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
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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.
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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.
In Tuesday night’s 3-2 OT win over the Vegas Golden Knights, Jakub Dobes stopped 32 of the 34 shots he faced, and quite a few of those saves should have been goals. On the penalty kill, the Czech netminder frustrated Vegas with a few saves on one of their set play on the man advantage, the cross-crease pass to a player who’s alone on the doorstep. After the game, he explained:
I was kind of in my flow tracking, and I was feeling good.[…] Mark Stone is really good, around the net, and we had a pre-scout, we knew that they like to make those plays. So, it’s just something that you keep in mind, they probably won’t shoot it from that side of the net, and they’ll probably go back door. So, just a good pre-scout, and I was patient.
– Jakub Dobes on his game-saving stops against Vegas
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He could have taken more of the merit, but he didn’t. Knowing a team favours a play is one thing; executing to stop it is quite another. The penalty killers also knew about that play, but Dobes was the only one who was able to neutralize it. None of the skaters was able to cut a pass they knew could be coming.
After the game, St-Louis agreed that Dobes had a great game, but it felt like he didn’t want to praise him too much. He didn’t want to say the Canadiens owed him one because he had made so many saves, it almost felt like he didn’t want to praise one goalie when the other is struggling.
The fact is, however, that Dobes is winning games. He hasn’t lost in regulation in his last seven games. Earlier in the season, when he was hot, the Canadiens kept going back to Montembeault instead of riding the hot hand, and that was a mistake, and one that led to Dobes starting to struggle as well. It’s time to face the elephant in the room; he’s playing better, and he should play more, period. The net should be his to lose by now; the Habs have been patient enough with Montmebeault, and it’s time to respect Dobes’ body of work.
Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.
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