Canadiens confident Montembeault will rebound after uncharacteristic outing
After allowing five goals in just under 22 minutes, Sam Montembeault was left to ponder how uncharacteristically bad his outing was on Tuesday. Not a feeling he’s accustomed to having, but a performance the Canadiens are confident he’ll come back from.
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MONTREAL — Two shots, two goals.
That’s how Sam Montembeault’s game started for the Montreal Canadiens against the Seattle Kraken.
It ended at the 1:32 mark of the second period, when Montreal’s No. 1 goaltender was relegated to No. 2 after allowing a harmless Brandon Montour wrist shot from 52 feet out to beat him and put Seattle up 5-1.
Montembeault was yanked from his net for Cayden Primeau and left on the end of the Canadiens bench to ponder how uncharacteristically bad his performance was in what turned out to be an 8-2 win for the Kraken.
Not a good feeling. Not one Montembeault is accustomed to having.
The 27-year-old from Becancour, Que. started the season with a 48-save shutout against the Toronto Maple Leafs and followed that up by stopping 25 of 26 shots in a 4-1 win over the Ottawa Senators. The traditional stats — and even the fancy ones — proved to what extent he was reliable thereafter, lending credence to suggestions from teammates Nick Suzuki, Jake Evans, Mike Matheson, and from head coach Martin St. Louis, that this game was a one-off for Montembeault.
“He’s done it the last two years prior, and he’s had a lot of good games so far this season,” said Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki afterwards.
You don’t rank eighth among your NHL brethren in both goals saved above expected (4.12) and save percentage (.914) without that being the case.
That’s what Montembeault did through his first six appearances this season, strengthening the already-solidified portfolio that pushed his name into the Team Canada conversation for the upcoming Four Nations Face-Off.
Oh sure, there have been some hiccups along the way, some goals the six-foot-three netminder said he’d like to have back.
But almost none like the ones Montembeault gave up on Méchant Mardi at the Bell Centre.
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Montour’s was one of three that originated from the blue line. The first two of the game did, too, with Jamie Oleksiak’s 52-footer tipping off Canadiens defenceman Mike Matheson five feet in front of Montembeault and Ryker Evans’s shot from 64 feet out going right over the goaltender’s glove.
If you want a sense for how unlikely all of that was, Montembeault had only been beaten from similar distances twice prior to Tuesday’s game, according to NHL Edge’s puck-tracking data.
He had stolen two of the three wins he had earned this season, and looking at all six of his performances revealed he made 40 saves on shots coming from the inner slot while allowing just seven goals from that area.
Montembeault’s best to keep that in perspective rather than dwell on what happened to him Tuesday.
“It’s a game to forget,” he said. “Put it straight in the garbage, no need to even watch the video.”
The reel would show the Canadiens made plenty of mistakes in front of him, but not so many that they should’ve been down 5-1 before 22 minutes had been played.
They had allowed just three shot attempts from the high-danger area at five-on-five to that point and they had generated seven of their own, striking iron twice before the first period expired.
The Canadiens weren’t happy about failing to sort out coverage on Seattle’s first goal, about not finding a way to block Evans’s shot on the second, about not being able to stop the bleeding or make it more of a game towards the end.
But the score aside, this game wasn’t at all reminiscent of the one the Canadiens blew against the New York Rangers one week ago.
Montembeault was pulled from that one, too. Mercifully.
He couldn’t be blamed that night, as the Canadiens collapsed in front of him, turning their d-zone into a freeway for the Rangers to speed through.
But Montembeault (commendably) took the blame for this one against Seattle, saying, “I gotta be better.”
“I think I need to be stronger mentally, too,” Montembeault added. “If I have a bad start like this, I need to stay focused and make a save because the team needed it.”
He’s made plenty of them since 2022, earning him the top job — and a contract that pays him $3.15 million for this season and two more to follow. Not making them in this one won’t put a dent in the confidence the Canadiens have in him.
Why?
“His body of work the last two years, his shutout (at the beginning of the season) stopping 40-something (shots),” said coach Martin St. Louis. “We know it’s in there. I would treat it like a one-off right now.”
Montembeault will, too.
“That’s one of the good qualities that a good goalie needs to have is to have a short memory,” he said.
Hopefully Primeau has one, too, after allowing three goals on 13 shots in relief.
They need to be better, and the Canadiens need to get back to how they played in weekend wins over St. Louis and Philadelphia.
The first opportunity to do so comes Thursday, in Washington, where the Canadiens will play the Capitals and try to improve their record to 5-5-1.
