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stu cowan: jake allen is all class as the canadiens juggle three goalies
"at the end of the day, we’re all trying to make our mark," veteran says about sharing the net with sam montembeault and cayden primeau.
dec 12 2023
4 minute read
canadiens goalie jake allen is winless in his last seven starts (0-6-1), but montreal has only scored 14 goals combined in those games.
john mahoney
/
montreal gazette
jake allen is in his 11th nhl season and this is the first time he has ever been part of a three-goalie system.
he doesn’t like it — and neither do samuel montembeault or cayden primeau — but all three are trying to make the best of it.
patience has been a virtue for kent hughes since he took over as gm of the canadiens in january 2022 and he has also placed an importance on asset management as he tries to rebuild the team. both of those things are evident with this goalie situation. hughes is willing to be patient when it comes to finding a good trade for one of his goalies and he’s unwilling to risk losing the 24-year-old primeau for nothing by putting him on waivers in order to send him to the ahl’s laval rocket.
in the meantime, goaltending hasn’t been the canadiens’ biggest problem. all three goalies have save percentages above .900 — montembeault at .912, primeau at .902 and allen at .901 — on a team that ranks 30th in the nhl in shots allowed, giving up an average of 34.6 per game.
in the last two games, primeau and allen combined to stop 76 of the 80 shots they faced for a .950 save percentage. primeau made 46 saves in a 3-2 shootout win over the sabres in buffalo and allen made 30 saves in a 2-1 loss to the nashville predators.
expect montembeault to get the start when the canadiens play the pittsburgh penguins wednesday at the bell centre (7 p.m., sn, rds, tsn 690 radio, 98.5 fm).
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i asked allen after sunday’s game if he feels more pressure now in each of his starts since he doesn’t really know when his next one might be.
“no,” he said. “it’s different, for sure. where there’s two (goalies) you’d be in sooner than later. it’s just reality. but for me, i don’t look at it as pressure. i just look at it as trying to improve a little bit.”
allen is winless in his last seven starts (0-6-1), but the canadiens have only scored 14 goals combined in those games.
“i’ve been trying to find a way to get a win here, but through that stretch i feel like i’ve played some decent hockey,” he said.
the canadiens have a 12-13-3 record and have only scored 24 goals combined in their 13 regulation-time losses. in their last five regulation-time losses, they have scored four goals.
sean monahan and nick suzuki are tied for the team lead with eight goals each. through monday’s games, there were 89 players in the nhl with more than eight goals. suzuki leads the canadiens in scoring with 8-14-22 totals, which ranked him 72nd in the nhl through monday’s games. forwards juraj slafkovsky (two), jake evans (two) and josh anderson (one) have played in all 28 games and have scored five goals combined. christian dvorak has gone 16 games without a goal and brendan gallagher hasn’t scored in the last 14 games. cole caufield, with seven goals on the season, has no goals in the last six games and only two in the last 15.
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the canadiens are also struggling on the power play, ranking 24th in the nhl with a 16.7 per cent success rate. they’re even worse at penalty-killing, ranking 29th with a 73.5 per cent success rate.
there are bigger problems for the canadiens right now than their goaltending situation, so hughes can afford to remain patient on that front.
allen has handled the three-goalie situation like the classy veteran he is. he said the biggest problem is a lack of repetitions in practice and the disparity in time between starts. when montembeault had back-to-back starts against the seattle kraken (a 4-2 win) and los angeles kings (a 4-0 loss) last week, it marked only the second time this season that has happened and the first time since allen had back-to-back starts oct. 21 and oct. 23
“it’s been a pretty fair system,” allen said. “sam got the last two (starts) and he’s very deserving. he’s played great all year. the only difference is when you want to get right back in there you got to wait another game or two in general. that’s just the reality of the situation. you just got to look at it the right way.”
allen said that includes maintaining a good relationship with the other two goalies.
“i think if you look at it the wrong way … if you look at it like such a big competition it’s bad for everyone,” he said. “they’re great dudes. i have nothing against them. i think it’s how you can build better in yourself every time you’re in the net. at the end of the day, we’re all trying to make our mark. cayden’s trying to break into the league, sam has proved he’s a great goalie. i’ve been in the league for 400-plus games, so we have a lot of differences within us, but i think we each bring something to the group right now as a three-man system and that’s the way i look at it.”
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