Let’s be clear: the officiating during the third period of the Canadiens’ 6-5 loss in Edmonton Thursday evening was squalid.
Shambolic. Dreadful. Inexcusable.
But, but, but … we’ll get to that in a moment.
First, the series of deplorable, sordid calls on the part of referees Chris Schlenker and Garrett Rank was rank enough to stink out Rogers Place and points west all the way to Jasper.
It began with a boarding call on Juraj Slafkovsky early in the third period and ended with back-to-back penalties leading directly to two Edmonton goals. The first was on Mike Matheson for breathing on Connor McDavid. McDavid may have taken a flop, but it was well short of a Tim Stutzle dive, and the guy they call McJesus is going to get those calls.
If the NHL wants to get to where Gary Bettman wants it to be, then it has to protect its star players, the guys who play the game at its scintillating best. As long as that protection is also afforded to Lane Hutson, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Ivan Demidov, we have no problem with it.
McDavid then set up Leon Draisaitl for the power-play goal that made it 5-4. The league’s best duo was given a chance to give the Oilers a chance and they didn’t disappoint.
For reasons that remain muddled, Josh Anderson was whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct on the scoring play. Brendan Gallagher protested vociferously, but he might as well have been talking to the glass.
On the ensuing power play, McDavid picked up another assist, this one on a goal by Ryan Nugent-Hyphen. The game was tied at 5-5 and it seemed clear that the weary Canadiens, on the second half of a back-to-back, were running out of gas after outplaying the high-flying Oilers for 50 minutes in Edmonton’s rink.
By then, Vasily Podkolzin’s game-winner at the 18:51 mark seemed inevitable. Old Mo had shifted to the side of the team getting all the calls.
Should it have been different? Of course it should. But it doesn’t change from year to year. It’s been going on for decades and the Canadiens are far from the only team that is affected by inept officiating. It’s leaguewide, to the point where even delusional Leafs fans complain that they get the short end of the stick.
Here’s where we get to the “but.” The part where we talk about the work of alleged No. 1 goaltender Samuel Montembeault in nets.
Montreal Canadiens’ Alex Newhook (15) scores on Edmonton Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard (30) as Mattias Ekholm (14) looks on during first period NHL action, in Edmonton on Thursday, October 23, 2025.
Rewind to the second period, when the Canadiens were down 3-1, but stormed back behind a goal by Anderson and a pair from Super Sniper Cole Caufield, who has seven in this young season. When Alex Newhook picked up his second of the night 2:10 into the third period, it should have been over. The Canadiens have the speed and talent to shut down even a team as talented as the Oilers.
When the refs decided to tilt the ice the Oilers’ way, the Canadiens were still in position to win. They were up two goals more than halfway into the third period and they had outplayed the Oil all night long. Short-handed, they needed one thing: A big save from Montembeault.
What they didn’t get was a big save from Montembeault.
This one wasn’t a repeat of the loss to the Rangers, when Montembeault surrendered a couple of cream puffs. Edmonton’s goals were tough saves. They’re also the kind you have to make if your team is going to contend for Lord Stanley’s Cup.
Montembeault’s stats on the season are cringeworthy: A 3.82 goals-against average and an .842 save percentage. Last season, his best, Montembeault won 31 games and the numbers were 2.82 and .902. He is not Chopped Q. Liver, no matter what folks say on social media. He earned his No. 1 status with a workhorse 62-game season (much of it made necessary by Cayden Primeau’s epic fail as a backup) and he earned his spot on Team Canada for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
We’ll absolve Montembeault of the first two goals Thursday. Both were the kind of gruesome deflections that would elude Dominik Hasek. The save percentage at the end of the night was .793 and again and again, when a single highlight-reel save might have stalled the Oilers and given the Canadiens a much-deserved win, Montembeault couldn’t find it. It seemed he was always down on his knees, a day late and a dollar short as the puck pinged into the net.
Begging the question: Would “backup” Jakub Dobes have made one or two of those saves? Based on Dobes’s play so far, it’s probable.
I know Montembeault is trying to come back from a groin injury. I wrote about it. But he’s a career .900 goalie. He is not, as every fan in this market knows, Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy or Carey Price. He isn’t even José Theodore.
Right now, Dobes gives Martin St. Louis and his club the best chance to win. In my view, Dobes is the No. 1 goaltender, but it doesn’t matter what you call him. Just play the young man at every opportunity and damn the refs.
Related