Arizona game on Thursday: all three goalkeepers deserve to play

Last night in Vegas, Samuel Montembeault scored a big one. The Quebecer distinguished himself in his fourth game of the season, helping his team earn a big point in the shootout, my colleague Maxime Truman’s favorite moment of the game… or not.

What this means is that since the start of the season, Monty has a 2-1-1 record, an efficiency rate of .905 and a sub-three average of 2.91.

But as we can see, he’s not up to Jake Allen’s level. The latter boasts a 2.63 average, a .930 efficiency rate and still hasn’t lost a game. He currently has a 3-0-1 record.

In fact, the seemingly #1 goalie hasn’t lost since the opening game.

And even Cayden Primeau isn’t to blame. The organization’s #3 goalie doesn’t have the same numbers as the others, but he hasn’t played in a great game either.

Remember that against the Devils, in a two-games-in-two-nights affair, the players had an ugly second half, and that’s when the American allowed several goals.

All this to say that Martin St-Louis has a big decision to make ahead of Thursday’s game. Which goaltender will be in uniform to face the Coyotes, who just pulverized the Blackhawks 8-1 last night?

It’s a complicated question, since all three goalkeepers deserve to play.

So I suggest we play with 17 skaters to dress the three goalies and give them 20 minutes each. It would be like a training camp… only worse.

This is obviously a joke, but it’s indicative of the CH’s problem, which is to manage the playing time of three guys who surely want to play more often.

With three goalies fighting for playing time, it’s easy to see how this complicates the coach’s decisions.

What you need to know is that unless a goalie doesn’t finish a game he’s started, there’s one goalie who won’t play again this week. There are only two duels left on the trip.

Nine games await the Habs in the next three weeks, which will give the guys a little more playing time, but as of the morning of the 31st, there are only two games left in the week.

But even if it’s split evenly over the next few weeks, that’s only one game a week for everyone for a while…

That said, before thinking about the next few weeks, let’s start by thinking about Thursday. Which goalie deserves to be in front of the net against the Coyotes? No, let me start again. After all, all three deserve it.

The question is: which goalie should play on Thursday?

I imagine that, having played the first game of the trip, Samuel Montembeault will get a game off on Thursday. He deserves to play, but the same can be said of two other guys who weren’t on the ice last night.

Jake Allen? He’s the team’s #1 goalie, by the looks of it, and he didn’t play last game.

I have a feeling that if I had to bet an old $2 on Shane Pinto’s return date the presence of a goalie between now and the end of the trip, I’d say Allen is the one most assured of playing at least one game between now and the return home.

I don’t see him skipping his turn all three times… and so it remains to be seen whether he’ll play Thursday against the Coyotes and/or Saturday against the Blues.

If Cayden Primeau is going to play a game on the trip, I have a feeling it’s going to be Thursday. But since he played last week, maybe that can wait in the Canadiens’ eyes too.

In short, it’s not that simple. The problem is growing.

Note that the CH is off today in a day of travel to Arizona, precisely. So we won’t be able to get any clues on anything lineup-wise because there’s no practice.

So we won’t know if Mike Matheson will be fit enough to train with the others.

Nor will we know whether Jesse Ylönen or Gustav Lindstrom, who have skipped their turn for the past two games, will look like guys who have a chance of returning to action soon.

In Lindstrom’s case, it really depends on Mike Matheson. But Ylönen?

I don’t know if Martin St-Louis wants to bring him back into the line-up, but if so, he’d better do it on Thursday. After all, by Saturday, chances are Christian Dvorak will be back in action. And in such a case, playing Ylönen would be doubly difficult.

On the other hand, if Juraj Slafkovsky isn’t keen to perform better against Logan Cooley and the Yotes, he could force his coach’s hand, but in the wrong direction.

In short

– Protecting players’ necks: we’re thinking about it more and more.

– Speaking of goalies: Eric Raymond deserves credit for his work. [BPM Sports]

– Enjoy your reading.

– I think Max Scherzer’s streak is over.

– Sens hire director of health and performance.