Now ex-Montreal Canadiens goaltending coach Eric Raymond, who was too let go on Wednesdayarguably had both the good and bad luck of joining the team following its run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final. In a season that saw the Habs face life without Carey Price for the first time in a decade and a half and Shea Weber “retired”, expectations were significantly lowered.
Montembeault is climbing the Canadiens’ depth chart
Because Price only played five games that (final) season (of his playing career), the Canadiens relied largely on then-backup Jake Allen and longshot Sam Montembeault. Of the total six goaltenders the Habs played that 2021-22 season, those were the two they leaned on the most, with Montembeault possibly emerged as the best in his class despite essentially being a third-stringer American Hockey League goaltender at the time, albeit with some potential.
The Canadiens responded as you would expect given the circumstances. The absence of two of the franchise’s mainstays on top of the divisional realignment led to a last-place season, with their goalkeepers putting up disappointing results, to say the least. In 35 games, the now departed Allen was 9-20-4 with a 3.30 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage. In a sign of things to come, Montembeault, then a veteran of just 25 NHL games, made a team-high 38 appearances, going 8-18-6 with a 3.77 GAA and .891 SV%, which are clearly not very good numbers.
Related: Top obstacles in Canadiens’ path to 2022 playoffs
Ironically, if Montembeault’s save percentage were around that, instead of the .868 it currently is, it’s possible Raymond, who was replaced by Marco Marciano (who is being promoted on an interim basis from the AHL’s Laval Rocket) would still be with the Canadiens. To illustrate, those 3.3 percentage points translate to 12 fewer goals allowed, and while Montembeault has struggled considerably, if just one of the two he allowed late in his last start (a 4-3 loss to division rival Boston Bruins) fails to find the back of the net, head coach Martin St. Louis will likely play him against the league-leading Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night as the team’s No. 1 overall prospect.
The Laval Rocket have no replacement for the goalkeeper coach after the promotion of Marco Marciano.
— Marco D’Amico (@mndamico) January 28, 2026
Instead, after Jakub Dobes took the net against the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday and won, giving him a 6-0-1 record in his last seven games, it was clear what needed to be done despite his pedestrian .890 SV% on the season. First, Dobes needs to get the start. Second, the Canadiens need to rely more on the Czech rookie, as expectations have simply increased.
Canadiens face higher expectations
A season after surprisingly making the postseason, the Canadiens clearly have plans to improve on that finish in some way in 2025-2026. And they won’t achieve that if Montembeault is ranked 80th -7.9 goals saved above expectations (according to MoneyPuck.com). It’s a dramatic change in fortunes based on how he performed last season, when he was among the league leaders in that category and later reached Team Canada at the mid-season 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.
Although Montembeault didn’t play (with Team Canada deferring to St. Louis Blues goalie Jordan Binnington, who is actually playing worse this season than the first), that honor and the way he helped his country to a gold medal at the 2023 Internal Ice Hockey Federation World Championship both demonstrate Montembeault’s aforementioned potential. Further evidence comes in the form of how, after returning from a brief collaboration with Marciano last month following a “conditioning assignment”, he immediately started putting up decent numbers. As of December 30, he went 3-0-1, with a .917 SV%. He even won his next game against the Ottawa Senatorsjust much less impressive.
Montembeault allowed five goals on 34 shots in that match as the team in front of him rallied to overcome a two-goal deficit in the final five minutes. The Canadiens forced overtime and took advantage for the win from an opposing goalie who had an even worse time than him this season. The fact that the Habs gave him the net back after Dobes won the next game showed that he was still their guy and that results matter most. After then losing his next two games to the Buffalo Sabres, yet another division rival, and Bruins, a change was necessary.
If Montembeault is playing like this after being coached by Raymond for a long time, then it is clear that he is on his way to being replaced as the problems in net for the team extend beyond just Montembeault. Unfortunately, he is just the worst example. However, if Montembeault can be as good as he was when he came back from teaming up with Marciano, it’s at least worth taking a chance on him at the NHL level.
Dobes should be the man in the Canadiens net
In the meantime, Dobes is the man in net. It should remain that way for the foreseeable future, at least until the Olympic break. And just in case, the team’s goaltending improves dramatically, similar to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ power play after fired assistant coach Marc Savard earlier this season, that’s something to watch again, with their next set of back-to-back games scheduled for March 6 and 7 (Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, both on the road).
Keep in mind that when the Canadiens fired former goaltending coach Stephane Waite in 2021 and replaced him with Sean Burke, Price had an SV% of 0.893. He rebounded to post a .901 mark in the regular season before turning in a Conn Smythe Trophy-caliber performance in the postseason, where he had a .924 mark. Raymond took action shortly afterwards. And the rest, for better or worse, is history. It shouldn’t be lost on anyone that the Canadiens’ offense is near the top of the league and their ninth-ranked defense is giving up 27.0 shots per game.
The defense may not be perfect, but the goalkeeping is clearly the team’s weak spot and something had to be done about it. Now that it is, at least with a band-aid? Things should get better, which would be impressive based on their current record of 29-17-7. Clearly, “good enough” is not. And that is to be applauded, even if the applause comes at Raymond’s expense. Either way, sooner or later something had to be done. After one too many breakdowns in Montembeault, earlier was the better option. And he’s not playing nearly well enough to be traded. Someone still had to go.
#Canadiens #hope #history #repeats #goalie #coach #change #Hockey #Writers #Canadiens #Goaltending #Latest #news #analysis