Sam Montembeault is having a decent season. I know he has some great analytics but I’m still old school looking for results and lifting your play and being consistent and these are some things that have been fleeting lately for the Montreal Canadiens top netminder. Image [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/6bfb716a-7fa7-4db4-a534-df63f136cf2e.jpeg] Hockey is a team sport but a goaltender can fuel a team into the playoffs. We’ve all seen it. It’s a vibe at times, it’s goalies making saves when they didn’t see the puck, and it’s being squared to the shooter and some of that has been slipping with Montembeault. Coming into the game against St. Louis, the netminder gave up eight goals on 62 shots on goal. They’re not all on him. They never are, but the results have been losses nonetheless. So what causes this? A year ago, the backstop had 40 starts. Now he’s up to 51 and 53 games in total. He might hit 60 and that’s not good. Jakub Dobes should play more but some coaches still ride a goalie down the stretch. Last night you could see Montembeault wasn’t locked in. When a team starts shooting from far away and you flub a glove save as he did. Then teams, like the Philadelphia Flyers coming up, will do some video scouting and tell their players to test the goalie in that way. See if they can get a goal or two that way. The Flyers are playing their worst hockey in two years. I expect the Canadiens fans to be there in Philadelphia, that should help Montembeault. This is a very winnable game but it’s still a road game and his goals against average is 3.22 with a .887 save percentage. That’s below his season average. This game should be interesting from a lot of perspectives.
