{"id":397714,"date":"2026-01-08T15:17:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T15:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/397714\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T15:17:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T15:17:28","slug":"samuel-montembeault-reveals-the-real-reason-behind-his-difficult-start-to-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/397714\/","title":{"rendered":"Samuel Montembeault reveals the real reason behind his difficult start to the season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nSamuel Montembeault reveals the real reason behind his difficult start to the season<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Montreal Hockey Fanatics has no direct affiliation to the Montreal Canadiens, NHL or NHLPA<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/631222.webp.webp\" style=\"width:100%;\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Photo of Canadiens goalie Samuel Montembeault\" title=\"Photo of Canadiens goalie Samuel Montembeault\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: Screenshot\/YouTube<\/p>\n<p>The Montreal Canadiens goaltender, Samuel Montembeault, made a very interesting statement today following practice.<\/p>\n<p>When things weren&#8217;t going well, he added even more. He also said that he took on too much blame, and that both his confidence and his morale suffered as a result. That explains a lot.<\/p>\n<p>After 17 games, he has posted a record of 7 wins, 6 losses, and 1 overtime loss. His goals-against average sits at 3.48, with a save percentage of .865.<\/p>\n<p>Samuel Montembeault explains that he put too much pressure on his shoulders early in the season, and it seemed to put him in a kind of vicious cycle<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also important to put all of this into the context of the past few weeks.<\/p>\n<p>On December 16, the Canadiens announced that he had been assigned to the Laval Rocket on a conditioning stint. The goal was clear: to regain his bearings and reset. It appears to have worked. Since his return, the results have followed, and they are tangible.<\/p>\n<p>What Montembeault described on Tuesday is a spiral that many athletes experience. The more pressure you put on your shoulders, the heavier it becomes. He now says he&#8217;s happy to be back and to put all of that behind him.<\/p>\n<p>Sam Montembeault today on his Habs season so far:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think I was putting a little too much pressure (on myself) at the beginning of the season&#8230;When it started going less well, I started putting even more pressure. When I was taking a little too much blame, that&#8217;s when my confidence and morale wasn&#8217;t as good. I&#8217;m just happy to come back and put that behind me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Via HabsOnReddit<\/p>\n<p>Previously on Montreal Hockey Fanatics<\/p>\n<p>POLL<\/p>\n<p>JANVIER 6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0879 ANSWERS<\/p>\n<p>Samuel Montembeault reveals the real reason behind his difficult start to the season<\/p>\n<p>Can Samuel Montembeault get his season back on Track with the Canadiens?<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; Samuel Montembeault reveals the real reason behind his difficult start to the season &#13;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,3567,909,1527,21,4,4842,906],"class_list":{"0":"post-397714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-jacob-fowler","10":"tag-jakub-dobes","11":"tag-laval-rocket","12":"tag-montreal-canadiens","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-press-conference","15":"tag-samuel-montembeault"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115860146985914881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}