Patrick Roy will see, in Samuel Montembeault, a goaltender he respects for his progress facing his Islanders on Thursday evening at the Bell Centre.
Life is funny: a year ago, to the day, Roy spoke about Montembeault on TVA Sports.
“For Montembeault, to create a place for himself and challenger the number one who was [Jake] Allen, I think he does that really well, he indicated, during an interview with host Jean-Charles Lajoie, on the show JiC. I think he can be proud of himself. That’s the challenge before him to force the organization to play him. Montembeault just managed to force the Canadian’s hand.”
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Despite the menage a trois surrounding the CH goalkeepers, this season, Montembeault is the one who got the most starts in front of the Habs net. He will be on his 23rde presence since the start of the campaign, having been directly involved in almost half of the Canadian’s matches.
Although he allowed eight goals in his last game against the Boston Bruins on Saturday, Montembeault nevertheless came away with a record of 10-7-4, a goals against average of 3.11 and an efficiency rate of .903.
More than direct fire…
Still according to the comments made by Roy on January 25, 2023, the Islanders also risk having to pull out some feints and put traffic in front of the net to beat Montembeault.
“I have to tell you that Montembeault is impressive,” Roy also said. I found that Montembeault was often beaten on direct shots, and it was the small side that I found a little annoying, but I must admit that for a long time now, direct shots hardly come in anymore, he controls well its rebounds.”
“He’s a young guy who is progressing,” added the man who is now the head coach of the Islanders. Sometimes there are some who develop later than others, but he is earning a place in the National League [de hockey] and hats off to him.”
From “33” to “35”
At 27, Montembeault himself was called upon to comment on Roy’s visit on Wednesday at the end of the team’s training held in Brossard.
“I didn’t really have the chance to see him play, because I was too young, but he remains one of the best goalkeepers and he comes from Quebec,” agreed the Canadian goalkeeper. I wore number 33 a lot growing up and again with the Florida Panthers.”
Although he knew very well that it was Roy’s number, Montembeault admits that he rather counted Roberto Luongo and Henrik Lundqvist among his favorite goalies, because of the era in which he grew up. In Montreal, he chose number 35 when Roy’s jersey was retired by the organization on November 22, 2008, almost 13 years before Montembeault’s arrival.
“This is his third match [comme entraîneur-chef des Islanders] and it is already against us, also mentioned the CH goalkeeper, about Roy’s visit. There is a lot of excitement for this match. It’s going to be a special evening.”
“For their part, the guys will want to win it for Patrick,” noted Montembeault. I think it’s going to be a really good, intense match.”