MONTREAL — The fans cheered sarcastically when Sam Montembeault made a routine save with the Montreal Canadiens already trailing 2-0 minutes into the game.
And it only got worse.
Montembeault got beat three more times before getting the hook, and the Canadiens were crushed 8-2 by the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night, dropping to 4-5-1 on the season.
“I don’t have the words — it’s embarrassing,” Montembeault said. “We don’t want to play games like this at the Bell Centre in front of our fans. We’ve gotta come out stronger and I have to make stops.
“It’s a game to forget … it goes straight in the trash."
The onslaught started 25 seconds in when Jamie Oleksiak’s point shot deflected off Mike Matheson and into the net. Ryker Evans added another from the point, and Jaden Schwartz and Oliver Bjorkstrand made it 4-0 by the time the game was 10:33 old.
The Bell Centre is renowned for its raucous atmosphere when the Canadiens play, but on this night restless murmurs from the crowd filled the building.
"A little stunned,” captain Nick Suzuki said. “You're down 4-0 10 minutes in, after we played two good games. I don't know what that was out there, so I'm just trying to move on right now."
The Canadiens built some momentum when Cole Caufield scored in the first period, but 1:32 into the second Brandon Montour tallied his first of three goals with a weak wrist shot from long-range, ending Montembeault’s night early.
"It's a game that was hard to evaluate, I'll have to rewatch it," head coach Martin St. Louis said. "It's tough when you start a game like that. Is it bad luck? Not really, we didn't do our job on a faceoff. We pushed in the first, we were there. That fifth goal really hurts."
Montembeault allowed five goals on only 10 shots after stopping just six of 10 in a 7-2 Canadiens loss to the New Rangers last Tuesday.
Montreal’s starter is down to a .891 save percentage and 3.67 goals-against average in seven games after kicking off the campaign with a 48-save shutout against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“We know it's in there,” St. Louis said of Montembeault. “I would treat it like a one-off right now. I don't think that the game was fair for him.”
Montembeault entered the season with high expectations after playing his way to becoming Montreal’s bona fide No. 1 last season.
The 27-year-old from Becancour, Que., is also on the shortlist for Canada’s team at the best-on-best 4 Nations faceoff tournament — which begins in February at the Bell Centre. But he knows he’ll need to improve his game to crack the roster.
“It's still pretty far away, and I don't want to think about it too much,” Montembeault said. “If I want to be there, I'm gonna have to have better performances than what I've been doing in the last three games so far.”
The fans cheered again when Cayden Primeau entered the game in relief, but that hardly helped. He allowed three goals on 13 shots as Seattle kept its foot on the gas.
By the end, the spectators remaining in the building were ironically chanting “Olé, Olé, Olé.”
“I get it,” St. Louis said. “I'm disappointed like they are and I understand where they're coming from."
The Canadiens players didn’t point the finger at their goalies, and instead put the blame on themselves.
"You can't rely on the two of them to make 10-bell saves every single night and keep us in games," Matheson said.
"We were slow right from the start,” Suzuki added. "We gave a lot of Grade A chances, especially early on, and we didn't do our best to help him out. It's on us."
The Canadiens will try to get back on track with road games in Washington and Pittsburgh on Thursday and Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2024.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press
