1 week Ago By Stu Cowan, Montreal Gazette
Article content The Canadiens didn’t help Cayden Primeau, Samuel Montembeault or Jake Allen with their decision to keep all three goalies for most of last season. The reason for that decision was that GM Kent Hughes believed another NHL team would claim Primeau on waivers if he tried to send him down to the AHL’s Laval Rocket. You have to wonder if Hughes still believes that after the Canadiens beat the Sabres 7-5 in a wild game Monday afternoon in Buffalo.
Primeau allowed five goals on 14 shots before getting pulled by head coach Martin St. Louis and replaced by Montembeault. The Canadiens headed into the third period with a 4-3 lead after captain Nick Suzuki scored two goals in the last minute of the second period.
But the Sabres scored twice in the first 3:51 of the third period to take a 5-4 lead and St. Louis had seen enough of Primeau. Montembeault stopped all four shots he faced after taking over, while the Canadiens got goals from Emil Heineman, Cole Caufield and Christian Dvorak (empty-netter) to end a six-game losing streak (0-5-1) and improve their record to 5-9-2, moving out of last place in the overall NHL standings.
Primeau was making his first start in the last five games. He now has a 1-2-1 record this season with a 4.67 goals-against and a .
845 save percentage. The 25-year-old has played 51 career NHL games and has a 12-23-7 record with a 3.63 GAA and a .
887 save percentage. While Hughes has belief in Primeau — and believes other NHL teams also do — there are reasons why the goalie was still available in the seventh round of the 2017th NHL Draft when the Canadiens took him with the 199th overall pick. Montembeault picked up the win against the Sabres for his 16 minutes of work, improving his record to 4-7-1 with a 3.
42 GAA and a .890 save percentage. Allen, who was dealt to New Jersey at last season’s NHL trade deadline, has a 3-2-1 record this season with the Devils, along with two shutouts, a 2.
35 GAA and a .914 save percentage. It will be interesting to see how much more patience Hughes has with Primeau, especially when both goalies with the Rocket are playing well.
Connor Hughes has a 5-1-0 record with a 1.99 GAA and a .931 save percentage, while Jakub Dobes is 4-1-0 with a 2.
42 GAA and a .908 save percentage. Primeau and Montembeault aren’t getting a lot of help from their teammates and the Canadiens are giving up an average of 4.
13 goals per game, the most in the NHL. But a rebuilding team that St. Louis admitted was fragile after losing six straight games needs a goalie to make some big saves for their confidence.
The Sabres goalies weren’t good either on Monday. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was pulled following the second period after allowing four goals on 18 shots. Dollard-des-Ormeaux native Devon Levi wasn’t any better, allowing two goals on the four shots he faced.
Goaltending and defence continue to be a problem for the Canadiens, who have given up four or more goals in 10 of their first 16 games. But there were some bright spots in Buffalo, including the fact the Canadiens outshot the Sabres 23-18 and went 2-for-6 on the power play. St.
Louis juggled his first two lines, putting Suzuki between Dach and Slafkovsky and Evans between Newhook and Caufield. Caufield scored two goals, giving him a league-high 12 in 16 games and putting him on pace for a 62-goal season. Caufield didn’t score his 12th goal until the 42nd game last season, when he finished with a career-high 28.
Suzuki, who was pointless in the previous four games, had two goals and two assists, while Juraj Slafkovsky set a career high with three assists. Josh Anderson (1-1-2), Christian Dvorak (1-1-2), Lane Hutson (0-2-2) and Dach (0-2-2) also had multi-point games. While rookie defenceman Hutson is still looking for his first NHL goal, he has 10 assists in his first 16 games.
https://x.com/StatsCentre/status/1856096892045648236 Dach, who ended a six-game pointless streak, said the Canadiens were able to stick together as teammates through the six-game losing streak. “I think you go through a stretch like that and you appreciate the grind and the brotherhood that we have in this locker room and how we stick together as a group of 20-23 guys and do the right things each and every day to come out on the right side of it,” Dach told reporters in Buffalo.
“And we’re not cheating it in practice, we’re not cheating it in the game and wishing or wanting it to happen. We’re going out there and we’re working for it and it was nice to be rewarded tonight.” This one wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win and the struggling Canadiens will take it.
“It’s not easy emotionally,” St. Louis told reporters in Buffalo. “I know we were a fragile group recently.
Tonight, I think the boys were not going to stay fragile. They said: Let’s go!” The Canadiens will be back in action Thursday in Minnesota against the Wild (8 p.m.
, TSN2, RDS). You can expect Montembeault will be in goal. scowan@postmedia.
com x.com/StuCowan1.
