The Team Canada brass was at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night to see the Montreal Canadiens take on the Los Angeles Kings and taking notes on candidates for the Olympics, and one player wasted his opportunity while another was his usual reliable self.
There were some attentive spectators on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre; the Team Canada brass was on hand to scout the game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Los Angeles Kings. GM Doug Armstrong and assistant GMs Don Sweeney and Julien Brisebois were in town to observe potential Team Canada players for the upcoming Olympics in February.
The game pitted two of the potential goaltenders, Samuel Montembeault, who was the national team’s third goalie at the 4 Nations Face-Off, and Darcy Kuemper. Unlike Montembeault, he wasn’t invited to the orientation camp in August, but team management did say that players who weren’t invited could still make the roster. Given the season starts, Montembeault and Jordan Binnington's experience, and Adin Hill’s injury status, Canada may just be forced to.
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Unfortunately for the Canadiens’ goaltender, his performance last night is unlikely to have helped his case. He gave up four goals on 21 shots. One came from far out —a long-range shot has been an issue for him, not only this season but last year, too.
He was directly responsible for the third goal, as he could have frozen the puck instead of pushing it back into traffic and setting up Kevin Fiala for an easy lamplighter. That showed poor decision-making, the kind of mistake that can be fatal in an Olympic tournament, especially in the medal rounds. Even in Tuesday night’s game, that goal was the backbreaker and the look Jayden Struble gave Montembeault after the play was quite telling.
As for the fourth goal, Lane Hutson was skating towards Montembeault to gather the puck the Kings had just cleared when Joel Armia picked his pocket and ended up all alone in front of the goaltender. That one is on Hutson, of course, but both Jayden Struble and Montembeault should have warned him about Joel Armia’s presence. Furthermore, an Olympic-calibre goaltender has to be able to pull a rabbit out of his hat from time to time, to make that all-important save that most goaltenders wouldn’t have been able to create. That’s what differentiates the elite masked men from the rest, and in the pursuit of a gold medal, you need elite.
At the other end of the ice, Darcy Kuemper was solid, stopping 21 of the 22 shots he received, only being beaten by a picture-perfect shot from Josh Anderson on the wing. The Kings played much better in front of him than the Canadiens did in front of Montembeault, but when all is said and done, Kuemper looked better than the Habs’ goalie on the night.
While the netminder wasted this opportunity, captain Nick Suzuki didn’t miss his. While he was held off the scoresheet, he was his usual self, trying to create in the offensive zone, blocking three shots in the defensive zone and being dominant in the faceoff circle, winning 11 of the 15 draws he took. The centerman was also able to spend some time on the penalty kill when Alex Newhook, one of the regular penalty killers, was sent to the box.
In other words, Suzuki had an opportunity to show what he could do, and he grabbed it with both hands. Since the start of the season, his leadership has been crucial to the Canadiens’ success. Whichever way you look at it, he’s the heart and soul of that team, the guy that rallies the troops, the general everyone wants to follow into battle. It’s hard to imagine Team Canada passing on such an accomplished player who’s wise and experienced beyond his years.
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