The Canadian | The defense is young, the goalkeepers do not flinch

Monday night at the Bell Centre, Samuel Montembeault saw white, black and yellow jerseys on the other end, with names like Crosby, Malkin and Letang prominently displayed on the back.

Richard Labbe
The Press

Looking closer to him, the Canadian goalkeeper saw other names, those of his teammates, on the back of the red jerseys: Guhle, Kovacevic, Harris, Xhekaj…

Faced with such a spectacle, there are undoubtedly some guards who would have liked to return to a safer place, but no. Samuel Montembeault chose wisely to stay in front of his goal, and to bravely face the Penguins there.

Which even led to a victory, against all odds…

“It’s true that we have young defenders, admitted the Quebec goalkeeper after Tuesday’s training in Brossard. Seeing that at the start of the season, it may have made me a little nervous… We didn’t really know what to expect. But now, after four games, we can see that these four young people are not afraid of anything… ”

This is how the Canadian was able to beat the Penguins, and this is how the Canadian will try to beat the Arizona Coyotes, Thursday night at the Bell Centre.

Veterans Mike Matheson and Joel Edmundson are not close to a return, so in the immediate future, in defense, it is this very young brigade that will try to hold on as best as they can.

“They are all very young, but I have been pleasantly surprised by their work since the start of the season,” added Montembeault. They each played four excellent games, and often they have to face very good lines every night. It doesn’t look like they’re so young after all…”

If the Canadian wants to continue to go from surprise to surprise, this youth turn will have to hold a little longer. Martin St-Louis admits that there will undoubtedly be adjustments to be made – among other things, we guess that Kaiden Guhle will not play for more than 24 minutes each evening as he did on Monday –, but for the moment, the Guhles of this group will have the chance to express themselves freely.

“I don’t know if Kaiden can continue at such a pace,” replied the Canadian coach. I think he, in the junior ranks, he played a lot; I understand that he could spend a lot of time on the ice, sometimes 22 minutes, 25 minutes, 30 minutes per game… but such minutes of play, in the NHL, are not the same thing.

“It’s hard to believe that he could keep up this pace all season, that he could spend so many minutes on the ice all year. But we’re going to have reinforcements eventually, when all our guys are back in good health, so we can think about that at that time. »

Jake Allen, who will be back in net for the Canadiens on Thursday night, after recently witnessing the birth of his third baby girl, doesn’t see any downsides to having to protect a net behind such a green defense either.

“That our defense is young, it doesn’t change anything for me,” explained the veteran. A goalie can’t think of that. Above all, we must ensure that we are aware of the situation in front of us; if we see that the guys are running all over the ice, as a goalkeeper, it will be up to me to seek a stoppage of play, to try to slow down the pace of the game. »

Like just about everyone, Allen noticed Kaiden Guhle, who continues to impress at the start of the season.

“When you look a bit at a guy like him, you realize how calm he is. He makes the right decisions. Sometimes the youngest get into trouble by not making the right decisions, but he already has a certain maturity in his game, in addition to possessing this quiet confidence. He doesn’t end up in the games of the week for the wrong reasons…”

Good words for Savard

Of course, the young defenders are getting all the attention at the start of the season at CH, but meanwhile, the old man in the group, David Savard, continues to do his job in silence… while impressing his coach. “Everyone sees him as a strictly defensive defender,” replied Martin St-Louis on Tuesday in Brossard. But he has an attacking side to his game too, a lot more than people might think. »