Cole Caufield filled the net during the regular season.

The Montreal Canadiens sniper bagged 51 goals — the first time the Original Six franchise has had a player reach the half-century mark in 36 years — as part of a campaign marked with memorable moments.

Caufield found it much tougher sledding in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for Montreal against the Tampa Bay Lightning in a seven-game series that featured razor-thin margins and four overtime contests.

The five-foot-eight, 175-pound winger scored once and added three assists on the power play, but was held off the scoresheet at 5-on-5.

Caufield did his best to impact proceedings other ways throughout a grinding, defensive matchup with the Lightning, including a roster-topping five hits — “That’s a real stat,” said captain and linemate Nick Suzuki — in the Canadiens’ smash-and-grab 2-1 victory over the Lightning in Game 7.

Montreal also knows that in order to make the NHL’s Eastern Conference final, its offensive catalyst up front will likely need to find his range.

“He’s been playing some good hockey,” Suzuki said Wednesday before the Canadiens opened their second-round series on the road against the Buffalo Sabres. “Everyone wants him to score, and so does he, but he’s been defending hard.

“He’s bought in.”

The Canadiens’ top line of Caufield, Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky, who were split up at times by head coach Martin St. Louis, combined for just one even-strength breakthrough versus the Lightning in a series that saw each game decided by one goal.

Caufield’s power-play effort came in Game 4 before being held completely at bay through the final three contests.

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“It’s pretty obvious that he doesn’t need a whole lot of time and space,” Montreal defenceman Mike Matheson said. “It’s just a matter of time for him. We’re not worried at all about him.”

St. Louis was succinct when asked what the message is to Caufield as the Canadiens pivot to a matchup that could feature more open ice with the league’s fifth- and seventh-best offensive teams during 2025-26 going head-to-head in an Atlantic Division showdown.

“Keep playing,” said St. Louis, a 2018 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee with a similar frame to Caufield.

Suzuki said he’s seen a lot of growth in his linemate’s craft since first entering the league in 2020-21.

“His play away from the puck, the way he gets into good ice,” said the centre named among three finalists for the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward Wednesday. “He’s turned himself into a guy that can read the forecheck really well and turn over pucks. He’s become a lot better player.

“It’s amazing to see him put all the work in.”

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The Canadiens just hope that blood and sweat also leads to a few more goals this spring.

“He’s doing every whatever it takes,” Suzuki said. “But we’re still going to look for him to score and put him in good positions.”

FAMILY FEUD?

Matheson is married to former U.S. national team defender and Western New York product Emily Pfalzer Matheson.

The Canadiens blueliner, who spends his summers in the Buffalo area and often trains alongside Sabres forwards Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch, had to double-check with his in-laws on their rooting interests.

“They’re all pretty committed to our team,” Matheson said with a smile. “I had to make sure.”

DOWN TIME

The Canadiens stayed in Tampa after topping the Lightning in Sunday’s Game 7 instead of immediately heading north. The club took a day off before hitting the practice ice and boarding a flight to Buffalo.

“It was great just hang out, recover rest, get some sun,” Suzuki said. “You go through a seven-game series like that, it’s nice to just have a full reset and then get right back to it. Everyone’s in good headspace and ready to go back into the war.”

BORDER BATTLE

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Carney inserted a little cross-border politics into the Canadiens’ playoff run Wednesday.

“How important is the Habs run? There’s not much (that’s) more important, and I look forward to calling the president of the United States and sending him his Habs jersey,” Carney said at an event in the Montreal region.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2026.

The Toronto Raptors general manager had his season-ending news conference on Wednesday afternoon at OVO Athletic Centre, the NBA team’s practice facility. One of the first questions Webster was asked was if he was open to signing a contract extension with Barrett this summer as he enters the final year of his current deal.

“We’re going to keep all those conversations private,” said Webster. “Spoke to RJ at the end of the season and spoke to him throughout the season.

“I think the best part is he is under contract, so that decision can also be at the end of the season.”

Barrett, from Mississauga, Ont., is under contract through 2026-27 as he completes a four-year, US$107 million extension signed with the New York Knicks in 2022. Toronto traded for him and Immanuel Quickley in December 2023.

Webster’s issue isn’t so much that he doesn’t want Barrett to play for the Raptors past the next season — it’s that he might not be able to afford him.

Unless Toronto finds a way to shed significant contracts this summer, it will be over the salary cap when the next NBA season begins in October. The Raptors payroll will be approximately $193 million against a projected $165-million cap, meaning they’ll have to pay the NBA’s luxury tax.

Toronto is already committed to paying six players over $159 million in 2027-28 when Barrett’s contract ends, including all-stars Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram as well as fellow starters Immanuel Quickley and Jakob Poeltl.

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Barrett is earning $29.6 million this coming season and would expect to earn more on a new deal. Signing him to an extension would put the Raptors deep into luxury tax range for the 2027-28 season with just seven players under contract, well short of the 15 necessary to fill out an NBA roster.

“I think there’s always been that notion that when the time is right, come ask (Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, the Raptors owners) and we’ll deliver,” said Webster, noting that Toronto’s 2019 championship team paid a luxury tax. “Going into this season, I realized this might not be the championship-contending team, and so we held off.

“But going forward, I think it’ll be a bit more on how does this group grow? But also, what moves we make over the summer. We have full support (from MLSE), and I think whenever the time is right, we’ll be ready.”

Barrett averaged 19.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists in the regular season, with the Raptors struggling to a 6-9 record when he was injured at the end of November and into December.

The 25-year-old was one of Toronto’s most reliable players in its first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, averaging 24.1 points, seven rebounds, four assists, 1.3 steals and 0.3 blocks over the seven-game series. Most memorably, he sank a 29-foot three-pointer in the dying seconds of the Raptors’ 112-110 overtime win in Game 6.

“I think you always knew that he was going to play a big, physical style of basketball,” said Webster. “That was in full display, him getting to the paint, him getting to the rim. He had a little bit of a tough stretch, going through some injuries.

“I think he got back to full health and you saw that in the playoffs.”

When Barrett spoke at his season-ending news conference Monday, he was explicit that he wants to stay with his hometown team.

“I think that this is the easier question for me to answer because I’m from here and who doesn’t want to play at home?” said Barrett, who said that at this point it’s out of his control. “So, of course, I’m trying to stay here. I understand the business, but I want to stay here. I have no problem saying that. I want to be here. I want to be here for the rest of my career.

“I don’t ever want to leave, like I don’t have any problems openly saying that.”

Head coach Darko Rajakovic said that Barrett had impressed him all season, but especially in the playoffs when the six-foot-six swingman was tasked with guarding six-foot-11 all-star centre Evan Mobley.

“I think that he made big strides since joining us here, he’s showing more and more every month, every year that he’s more of a two-way player,” said Rajakovic on Tuesday. “I was really impressed with the defence that he played there against Cleveland. He’s a player that likes the challenge and he reacts really well when we put a challenge in front of him, and we ask him to do certain things to improve his game.

“He did a really good job as a leader as well … His confidence is growing that he can be an elite two-way player, and his voice is growing with the team as well.”

Toronto will pick 19th and 50th overall in the NBA Draft on June 23. Webster said that he’s still in a building frame of mind, even though the Raptors had the youngest roster in this post-season.

“Our philosophy here has always been getting two-way players,” said Webster. “We still need more better players. There will be a time when it feels like, ‘OK, this specific piece is what puts us over the top.’

“I think this summer, whether it’s the draft or free agency or trades, we’ll just be looking at the best two-way players available.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2026.

EDMONTON – James Obenauer-Fossett may have an Edmonton Oilers tattoo on his shoulder, but for this playoff run the Habs have his allegiance.

He and other hockey fans across Canada are rallying behind the Montreal Canadiens, the last team standing north of the border in the hunt for the NHL’s Stanley Cup.

Montreal’s second-round series against the Buffalo Sabres begins Wednesday night. If they win it all, they would be the first Canadian team to capture the Cup since 1993, when Montreal defeated the Los Angeles Kings in the final.

That would be just fine with Obenauer-Fossett, whose loyalty to the Oilers is dipped in ink — he has a tattoo of Oilers mascot Hunter the Lynx.

“It’s been 30 years since the Cup has been back in Canada, and it would be nice to have it back,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter which Canadian team is going for it. I’ll cheer for any Canadian team.”

The shift hits hard in Edmonton, where the Oilers came oh so close to the Cup in the last two years, only to get dispatched in the first round this spring by the Anaheim Ducks.

“Obviously it hurts right now,” said 22-year-old fan Naseer Hussain in Edmonton.

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He’s usually an Oilers fan but said it’s only fair he gets behind Montreal, like so many Canadians did for the Oilers in their recent back-to-back runs in the Cup final.

“We want to bring that Cup home back to Canada, where the Cup began its journey. Because this is where it belongs. It’s important that we unite.”

In Canada, making the leap from cheering for the hometown team to the Canadiens is not, for some, a gigantic shift in allegiance. NHL rinks across the country are regularly inundated with fans cheering for the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge.

Robert Hing has lived in Calgary for two decades, but the 49-year-old has yet to adopt the hometown Flames as his team.

“I like to say I was born with the Habs crest on my chest,” said the Canadiens fan. Born in Ontario, he considered Montreal a second home until he was drawn to Calgary by a girl who has maintained her title as a Flames fan.

Hing went to Montreal last week to watch in person as the Habs lost a 1-0 overtime heartbreaker to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of their first-round series.

On Sunday, he hung around the city to watch Montreal put only nine shots on net yet still upset the Lightning to win Game 7.

“The game didn’t look like it was going our way, but when (Alex) Newhook scored that (game-winning) goal, you could just feel this eruption. I didn’t sit down after that,” Hing said.

“There’s only about eight minutes left in the game, everybody watching was just living and dying on every single play.

“So much tension but so much joy at the end of it.”

Winnipeg is also home to many Canadiens fans who make their presence known. They filled so many of the seats for a Canadiens-Jets game in Winnipeg in February, Jets coach Scott Arniel said he was disappointed at the large number of red jerseys in the seats.

In the city’s largely francophone St. Boniface neighbourhood, Habs games make for busy nights at the Pregame Sports Bar and Lounge.

“We get Canadiens fans. We are in a French community. We get a lot of them, but everybody should bet on the Canadiens right now,” owner Tyler Evans said.

The bar is primarily focused on the Jets, Evans said, but Winnipeg didn’t make the playoffs, so the bar has been offering discounts, including $5 drinks, during playoff games involving Canadian teams. The response in the first round during Oilers, Senators and Canadiens games was strong, Evans said.

The happy-hour pricing runs as long as the games do, and only when a team based in Canada is on the ice. With Edmonton and Ottawa eliminated, that leaves Montreal games.

“If we go to triple overtime, we run that $5 drinks all the way through,” Evans said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2026.

— With files from Steve Lambert in Winnipeg and Dayne Patterson in Calgary