The ugly wound of Samuel Montembeault

During the post-season locker emptying, Montembeault had confided that he had suffered a double groin tear against the Caps.

I went to ask Grok what rehabilitation from a double groin tear might look like for an NHL goaltender, and this is what he said:

“Studies of professional (NHL) hockey players show that 10-13% of injuries are groin tears, with an average time off work of 4-8 weeks for grades 2-3, but up to 12 weeks or more for goalies due to the specificity of the movements. A full return to competitive level can sometimes take 3-6 months to avoid relapses.”

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Grok

Since Montembeault was injured on April 16, it’s safe to assume that he wasn’t able to really start pushing his movements again until July or August… and that his summer practice was therefore abnormal due to his spring injury. Patrik Laine… Kirby Dach… Brendan Gallagher… Kaiden Guhle… Cole Caufield… many have admitted that healing an injury well into the off-season often affects your start to the season. My hypothesis to explain Montembeault’s current difficulties is therefore as follows: his groin injury prevented him from practicing as usual over the summer, and he’ll need a little more time before he can be at 100% of his physical abilities/reflexes/references.

Since Jakub Dobes is in great shape – both physically and mentally – Martin St-Louis and Éric Raymond have the luxury of being able to tell Sam to take it easy, take his time… and then use Dobes a little more in October and November. Everything should take care of itself after that. Either Dobes will take advantage of this opportunity to grab the #1 goalie chair, or Montembeault will prove in his eventual starts that he’s back to being the organization’s #1 goalie. But in the meantime, the goal is to win as many games as possible, so let’s not hesitate to use Dobes more. Especially since Montembeault is making all the necessary efforts right now

’Prolongation’