MONTREAL – It’s a conversation that gained steam with each win Jakub Dobes picked up to start his NHL career, and it reached a crescendo after the last one when Dobes robbed Vincent Trocheck and Artemi Panarin of overtime goals before Patrik Laine beat Jonathan Fast at the other end.
Should the 23-year-old goaltender, whose win over the New York Rangers gave him a perfect 5-0, take over the Montreal Canadiens’ purple?
Even if that conversation leaked far from the Canadiens’ locker room, Samuel Montembeault surely knew it was leaking.
Still, he ignored it, which isn’t easy to do after allowing six goals and not appearing anywhere near the height of his abilities in a 7-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs the night before the Rangers game.
That’s how Montembeault is built. He’s calm, collected and seemingly unbothered by all the noise around him. It’s what makes him the No. 1 goalie in a city that demands perfection at his position, and it’s what could make him the No. 1 goalie here for Team Canada when the 4 Nations showdown begins at Bell Middle on Feb. 12.
Doubt Montembeault at your own peril.
The six-foot-three native of Becancour, Que., is used to it. He’s dispelled doubts at every turn in his NHL career, and once again he threw them right into the corner to help the Canadiens pull off the biggest win of their season Tuesday, 3-2 over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“He made big saves in big moments,” Jake Evans said afterward, “and I guess that’s what Canada will want.”
It’s what the Canadiens regularly get from Montembeault, and it’s definitely what they got from him Tuesday.
He was the main reason for the win that returned the Canadiens to a playoff spot and within a point of the Lightning for third place in the Atlantic Division. Montembeault stopped 33 of 35 Tampa Bay shots and kept Montreal in the game long enough to erase a 2-0 deficit with quick drives from Juraj Slafkovsky and Alex Newhook closing in on the hallway mark.
And then he got his head up in the third period before Evans made it 3-2 with 2:15 left.
None of that was surprising. Especially not to the Canadiens, who have grown accustomed to Montembeault giving them a chance in games they don’t deserve to win.
They started the season by forcing him to be otherworldly most nights — which essentially helped seal his selection to Canada’s roster — and they did it again Tuesday, after a long stretch of forcing him to be nothing but average.
The Lightning were anything but ordinary. They were dangerous throughout, leaving their coach, who will also lead Canada’s bench in the 4 Nations, frustrated by the result.
“You know what? Sometimes you play really well and you don’t win,” Jon Cooper said. “They’re probably making noise in the other locker room where they got one, and maybe at worst we deserved points in this game. So it’s a game that humbles you and you don’t always get what you want or what you deserve.”
Sometimes, the only thing standing in the way is the goalie on the other side.
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Watching Montembeault deflect 14 shots from 16 feet or less, including nine in the third period alone, was one of those moments.
He stopped Brandon Hagel, Michael Eyssimont, Jake Guentzel and Anthony Cirelli at point-blank range before the final buzzer sounded, offering a pretty convincing response to the Dobes-anointed crowd.
Not that Montembeault was focused on that.
“I was just focused on stopping the next shot, like I always am,” he said.
That’s why Montembeault has found consistency and found a way to tune out distractions.
“I feel like Sam is pretty calm in that regard,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “I think Sam is worried about what he can do, he can’t worry about the competition he has next to him. I think he’s happy that Dobes is doing well, but I think Sam is very focused on himself… Sam is pretty level-headed and he’s always working on his stuff and working for the next game, and that’s what he did tonight.”
Montembeault stole a win, boosting his expected-goals-saves-numbers-to-maintain his lead in the category over fellow Team Canada goalies Adin Hill and Jordan Binnington.
In the process, he also reminded us why he belongs where he is in the Canadiens’ goaltending pecking order.
“I know people are talking, but I think Sam earned his spot,” Canadiens defenceman David Savard said. “I think Dobes came in and gave us a chance to win every time he came in, and it’s been fun to watch him perform and help us get wins, but I think Sam has been waiting for that moment (to be the Canadiens’ No. 1) and he’s given us a chance every night. He did it again tonight. I think we weren’t flying early on, and he kept us in and made some big saves, and that’s all you can ask of your goalie, and Sam has been doing that.”