Will Sam Montembeault’s return to form keep Canadiens elevated?
The Montreal Canadiens entered the 2025-26 season seeking to capitalize on the momentum from the team’s remarkable playoff run the previous year.
One of the keys to the team’s success was goaltender Sam Montembeault. However, the 29-year-old has seen his share of struggles this season, despite the team sitting near the top of the Atlantic Division standings.
Montembeault has allowed four goals or more in four of his past five starts, including allowing six against the Edmonton Oilers on Oct. 23. Yet, things might be turning in the Quebec native’s favor. Though he gave up four goals in a shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, he made 42 saves, and helped Montreal claw back into the game.
On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discuss how important Montembeault will be for the Habs’ success this season.
Tyler Yaremchuk: You can spin that as a glass-half-full, glass-half-empty kind of thing. Jakub Dobes has been excellent so far, and you can look and go, ‘Dobes isn’t going to be that [good] all year,’ but then I can flip it and say, ‘Well, Montembeault is not going to be this bad all year.’ When Montembeault figures it out, maybe that’s a way for Montreal to keep this heater going.
Carter Hutton: I think [Montembeault’s] growing into his game. What I do think the natural progression is, after a season like that, there’s a bit of decompression throughout the summer. So, you’re wound tight like a coil. You’re almost in this flow state where games are coming at you consistently. And then all of a sudden, it’s a big break…Expectations in a tough market, and he’s off to a bad start.
I don’t think this is concerning in the sense that I think he plays his way out of this. He’s a good goalie. How do they platoon these two moving forward, where maybe Dobes is hot? You give him some more starts to try to get Montembeault going…the Habs have a lot of upside. It’s just a matter of getting both goalies going in the right direction.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…