The Montreal Canadiens have revealed who will be starting between the pipes when the team opens its season on the road against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.
And despite many fans believing that Sam Montembeault would be transitioning to the No. 1 position immediately, his veteran counterpart Jake Allen has been given the green light for Game 1.
“Based on the evaluations, I think that Jake gives us the best chance tomorrow night for the first game,” Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis told reporters in French at the CN Sports Complex on Tuesday.
Maintaining a sense of mystery, St. Louis also touched on Montembeault’s importance going forward.
“Monty will be a big part of our success this year,” the head coach said.
Montembeault and Allen pretty much split the crease down the middle last year; however, the Becancour, Quebec, native finished the season with slightly better numbers all around.
Soon after, Montembeault was called upon to represent Canada at the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, where he helped lead his country to a gold medal.
The tandem is not the only problem the Habs face in net, though. Adding to the questions that surround Montreal’s crease, the Canadiens announced on Monday that they would be keeping a third goalie on their 23-man roster — Cayden Primeau.
When asked what the 24-year-old thinks of his position as No. 3 goalie, he admitted that maintaining an NHL spot, which puts his team in a difficult situation, was his intention throughout training camp.
“I tried to force their hand,” he explained to reporters on Monday. “It’s not my decision but I try to make those decisions hard for those who do.”
As for the other positions, the team practiced with the following lines on Tuesday morning:
Forwards
Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Josh Anderson
Alex Newhook – Kirby Dach- Juraj Slafkovsky
Tanner Pearson- Sean Monahan – Brendan Gallagher
Rafael Harvey-Pinard – Jake Evans – Jesse Ylönen/Michael Pezzetta
Defencemen
Mike Matheson – David Savard
Kaiden Guhle – Johnathan Kovacevic
Jordan Harris – Justin Barron
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