Possible Reasoning Behind Habs Firing Eric Raymond

The dismissal of Raymond comes at a time when goaltending throughout the Canadiens’ lineup has been struggling to make big saves. Meanwhile, Marciano has been successfully rebuilding the goaltenders with the Laval Rocket. It was likely that Samuel Montembeault’s performances as of late were what put the nail in the coffin for Raymond.

Montembeault started the season with a terrible slump that eventually led to him going down to the AHL for a conditioning stint where he was able to rebuild his game back working with Marciano for 2 weeks. This did the Habs’ netminder wonders, as he posted a .920 save percentage in his first 4 games back with a 3-0-1 record. However, his successes would soon unravel as in his last 3 appearances he has a 1-2 record with an .831 save percentage, which no team can really win with.

Now, we can’t blame Raymond entirely for Montembeault going back to struggling, as there was a significant event that happened just before the Habs netminder took a step back, but given how his season under Raymond has gone, that may just be a pure coincidence. After running a 3-goalie system for nearly 3 weeks, the Canadiens sent rookie goaltender Jacob Fowler back to the Rocket for more development time. Fowler had been up to replace Montembeault while the veteran was on his AHL conditioning stint and remained with the team a while longer as a precaution in case Montembeault’s disastrous start to the year was beyond fixing. However, when he got back and had to fight for his job, Montembeault played some of the best hockey he ever played with the Habs.

Unfortunately, that wouldn’t last; once the Canadiens went back to the normal 2-goalie tandem, Montembeault went right back to his struggles with making the big stops. Now, this could be easier said than done for the NHL goalie coach than for the goaltender not putting the same effort now that he doesn’t have to fight for his NHL career. However, on top of Montembeault’s struggles, Fowler started to have a few tough performances at the end of his stint with the Habs, which included a tough 6-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres in his first game with the Habs.

By the time Fowler was set to go down, he too had been struggling while having Raymond as his coach after over a month in the NHL. While it could be said that the hype of the young goaltender had run its course, the fact is that he’s still trying to refind his game in the AHL since going down on January 16th, which shows that there is an issue with his game that wasn’t there before. Fowler seemed like his game slowly got worse while having Raymond as his coach in the NHL. Under Marciano, he, like Montembeault, had been building his game all year, and that’s exactly the type of voice he needs to have success.

The same could be said about Jakub Dobes, who had a strong start to the season, where he won 6 straight games to begin the year, but once there was an obstacle, it took Dobes a while to bounce back from it. The right coach likely would have helped him get out of his slump at a faster rate than he did. Ironically, Dobes is also coming off his best performance in 2 months, the night before the Habs fired Raymond.

At the end of the day, the fact that all 3 goaltenders had moments where their games started to get worse under him is probably the real reason that Raymond got fired. Meanwhile, Marciano has proven that he can help the Habs goaltenders tremendously, which is why he is meant to be the guy in Montreal right now. Only time will tell if Montembeault finds his game again, but if he does, Marciano may be the reason why. It also seems like Marciano’s time to be an NHL goalie is now.

What are your thoughts on the Habs’ personnel change?