canadiens have been getting incredible production from their first line recently.
A trio of youngsters, which includes Juraj Slafkovsky, Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, has been piling up points and regularly finding the back of the net for the past 24 games.
In that time, which is equivalent to almost one third of a full NHL season, all three players are scoring at close to a point per game pace. Slafkovsky has scored ten goals and 22 points in that time. Suzuki is leading the way with 12 goals and 27 points while Caufield has amassed 11 goals and 23 points in those games.
Those are great totals, especially considering Slafkovsky is still a teenager, Caufield recently turned 23 and Suzuki is 24 years old this season. This trio is going to score an awful lot of points in the coming years.
The offensive performance is even more impressive when you consider it appears Caufield is dealing with some kind of injury. This has not shown in his play on the ice. In fact, he appears more aggressive chasing down pucks and battling in the corners than ever, and goaltenders are having a tough time stopping pucks flying off his stick.
However, Caufield has missed the past three Canadiens practices. The team has only commented to call them therapy days, which happens from time to time as a player takes a day off of the ice. It is just highly unusual that a player would need three of them within a week or so.
With a recent run of eight goals and 18 points in his past 15 games, it is possible he just doesn't need practice anymore. However, it does seem unlikely his head coach would just let him skip practice this often, so there has to be something nagging at Caufield.
Hopefully it is nothing serious and he is back to 100% soon. Obviously it is not slowing him down much, whatever it is, but it will be interesting to see when he returns to practice as that would be a sign he is closer to fully healthy.