In this season of a thousand misfortunes, it is so rare for bad luck to take a day off that it becomes an event when it happens.
Posted at 9:12 p.m.
The return to form of Samuel Montembeault is to be classified in this category. The Bécancour goaltender was playing the best hockey of his young career, and now, last week, an “upper body” injury (it would be his wrist) plunged the rest of his season into the unknown. An operation was even in the air.
The team’s medical staff, however, bet that rest would take the pain away, and it appears to have worked. “I think it’s not too serious,” explained Montembeault Wednesday morning after training for the Canadian.
His situation will be closely monitored and we can expect him to find his net quickly, perhaps as early as Thursday against the Anaheim Ducks at the Bell Center. ” I am really happy ! exclaimed the miraculous.
It’s not just him who’s happy. There’s also the coaching staff who no doubt breathed a long sigh of relief. Actually two. One when he learned that he hadn’t just lost his third (and last) NHL-caliber goaltender. And the other realizing that Cayden Primeau wouldn’t have to hold the fort full time.
The observation is cruel, but very real: Primeau is not having a very good season. Of the six starts he has been given so far, only three times has he played the entire game. His other three games were limited to 40 minutes, after which his team found themselves behind by two to five goals.
Only five against five, the American has already given up five goals too many, according to calculations by the sites Natural Stat Trick (5.17) and Evolving Hockey (5.3). This data is obtained by taking the difference between goals expected and goals conceded — an average quality goalkeeper will hope to get closer to zero.
Five goals too many in six games is… a lot. In reality, only once did Primeau really lift his team. It was last Saturday in Colorado when he stopped 43 of the 46 shots that reached him. Otherwise, its performance has been average at best, tedious at worst.
There was therefore nothing surprising, on Wednesday, to hear his specialized trainer, Éric Raymond, explain that he wanted to “protect” his colt by withdrawing him from last Monday’s game in Minnesota, while the Canadian did nothing. good in front of him and that he himself was having a painful evening.
“He is still young, his confidence is important”, and it is with this in mind “that we make our decisions”, underlined Raymond by videoconference.
Primeau “had some good games”, he “did great things” and continues to show “great potential”, continued the Montreal coach.
However, in the NHL, “it does not mean that you play a bad game when you allow four or five games”. According to the calculations of the CH, the Wild had already obtained 22 chances to score after two periods. And at 5-1, given how little effort the skaters were putting in, the chances of a comeback were virtually non-existent. The decision wasn’t difficult, even if it meant sending Michael McNiven into the fray for a first-ever NHL appearance.
“When it goes in that direction”—towards a thaw—“we want to protect it”.
nothing ideal
About Primeau, head coach Dominique Ducharme did not hide. In an “ideal situation”, it is with the Laval Rocket that the young man would continue his apprenticeship at the professional level this season.
It is for this reason in particular that Samuel Montembeault was called off waivers just before the start of the calendar, when we learned that Carey Price would miss several weeks of activities. Rather than keep Primeau as a reserve for Jake Allen, we let him stop pucks in Laval.
We almost end up forgetting it, but Primeau, 22, has only played 65 games in the American League. With success, by the way: a record of 36-21-4, with 8 shutouts, a goals-against-average of 2.44 and a save percentage of .909. By way of comparison, Jake Allen played 172 games at this level before getting a job with the St. Louis Blues.
Getting even more starts in Laval would no doubt allow Primeau to establish himself as a dominant goaltender in the minors before making the leap to the big club for good.
However, as Ducharme rightly pointed out, “there has been nothing ideal since the beginning of the year”. This is true at all positions, including in front of the net. Allen was injured twice and caught COVID-19, and Montembeault was injured last week.
“We have no choice” to deal with the workforce in place, insisted the coach. Primeau still “played a great game in Colorado,” he recalled. “We like him a lot. »
The fact remains that to “dominate on another level”, as he did in the NCAA and as he could do in the American League, “is important for a player in his progression”.
This scenario, if it materializes, will have to wait at least for the return of Jake Allen, which is not expected for a few more weeks. And we should hope that a tile does not fall on the head of Samuel Montembeault – metaphorically or literally, because nothing surprises us anymore.
Unless new general manager Kent Hughes signs a minor league veteran to let Primeau breathe. Or just to protect it.