The Press in Michigan | Caufield’s first contact with Montreal

(Novi, Michigan) Sidney Crosby’s clothes dryer is possibly the most famous clothes dryer in the history of clothes dryers. Somewhere in the suburbs of Detroit, a shed suffered the same fate as this poor appliance.

Guillaume Lefrancois
The Press

It’s Patrick and Lynn Brown’s discount. This friendly couple – he comes from New York, she… from Montreal! – served as a boarding family for a young Cole Caufield. During his two seasons with the United States National Development Program, Caufield lived with the Browns, until 2019 when the Canadiens drafted him and he was admitted to the University of Wisconsin.

And the discount, in all this? She was in the way, see. As with any hockey player, there is a goal in the entrance, in front of the said shed. Patrick had installed safety nets. Caufield and John, Lynn and Patrick’s son, were practicing shooting at goal.

“Once, I come home and I notice a hole in the shed, at the top of the goal,” says Patrick. I’m going to look in the shed, there are like 15 pucks lying around. So I text John and Cole, and I’m like, “Do you fancy picking up your pucks lying around?” And Cole replies, “That’s not me, I never miss the mark!” »

The Browns are hosting us for dinner on this windy Thursday in their warm home. This is where Caufield landed in 2017, at the same time as them, in fact, since they themselves had just moved from Philadelphia.

The idea for the interview was given to us during a visit to the Caufields in 2019. Cole’s parents had told us about this family that was so important to their son, a family that had ties to Montreal. So the idea was to meet her during Caufield’s first game in Detroit. But this game was long overdue. When Caufield arrived at the Canadiens, it was the year of the so-called “Canadian” division. Then, last year, the CH came once to Detroit and, to make matters worse, Caufield had just been sold to Laval.

The stories follow one another. Lynn and Patrick tell them. John plays the role of fact-checker, served by a memory like only teenagers have, because that’s all they have to remember, the same way we remember more of a Mats Naslund in 1988 than what we had for supper the night before.

That game where the Caufield team crushed Chicago? “It ended 12-1! “recalls John.

The places are simple, the meal too, just like our hosts. Caufield had also warned us. “These are very genuine people, who don’t need much,” he explained on Tuesday.

One can understand Caufield’s description when one knows the circumstances of his arrival here. Since the family had just moved in, the house was simply unfurnished. That didn’t scare the national program coach, however, who came to visit the premises to make sure they were suitable for a player.

“He said, ‘I think the kid from Wisconsin is going to like it here.’ I said to myself: “OK, he will be able to do without furniture. It doesn’t have to be very demanding!” laughs Patrick.

Circulate on the table salad, potatoes, steak, which the dogs Rex and Ollie covet. But above all, pasta Alfredo with chicken, the favorite dish of number 22 of the CH when he lived here.

“We texted him during the day to ask him what time he wanted to eat. And he said, “I would like to eat my goal-scoring Alfredo at 15h.” He always had that self-confidence. »

Do not, however, see this exchange as the requirement of a child-king. The memory that the Browns keep is quite the opposite.

“Then one time the guys were playing mini-hockey in the rec room. And I think John tried to do something he shouldn’t have done, so they start fighting. I said, “Well, finally, Cole is comfortable!” »

Also at the table: Michael Chambre. He plays for the under-18 team of the American national program. A goalkeeper from Florida, he will be eligible for the next draft. This year, the Brown family is hosting him, in the room where Caufield lived five years ago.

Families who host players receive compensation, explains Patrick. “Enough to cover the food,” he estimates. But they find their account there, in particular because John, only child, finds himself well surrounded.

Residents are not required to participate in household chores. In fact, it is left to the discretion of each family.

“Cole was going to Northville High School. It started at 7 a.m.,” Lynn says.

“7:20 am”, specifies the teenager.

“So we made him a lunch, he went to school until noon, then to the arena, and he didn’t come back until 5 or 6 p.m. They were big days.

“Players are generally not asked to participate in housekeeping, only to keep their rooms clean. But Michael does his own washing, I’m impressed! continues Lynn.

Despite the six years between them, Cole and John have become close. In the summer, the little one trains at the same gym as the right-winger, because Caufield now spends his summers in the greater Detroit area.

“There’s an ice cream counter near here in Northville,” says Patrick. From time to time, he calls John and invites him to eat ice cream. One time, we didn’t know it, we had dinner, we asked John: “Aren’t you having dessert?” He said, “No, I’m going to eat ice cream with Cole.” »

Moreover, at the 2019 draft, when the Habs announced their selection, Caufield hugged his mother, his big brother, then John, seated next to him, in order.

The Browns had made the trip to Vancouver. Patrick was not the biggest hockey fan at the base, but he became one by force of circumstance.

Lynn grew up in LaSalle and played hockey for the McGill Martlets in the late 1980s, “back when you just had to know how to skate! “, she jokes. She certainly had to manage, since she will be the first to leave the table, in order to go and play a game in her recreational league.

Lynn, née Chisholm, has lived in the United States since 1993, “right after the Stanley Cup,” she says. She still kept a very good French for a person who left three decades ago.

From Montreal, she kept the link with the Canadiens, the team of her childhood. And on June 21, 2019, as the picks rolled by and Caufield waited his turn, she realized that the young man she had just harbored had an increasing chance of being claimed by this team. What finally happened on the 15^e rank.

“When he was drafted, I said to myself: Montreal loves its hockey, loves its players, but it’s a public that can be demanding. Moreover, after the repechage, there was a reception and I spoke to Marc Bergevin. He asks me: “Do you think he will be okay in Montreal? Because this market can eat you whole.” I said, “No, it’ll be fine, he’s capable of taking it.” »