Canadiens: St-Louis On Big Goaltending Issue

Much has been made of Ottawa Senators’ defenseman Jake Sanderson telling the media after their 6-5 defeat at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens that “Leevi made some good saves, but at the end of the day, you need more than 10 saves to win a game.” On Tuesday, after practice, Martin St-Louis was essentially asked if his job would be easier if the Habs had stability in net, and needless to say, the coach is not a Sanderson kind of guy:

If those things happened, it would be band aids. You know what I mean? And maybe we wouldn’t be paying attention to that, because if you’re focused on results, your process isn’t always in the right place. And I’d say that in anything we do, we’re guided by a process rather than the result. So, if goalies are making big saves, it can sometimes hide things. So, when focusing on process, of course, you need saves, but we’re actually looking at what happens before the save is made or not. It doesn’t change what we coach in front of that. So, even if we had stability, as you say, it wouldn’t change the way we’re coaching.

– St-Louis on goaltending stability

That answer shouldn’t have surprised anybody. Just like St-Louis won’t throw his forwards or his defensemen under the bus, he won’t throw his goaltenders either. Any coach would like their goaltenders to make more saves; that goes without saying, but no goaltender would like their coach to say it out loud.

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Furthermore, St-Louis once again gave a well-thought-out answer, and he has a point. When coaching his players, a coach will speak to them about the mistakes made, whether or not the puck ended up in the back of their own net; if they don’t, they’re not doing a very thorough job. Whether the puck crosses the goal line or not, a mistake was made before the goaltender was tested, and if the netminder made the save that one time, it doesn’t mean he’ll do it the next time, so it’s the coach’s job to address the issue.

What’s much more worrying, however, is that Samuel Montembeault had to say after the defeat against the Boston Bruins. While he did admit that he could have made the save on Fraser Minten’s backhand, he added that on the goals against the Buffalo Sabres and the other ones against the Bruins, there wasn’t much he could do. That’s not the right attitude to have.

Back in October 2017, when the Canadiens had a bad start to the season, Carey Price had a 2-6-1 record, a 3.60 GAA, and a save percentage of .886, and after a 4-0 loss against the Los Angeles Kings, he said:

I just got to find ways to stop the puck and keep our guys in it until we bury the puck. It just seems that I’m not doing that right now. So, I just got to find a way to do it.

– Carey Price on his struggles in 2017

That’s the right attitude for a goalie to have. Whatever comes your way, you have to find a way to stop it. That’s why there’s a stat called goals saved above expected: a good goaltender will stop shots he’s not expected to save. A goalie who’s doing his job will be able to stop high-danger chances that should have been goals.