Samuel Montembeault Leaves Canadiens Practice Early; Kapanen Absent Again

The 29-year-old Montembeault has yet to start a game this season serving as a backup to Montreal Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes who has gone 1-0-1 with a .443 goals-against average .856 save percentage through the team’s first three games this season. There was a belief that Samuel Montembeault was going to get his first start of the season on Thursday night at the Bell Centre when the Canadiens host the Nashville Predators; if not then, then on Saturday night when the Canadiens host the Detroit Red Wings. However, that is now up in the air as head coach Martin St. Louis did not have any update on Montembeault’s status during his post-practice media session.

When asked about his teammate’s injury after practice, defenseman Alexandre Carrier didn’t seem too concerned and quipped that Montembeault simply took a puck to his ‘family jewels’.

Samuel Montembeault was 10-8-4 with a 3.43 GAA and .842 save percentage last season and also suffered an injury last season and eventually lost his roster spot to rookie Jacob Fowler. However, Montembeault, not Fowler, made the roster of out of training camp last month and Fowler was sent back to the Laval Rocket, the Canadiens’ American Hockey League. The Canadiens have admittedly been trying to move Montembeault on the NHL trade market and while he could’ve gotten more starts down in Laval, Montembeault would’ve had to clear waivers and Fowler didn’t need to.

It is not known yet if the Canadiens will call the 21-year-old Fowler to back up Dobes against the Predators on Thursday night.

Up front, the Canadiens were missing another player on Wednesday in center Oliver Kapanen. Kapanen had seemed to be trending towards returning from his injury recently but that now appears to be up in the air again.