Montreal Canadiens' goaltender Samuel Montembeault is aware of his struggles on shots from a distance and he's been working to solve the issue.
While Samuel Montembeault won’t be in the net against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night, he’s likely to be against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night, even though that hasn’t been discussed internally. The Montreal Canadiens masked man had a tough time in the latest road trip, and his weakness on long-range shots was once again exposed.
Speaking after practice on Monday morning, the netminder didn’t shy away from the issue, explaining that it’s something he has to work on:
That’s what we’re focusing on since my return from Laval. It really is what I struggle the most with during the game: screened shots. We’re working on that a lot. It’s all about getting my eye on the puck quickly and fighting to find it through traffic.
Even though he’s well aware of the situation, like goaltending coach Marco Marcianno, it seems the work done so far hasn't managed to right the ship in that department. As for Martin St-Louis, he believes his team has to be more combative without the puck to help their goaltenders. The coach says his team has been too stubborn in the neutral zone of late, making risky plays that lead to turnovers at the zone entry and have created odd-man rushes. That kind of play leaves them vulnerable, and the skaters don’t have time to recover the puck.
The coach has said it over and over this season: if his men don’t have the numbers, they have to be smart with puck management, and sometimes that means sending the puck deep into the offensive zone and working hard on the forecheck to get it back. That’s the part of the game that’s not fun, according to the coach, but it will lead to good things and an opportunity to create offence and get more creative with the puck.
In other words, for the coach, the best way to help the goaltenders is to avoid having to play defence in their own zone. While that makes sense, it’s not a ringing endorsement of his netminders. It’s strangely similar to how he reacted at the start of the season when he was asked if Mike Matheson and Noah Dobson’s pairing wouldn’t have too many defensive issues. He replied that they were so good offensively that they wouldn’t have to defend much in their zone.
Montembeault has a 10-8-4 record this season with a 3.43 goals-against average and a .872 save percentage. Those are hardly satisfying numbers, and had it not been for Jakub Dobes’ knack for finding a way to win, the Canadiens wouldn’t be where they are in the standings.
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