Canadiens' Montembeault falters vs. Kings, loses ground in race to Olympics

MONTREAL — He was calm, cool, collected, in control of all his movements, oozing confidence and lending it to his team from 190 feet away from the man he was in the process of burying in the Olympic conversation.

We’re talking about 35-year-old Saskatoon native Darcy Kuemper, who came to the Bell Centre and offered direct contrast to Becancour, Quebec’s Samuel Montembeault in a 5-1 win for his Los Angeles Kings over Montembeault’s Montreal Canadiens. Good for him that it happened in front of Team Canada brass members Doug Armstrong, Don Sweeney and Julien Brisebois.

Not so good for Montembeault, who’s staring all the way up at Kuemper from the very bottom of the list of Canadian hopefuls in the running to be one of Canada’s three goaltenders in Milan come February.

That statistical reality was punctuated on Tuesday night by both men. Kuemper came into the game ranked fifth in the league in goals saved above expected and came out of it having stopped a couple more. Montembeault came into it ranked 71st out of 73 goaltenders in the category, and once again failed to make enough of the saves you’d expect him to make.

He made 12 stops in the first, but it would be stretching the truth to say he appeared calm, collected and confident in front of his net, with two pucks getting by him and striking iron.

When the Canadiens fell asleep at the start of the second period, Montembeault went from shaky to rattled.

The Kings capitalized, scoring three goals on four shots in a span of four minutes and change — and that third one came when instead of deflecting the puck out of harm’s way, Montembeault put it right on Kevin Fiala’s stick for a tap-in.

It was deflating for the Canadiens, and it likely sucked the last breath out of Montembeault’s Olympic bid, which was already on life support before Tuesday.

Let’s be clear: he didn’t lose this one on his own for the Canadiens. And even at his best, he probably wouldn’t have won it for them, given how defensively fallible and offensively impotent the team was through most of the night.

But Montembeault’s inability to keep the Canadiens afloat when they needed him added another page to this unflattering chapter he’s authored through the start of this season.

One that doesn’t quite fit in the book Montembeault has written through this Canadiens rebuild.

“He’s bailed us out a number of times throughout the course of years,” said Canadiens' Josh Anderson, who beat Kuemper with an unbelievable shot for Montreal’s only goal of the game.

But even if Anderson said twice that the Canadiens have faith in Montembeault’s ability to return to regularly bailing them out, you can’t help but feel the goaltender’s belief in himself to do it is currently dangling in the wind.

How could it not be?

Through nine starts, Montembeault is 4-4-1, sporting the 51st-best save percentage (.861) out of 54 goaltenders to have appeared in at least five games. And that’s from behind a Canadiens team that’s played only one other game like the one it had against the Kings, a team that came into this one tied with the Carolina Hurricanes for third in the NHL in points percentage.

At least Jordan Binnington, Canada’s starter at the 4 Nations Face-Off last February, can partially pin his .859 save percentage on a completely out-of-sorts St. Louis Blues team.

We don’t think Kuemper or Logan Thompson (who’s played tremendously for the Washington Capitals) will unseat him.

But both goaltenders came into Tuesday’s action well ahead of Montembeault, and Kuemper gained a couple more strides.

Meanwhile, forget about Team Canada in February; this Canadiens team needs the Montembeault who’s capable of playing much better than he has this season.

They remain faithful that they’ll get him.

“I don’t think I’m worried,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis.

Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki doesn’t appear to be, either.

“A few of those goals, guys are just sitting back door, and we’ve gotta clean that up,” he said. “He’s been playing better as of late, and we just want to keep that confidence high for him.”

Montembeault must lift it himself, though.

He appeared ready to do it after a tough start against Philadelphia last week ended with him stopping 31 of the final 32 shots he faced to save the Canadiens a point in a game that mirrored this one against Los Angeles. He built on that performance by stopping 25 of 27 shots in a 6-2 win over the Utah Mammoth on Saturday, giving him some positive momentum for the first time this season.

But Tuesday’s loss was another step back, while Kuemper took a big one forward in front of key decision makers for Team Canada.