(Montreal) Does anyone in this room know what the Canadian intends to do with Cayden Primeau?
The question arises, even more so after this 5-2 defeat against the New Jersey Devils, suffered Tuesday evening at the Bell Center.
The young goalkeeper was quite good – although he would probably put Tyler Toffoli’s first goal in his drawer of shots he would like to see again – but we don’t really know if it is really possible to draw any big conclusions. on this outing, its first of the season, without even knowing the date of its next one.
Primeau himself must not know much, since he knew the date of this first start only 48 hours before the initial puck drop on Tuesday evening. When asked if he knew the Canadian’s plans for him, the answer was quite brief: “No. »
Now, has he done enough to impress the coach?
We’ll let you judge.
PHOTO CHRISTINNE MUSCHI, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Cayden Primeau (30) and Justin Barron (52)
“I thought he played a good game,” replied Martin St-Louis at the end of the evening. He gave us a chance… The Devils have a whirlwind offense, and he hadn’t played much lately. But he gave us a good match. »
However, this three-way committee cannot last forever; the Canadian already had success with such a scenario in 1985-86, but the world has changed a lot since then, and the shoulder pads, the ColecoVision and Jano Bergeron are nothing more than vague memories, like three-man waltzes in front of a net.
Moreover, it was Primeau himself who recognized that the mental load that takes over a goalkeeper in such a situation is not easy to manage.
“I feel good physically,” he added, “and as for the mental aspect, it’s a challenge, I’m not going to lie… but I want to play against the best.”
” I felt good. It’s hard to stay sharp when you’re not playing, but I was just aiming to fight and be competitive. I didn’t think too much about the goals allowed, because there are going to be some. I just wanted to give the club a chance to win… you have to be ready for anything, and it was a good challenge for me. »
In any case, his teammates appreciated the performance.
“We wanted to play well in front of him,” said defender Justin Barron. The Devils have a good team, especially offensively. Cayden played very well, he made some great saves throughout the evening, and he kept us in the game. »
Meanwhile, Jake Allen, another member of this masked trio, himself author of a good performance Monday in Buffalo, was not even in uniform Tuesday night. This situation is not yet a distraction, but it won’t be long, because sooner or later there will be a disgruntled person.
As for the showcase theory, according to which guys like Primeau get starts in order to be “shown” to the rest of the league and perhaps get a move down the road, it more or less holds water, firstly because that there were only three scouts at the Bell Center on this very busy NHL Tuesday evening.
Finally, if there was a little hope for the Canadian to be found somewhere in the haze of this gray Tuesday, we had to face it. These Devils, after all, were in the same place as the Montreal club not so long ago, and now here they are claiming something no worse.
Martin St-Louis took notes.
“We’re chasing that,” said the coach. We want to continue to get closer to that. There were moments in the match where we said to ourselves that we are not that far…”