The Montreal Canadiens are playing a fourth game in seven days tonight and once again, Samuel Montembeault will be in net.
So far, Samuel Montembeault has played in 21 of the Montreal Canadiens' 27 games or in roughly 80% of their games. Tonight the Habs will be playing their fourth game in seven days and he's played them all. That's too much and an unsustainable situation.
This morning when Martin St-Louis confirmed his number one would be in the net once again tonight and when he was asked how he handles his work load he explained:
I think it's conversations we have first with him, the goalie coach, Kent, Gorts, me, the coaching staff, so we try to manage that day-to-day, week-to-week and we try to make decisions with all the information we have.
While it does make sense to ask the netminder how he's feeling, we've seen in recent years how players sometimes need to be protected from themselves. Be it Sean Monahan who didn't want to miss a game with his former team the Calgary Flames because of an injury which he ended up aggravating or Shea Weber who played through a myriad of injuries to the point where he had to retire.
Overload is dangerous for an athlete, a tired body is much more likely to be injured and while there is nothing wrong with Montembeault right now, one would think it's better to be safe than sorry and give him a reasonable amount of rest.
Backup goaltender Cayden Primeau is having a tough season to say the least. In 10 games so far this season, he has a 4.45 goals-against average (making him dead last amongst goaltenders who have played at least nine games) and a .844 save percentage (which is also the worst in the league amongst netminders who have played 9 games or more). But Montembeault cannot play all the games and it seems like tonight's matchup would have been a good one for the 25-year-old.
After all, Primeau did shut out those same Ducks last February and they are the 29th team in the league. Seems like it could have been a perfect opportunity to give him another game. Of the seven games he started this season, not one was at the Bell Centre, maybe it could help him to tend goal when his coach is in control of the match-ups on the ice at least to an extent.
Going with Montembeault again makes me wonder if the Canadiens would have called up Jakub Dobes had he not been injured this weekend playing for the AHL's Laval Rocket. Thankfully, his injury is monitored on a day-to-day basis, so if the Habs are considering sending Primeau down on a confidence building stint, they should be able to do so soon.
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