Martin St-Louis defends Samuel Montembeault

The #1 goaltending debate has returned to Montreal. Last season, when Jakub Dobes arrived on the Canadiens’ entourage during the holiday season and broke everything up, many wanted to see him get the #1 job. It’s the same thing at the start of 2025-2026: Dobes’ performance and Samuel Montembeault’s difficulties have Montreal talking. And that’s normal. It’s just as normal, however, that Martin St-Louis doesn’t want to get involved publicly. This morning, he said he was comfortable with his two goalkeepers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W48EEn-Dus

The head coach had no choice but to publicly defend Monty. Had he done the opposite, I’d have been the first to wonder what he was playing at – as I did with Zachary Bolduc, basically.But the fact remains that tonight, in a home game that had “Samuel Montembeault” written across the front, it’s the European goalie who’ll be in front of his team’s cage. Does this mean that Dobes is now the club’s official #1? No. But it does mean that Martin St-Louis, who took years to talk about Montembeault as the club’s #1, wants to see what Dobes has up his sleeve. It’s important to bear in mind that when it comes to a coach’s official words, I take them and leave them to concentrate on the club’s actions. After all, we feel that the plan is changing before our very eyes. This is a good thing, since the Canadiens must be hoping that an internal competition will bring out the best in Montembeault over the next few weeks.