Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis said after Tuesday night’s 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings that he hasn’t lost confidence in goalie Samuel Montembeault.
Montembeault gave up four goals on 25 shots (the final Kings goal was an empty-netter), dropping his record to 4-4-1 with a 3.52 goals-against average and a .861 save percentage.
A head coach would be foolish to admit he has lost confidence in his No. 1 goalie and St. Louis has made it clear that’s what Montembeault is for his team. But Jakub Dobes will get the start Thursday when the Canadiens play the Dallas Stars at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS). Dobes has been much better than Montembeault this season, with a 6-0-1 record, a 2.25 GAA and a .920 save percentage.
After practice Wednesday in Brossard, St. Louis said he was already planning to start Dobes against the Stars since he hasn’t played since last Thursday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Devils in New Jersey, adding the decision wasn’t a reflection of Montembeault’s play against the Kings.
I asked St. Louis after practice why he still has confidence in Montembeault.
“I just think his attitude, his work ethic, his body of work,” St. Louis said. “So many things.”
That’s a good answer. But with the Canadiens nearing the quarter-mark of the NHL season sitting in first place in the Atlantic Division with a 10-4-2 record, it’s a good time to start riding the hot goalie. The Boston Bruins (11-7-0) are tied with Montreal in points after winning their last seven games, but have played two more games than the Canadiens. The Ottawa Senators (8-5-4) are two points behind Montreal and Boston.
The Bruins play the Senators in Ottawa on Thursday (7 p.m., TSN5, RDS2) before visiting the Canadiens at the Bell Centre on Saturday (7 p.m., Citytv, SNE, TVA Sports).
I was speaking with former Canadiens defenceman and assistant coach Rick Green about Montembeault on Wednesday morning as we were getting ready to tape The Gazette’s weekly Hockey Inside/Out Show, along with Brian Skrudland, who was also part of Montreal’s 1986 Stanley Cup championship team. Green hit the nail on the head when he said Montembeault has been playing “like he’s waiting for something bad to happen.”
On Tuesday night, the bad was three goals by the Kings in the first 5:22 of the second period after the Canadiens had taken a 1-0 lead. The third goal was a gift as Montembeault basically passed the puck to the Kings’ Kevin Fiala while attempting to direct the puck into the corner with his stick.
It was bad.
The start to this season has been a roller-coaster ride for Montembeault, who has heard chants of “Mon-ty! Mon-ty!” at times and also heard mock cheers for making routine saves. St. Louis might not have lost confidence in him, but many Canadiens fans have.
“Especially on social media, you got to put that behind like I did on my Instagram,” Montembeault said after Wednesday’s practice. “After a loss you can’t go on there. There aren’t many things that are said that are nice on there. I just got to take all the noise, put it behind. Just trying to focus on me, focus on my game and not listen to what everybody has to say. Good games or bad games. people are going to always have something to say so I just need to focus on myself.
“The fans are passionate here,” Montembeault added. “Especially this year. With the expectations being higher, they expect us to win every game. It’s not going to happen every game, but we need to be better, need to be more competitive. If we win here, it’s the best place to win.”
The Canadiens need better goaltending than Montembeault has been providing if they want to keep winning. It’s time to give Dobes a chance to see if he’s ready to be a No. 1 goalie.
There’s no guarantee Dobes can be that, since he only has 23 games of NHL experience. The 24-year-old showed that lack of experience after his last game in New Jersey, when he was in tears while speaking with the media following the overtime loss.
“Going back to that, I kind of want to close it. You guys don’t need to worry about me at all,” Dobes said with a big smile after Wednesday’s practice. “Just some games mean to someone more than the others. I really took it personal that game and I feel like every game I play for this jersey I take it with pride and a lot of heart. So I’m naturally just a more emotional guy than the others.”
Dobes said his teammates have been having fun with him about his reaction in New Jersey and everything is good.
Is he worried about opponents possibly chirping him about what happened?
“They could,” Dobes said. “I like it, personally, when it gets more personal on that level. So they can bring whatever
“I also have Arber (Xhekaj) on my team, so I feel I’ll be fine,” Dobes added with another smile.
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