Perhaps a few numbers will help calm the waters on a grungy November day.
During the 1985-86 regular season, a 20-year-old string bean named Patrick Roy made 47 appearances for the Canadiens. He finished with a 23-18-3 record, a 3.36 goals-against average and a save percentage of .875.
In the playoffs that spring, a very different Roy surfaced. He played 20 games, won 15 of them and posted a .923 save percentage and a gaudy 1.93 GAA while winning his first Stanley Cup ring.
Fast forward to the 1992-93 season. Roy was already a superstar, but his play dipped that season. In 62 appearances, he had a 3.20 goals-against and an .894 save percentage. Already, in this finicky town, there was talk that he might be traded.
Come the playoffs and an opening-round series against the Quebec Nordiques that is a strong candidate for the greatest ever played, and Roy came back from an injury to post 16 more wins, a .929 save percentage and a 2.13 GAA before he was again lifting Lord Stanley’s Cup over his head.
Now the guy we call St. Patrick is a special cat. Was then, still is now — which you can confirm if you saw his blow-up against Dallas this week. He was also a goalie and goalies are weird and unpredictable, up to a point.
I’m not saying the beleaguered Samuel Montembeault is Patrick Roy. He is not and he never will be. Nor is he Ken Dryden, or Carey Price, or Jacques Plante. When you play for the greatest team in the history of the sport, and when that team has been uncommonly blessed with brilliant goaltenders from Georges Vézina to the present, the comparisons are burdensome.
But comparisons can also be instructive. That .875 save percentage during the 1985-86 season was not an indication of what Roy was or would become. Had the Canadiens’ brass not been patient with him, that 23rd Stanley Cup banner would not be dangling from the rafters of the Bell Centre.
The Canadiens have been patient with Montembeault — with reason. If the numbers are not spectacular, they still represent a solid body of work. Through four seasons of regular play with the CH, he has posted save percentages of .891, .901, .903 and .902 before this current shambolic season.
Canadiens Jakub Dobes’ hangs his head after giving up a goal to the Washington Capitals during second period in Montreal on Thursday night.
At or near his career standard, Montembeault stops 90 per cent of the pucks headed his way. That’s chance-to-win territory. If he performs like that every night, then the big guy gives you a chance every game.
It hasn’t received much attention, but during the playoffs last spring, Montembeault took himself out of Game 3 after suffering a double groin tear. The injury did not require surgery and Montembeault was back for training camp this fall — or was he?
There are two parts to every recovery, two parts to every rehab. The body is probably the easy part. Getting the injured part physically ready to go is almost always easier than convincing the mind that the limb/groin/whatever is stable and can be trusted. The brain itself has two parts to heal; the conscious mind, which is up there shouting, “It’s fine! Let’s go!” while the subconscious is screaming, “Nooooo! I’m not ready for this! It’s going to break down!”
Goaltending is about microseconds. With a 100-m.p.h. slapshot screaming your way, there’s no time for an argument with your psyche. If any link in the nervous system is hesitant, you’re beaten and the puck is in the net.
Whether it’s the groin or simply that Montembeault got off to a slow start this season and it’s snowballing, the result is much the same. He isn’t playing well, period. And after a brilliant start to Jakub Dobes’s season, Montembeault’s struggles have been transmitted to him and the Canadiens have two floundering goaltenders.
After sticking with Montembeault perhaps too long, coach Martin St. Louis signalled a change of philosophy after the Capitals game. It’s now an open competition between Dobes and Montembeault.
It’s a welcome change of emphasis. People were all over Dobes after the Capitals game, but the Habs had battled back repeatedly and were down only 5-4 with four minutes left. That’s when Dobes had to handle Alexander Ovechkin on an odd-man rush and he’s not the first goalie to fail in that situation. It was 6-4 and the rest was garbage time that doesn’t signify anything.
If we’re not sure yet what kind of goalie Dobes will be, we know that somewhere inside Montembeault lurks a goalie with a .900 save percentage waiting to get out.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens need saves. They can stand pat and start Dobes against Toronto Saturday night. They can call up the experienced Kaapo Kahkonen from Laval, because Dobes is waiver exempt and could be sent down.
Or they can go whole hog and bet the farm on 20-year-old Jacob Fowler by risking his development, a move that makes sense only if you think this is potentially a Stanley Cup team.
It isn’t. But Montembeault as a .900 save percentage goaltender? With a little patience, that should be money in the bank.
Related