Habs Win Again In Overtime Against The Sens

The team may have won, but they still have a serious issue with Montembeault when it comes to making key saves late in games. In reality, the Habs dominated most of the puck possession, and they had no business being down 3-2 late in the game. Sure, there was a bad bounce or two, but a good goaltender needs to be able to prevent those bounces by being in the right position. Right now, there is no way anyone can defend Montembeault’s play from those bounces when he only made 14 saves on 17 shots for an .824 save percentage on the night. Shaky games with a few bad bounces happen to goalies sometimes, but it can’t be every game. That’s the real issue with Montembeault right now. 

As for the game itself, the Canadiens got off to another very quick start when Nick Suzuki was able to spring the Molson Cup winner for October, Cole Caufield in on a breakaway where he was able to put the puck off Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark’s foot and into the net to give the Habs the 1-0 lead just 7:05 into the game. With his assist, Suzuki extended his point streak to a career-high 11 games. The goal was Caufield’s 10th of the season, which puts him in a tie for the most in the league with Nathan MacKinnon.

A few minutes later, the power play clicks on a beautiful passing play that started with Caufield giving Ivan Demidov the puck, who gave it right back to him to find Suzuki, who passed it to the other side of the net to get it to Juraj Slafkovsky who makes no mistake and scores for a 3rd straight game on the power play to give the Habs the 2-0 lead. An assist on this goal gave Suzuki the outright lead in assists in the NHL with 16. 

During the 2nd period, the Canadiens continued to push and had good chances to get a 3-0 lead, such as a shot off the post that had the refs review the play, but it was deemed no goal. A few minutes later, Zack Bolduc went in on a breakaway but completely missed the net, which led to the Senators going the other way with the puck, and after a blocked pass by the Habs net, forward Drake Batherson beat Montembeault from a weird angle to get his team on the board. This was just one of those goals that Montembeault wishes he could have back. 

Following that play, Lane Hutson was the one with the next great chance to give the Habs a 3rd goal of the game. Hutson was hooked on a breakaway, which gave him a penalty shot. Unfortunately, the Habs defenseman wasn’t able to beat Ullmark to extend the Habs’ lead.

With just 10 seconds left in the period, Montembeault was interfered with when a shot came his way; however, he was able to stop the puck, but it bounced off Mike Matheson’s skate and passed Montembeault, who was sliding the other way. At first, the referees called it no goal for goaltender interference, but the Senators challenged the call on the ice. The verdict was that the NHL review room deemed that Montembeault had enough time to get back in position after the interference, which meant that the goal was, in fact, good. As much as I would have liked to disagree, on the replay, it looked like Montembeault had enough time to get into position to make a save after the contact, but unfortunately, he slid out of position after the initial save he made. Michael Amadio was credited with the goal for the Sens.

Despite having controlled the majority of the game, the Habs had to go back to the dressing room tied 2-2 with the Senators after 40 minutes of play.

Very early on in the 3rd period, Jayden Struble and Nick Cousins fought just as I predicted because of the slash that Cousins landed on Demidov’s wrist during the preseason. As a result, Struble got the best of Cousins in the fight, and it hyped both the crowd and team for a while. This was also the 2nd fight of the game as Joe Veleno went after Tyler Kleven late in the first period for his big hit on Alexandre Carrier. Veleno clearly lost the fight, but he managed to get a couple of shots in to defend his teammate.

Most of the 3rd period was back and forth hockey for both teams with nobody breaking the deadlock, until Tim Stutzle drove up the ice along the right wall and beat Montembeault up high with a backhand on what was a nice individual effort but it was still one that a goalie like Montembeault who is looking to gain his coach’s trust back should have stopped as he went down too quickly before Stutzle could release his shot. This is the exact type of play that makes it hard for anyone to trust Montembeault right now.

Luckily for the 2nd time this season, Demidov came to the rescue of Montembeault by tying the game up late, thanks to a beautiful pass from Hutson right in the slot. Demidov made no mistake as he ripped the shot past Ullmark for his 3rd goal of the season to tie the game and send the game to overtime once again.

In overtime, the Habs never let a single shot on Montembeault, and eventually Alex Newhook intercepted a Batherson pass to go on a breakaway where he beat Ullmark for the game-winning goal. 

The Habs deserved to have won this game despite their goaltender on Saturday night and were able to get the job done. However, something needs to be done about Montembeault soon, as the Canadiens can’t overplay a rookie like Dobes the rest of the season. There will also come a time when Dobes cools down from his amazing start. 

After Saturday’s game, there shouldn’t be a debate that Dobes gets the start against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, as Montembeault failed to prove that he deserves to play more games right now.

Do you think Montembeault gets another start before the next back-to-back in late November?