Canadiens Land Outside Of Top Three Goaltending Rankings In The Atlantic Division
The Montreal Canadiens fall outside of THN's Ryan Lambert's top three goaltenders list in the Atlantic Division, and that shouldn't be a surprise after a season of instability.
Video Transcript
Last year, at the start of the season, he did not want to have to deal with that, but he was given no choice.
Fowler came up, he went down, came up, went down.
Eventually, when he came up, guys, to the pros, he, or to the NHL, he never went back, and Montembeault never played again here.
Three-year contract.
Obviously, Jacob Fowler is still the, the guy everyone talks about moving forward.
Michael, Dobish was so fantastic in the postseason.
How do you see this all playing out?
Are they gonna try and actively get rid of Montembeault, or what's gonna happen here?
It, it does feel like Montembeault is probably the odd man out, just based on what we saw last year and, you know, even the year before.
I know he got chosen for the Four Nations squad, but he wasn't that great of a goaltender.
It almost felt like they took him based on his, you know, where he was from, not what he had done, just basically being the only French-Canadian goaltender or player on that squad.
I see a future where it is a, I don't know if it's a tandem, but it's a two-man show of Dobich and Fowler, and I think that, you know, gives you a lot of optimism because both guys are young.
Both guys, to Ryan's point, have extremely high ce- ceilings.
Now, we know with goaltending, as Ryan mentioned, it is volatile and, you know, y- you've gotta kind of prepare for the time where they do go through those slumps, and you hope that those slumps are days, if not weeks long, not months long.
But, you know, y- you know, you look around the league and every single team now has not just a, you know, maybe a, a starter, but they have a guy that they're comfortable riding in shotgun or tandem with.
And I look at even Toronto with Anthony Stolarz and Bobrovsky there, and I don't think Bobrovsky's gonna be playing 70-plus games or even 60-plus games this year.
He's older, and I think every team's looking for that kind of magic split where, you know, you've got a rested number one heading into the playoffs.
