BROSSARD, Que.— Where the Montreal Canadiens left off was with a step in the right direction in Columbus, in a 4-3 shootout loss over which they were much more resemblant of the team that shot out to a 9-3-0 start to the season and much less so the one that dropped five of six games prior to losing against the Blue Jackets.
Now, their restored confidence must be bolstered by one of their goaltenders, and it doesn’t matter which one.
Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis knows.
Earlier in the season, with the Canadiens winning with regularity, he could stand by No. 1 goaltender Samuel Montembeault and give him more opportunity to find the best version of himself, especially with backup Jakub Dobes playing at the height of his abilities.
But now, after four straight losses, with the gaps in the Eastern Conference standings narrowing with each passing day and nearly a quarter of the season played, that luxury no longer exists. The Canadiens need more saves, and they’ll take them from whomever appears more likely to provide them.
It’s why when we asked St. Louis on Wednesday if it was time for a more open competition between Montembeault and Dobes for the starting position, he responded: “I think we’re there.”
Neither goaltender has risen to the challenge throughout this turbulent, 1-3-3 stretch for the Canadiens, and both know the team is depending on them to do it now.
“The one thing the guys need in the games is maybe more key saves at key times to maybe give them a little bit of momentum,” said Dobes, “so that’s the one thing I’m trying to do in future games.”
It’s what the 24-year-old did with regularity through his first five starts of the season.
Dobes won all those games, stopping 141 of the 150 shots he faced.
But since then, he’s won just one of four games and allowed 15 of 85 shots to get by him.
Montembeault has made 11 appearances and hasn’t fared any better, too rarely appearing like the goaltender who seized the starter’s role two seasons ago and earned the leash that was extended to him through Montreal’s good start to this campaign.
The 29-year-old knows why it’s being tightened right now.
“My job is to give the team a chance to win,” Montembeault said on Wednesday.
He has owned not doing it to his—or the team’s—satisfaction to date, with a 4-5-0 record and a career-low .858 save percentage serving as ugly reflections of that reality.
It’s knocked Montembeault out of the comfortable chair he occupied to start the season, but also put him in the less cozy one he’s been familiar with his whole life.
“Even growing up, always been in competition,” he said. “Didn’t always play the highest level of hockey, so I always had to fight and keep persevering and trying to get better.”
It’s what the Canadiens need from Montembeault right now, with his number being called for Thursday’s game against the Washington Capitals, and with his teammates taking the step in Columbus that they believe brought them to the final one they must take to get out of this hole.
If the goaltender doesn’t rise to the occasion, Dobes must be ready to pounce on the best opportunity he’s had over his short career to become an NHL starter.
It’s a scenario the Ostrava, Cze., native has been dreaming of, and it’s good that he doesn’t seem fazed by the pressure that comes with it.
“There’s obviously a lot of pressure in Montreal, but pressure is a privilege at the end of the day,” Dobes said. “Everyone would like to have this kind of pressure and play in front of these fans and play for this logo. So, I feel like at the end of the day it’s always a positive thing and you’ve just got to focus on your thing. I personally don’t notice much during a game. I’m so in my zone that I have no idea what’s going on, so the pressure part doesn’t really affect me.”
It's only going to rachet it up on him and Montembeault if neither of them begins producing results.
Jared Davidson avoiding early-career traps, gaining confidence
The sample size is admittedly miniscule, but still revealing in certain ways.
Because Davidson, 23, has been able to show in just under 17 minutes of ice-time spread over his first two NHL games that he’s not too overwhelmed to rely on his instincts.
It’s the hardest thing to do for a player realizing his lifelong dream of playing in the world’s best league—to turn the mind off and just go play—and it’s especially difficult to do while running on pure adrenaline.
“I couldn’t sleep for 24 hours before,” Davidson said about the time between receiving his promotion from the AHL’s Laval Rocket and his debut on Hockey Night in Canada, against the Boston Bruins.
“I think before the game, maybe I was thinking a little more than normal, just not knowing what to expect really,” Davidson added. “But once I’m on the ice, things just shut off and whatever I’ve worked on in the past just kind of took over. It’s not really like I’m thinking when I’m out there. I’m just kind of reacting and trying to, I don’t want to say predict what’s going to happen but going to where the puck’s going to be. I don’t think I’m overthinking, just playing.”
Of equal importance was Davidson not overplaying.
It would’ve been normal for the former fifth-round pick to allow his desire to stand out overtake his need to play a simple, reliable game.
But he never gave into that temptation.
“I think they’ve been watching all year when I was in Laval, and the last couple of years, so they know what kind of player I am, and I know what kind of player I am,” Davidson said. “I don’t think I need to go and re-invent the wheel. I think I know what I’m good at, and I think when I’m on my game, it’s just simple and I’m not overcomplicating anything. When pucks come, shoot it, finding little spots to get open. It’s not like I have to force it.
“Once you start forcing it, you grip your stick a little tighter and pucks don’t come to you, you’re too fast or too slow, you’re not in the right spots.”
And that would be too big a departure from exactly what brought Davidson to Montreal.
He’s been an edgy player dating back to his start with the Seattle Thunderbirds in 2018, and that’s part of what made him appealing to the Canadiens in the 2022 Draft—and part of what made him a good option to call on right now.
But Davidson’s positioning—which enabled him to score 80 goals over his last 124 games in the WHL before popping 33 goals over his last 84 games in the AHL—is indicative of strong hockey sense, which he’s been able to display to generate five shots despite playing such limited minutes so far in the NHL.
What we’ve seen so far is his game, which he’s put a lot of work into, particularly off the ice.
Davidson said watching video has been the biggest contributor to him seemingly always arriving in the right spots at the right time.
“Watching the game, you see structure in the d-zone, you see how guys move off of where the puck is, and once you’re able to figure out where guys are going to be, you can almost predict where the holes are going to be,” the Edmonton native said. “I think just a lot of watching games, watching film and knowing what they’re going to do so then I can figure out how I’m going manipulate it. It’s a lot of just studying and seeing what’s there, what’s not. When pucks go from below the goal line to the blue line, you can’t go somewhere high to get a shot when you’ve got to go a little lower to find different angles. And maybe reverse that if it goes high to low. Just watching the game is the biggest thing that’s helped me.”
Finally experiencing it for the first time at this level and not being overwhelmed by the speed, physicality and skill all around him has made Davidson feel like he has reason to believe he can stick here.
“I think just getting a few shots in the first game (he had four in just 7:14 versus the Bruins), playing physical, playing my game and seeing it works, I think that kind of helps me think it’s possible to have a career here,” he said. “And I want to, so I think that helps. But it’s just continuing that and evolving and finding little things to improve on and just getting better every day.”
Capitals not quite same team that knocked Canadiens out of playoffs
They were the best team in the Eastern Conference last season before beating the eighth-ranked Canadiens in five games of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but the Capitals currently have the 14th-best record in the conference and are searching for some positive momentum that’s proven elusive thus far.
We’ll see if they gain some against the Edmonton Oilers Wednesday before they travel to Montreal to take on the rested Canadiens.
The Capitals are coming off a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings, but it was only their third win in their last 10 games and the scoreline was indicative of the main problem they’ve had so far.
After scoring the second-most goals per game of any team in the league last season, the Capitals rank 24th in the category through 19 games. And their power play, which ranks 30th, is scoring on just 14 per cent of its opportunities, which is almost 10 full points below what it finished at last season.
It’s laid waste to some remarkable performances Logan Thompson has offered.
Through 13 starts, the Capitals’ goaltender has put up the best save percentage (.925) and goals-against average (1.85) of the 51 goaltenders who have made at least six appearances so far.
Meanwhile, Thompson is starting against the Oilers Wednesday, making it most likely the Canadiens will face Charlie Lindgren Thursday.
Lindgren, who debuted with the Canadiens in 2016 and played against them for just over six minutes of last year’s playoff series (after Thompson left Game 3 with an injury), is 2-3-1 with an .893 save percentage and a 3.16 goals-against average.
