Sam Montembeault Has Room For Improvement

Sam Montembeault is having a decent season. He is getting ready to represent Canada in the Four Nations Tournament but there is still room for improvement. There have been a lot of positives this season like his three shutouts and his 2.99 goals against average but honestly, he needs a hot streak to keep the Montreal Canadiens in playoff contention.

When you look at the goalie's advanced stats, he varies. Sometimes he's ranked in the top 31, and sometimes he isn't. He's hard to figure out, but he is getting the job done. He is 2-2 in his last four games. On the whole, he is a just below-average goalie. His game against Dallas was terrific, and his game against Toronto wasn't. 

Montembeault is the #1 and that's evident. I'm not going to entertain replacing him anytime soon. Being a backup is much easier than being the top dog. It's a mental battle as much as anything else. 

When the defense breaks down, he saves 45 and gets a loss against Detroit because four went in. That's not on him. When looking at In-Stat, the breakaway save percentage isn't great. He's at 63%. Logan Thompson is at 83%. That short-handed goal against Detroit was something he could have stopped. A big save could have been in order, but Andrew Copp found the back of the net. 

My expectation for the Montembeault must stop more breakaways and get into a better groove. He's done that before. He's so close to getting over the NHL average goalie hump, and he needs to do it soon because Jakub Dobes is doing his thing.