{"id":364841,"date":"2025-12-22T16:26:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364841\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T16:26:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:26:12","slug":"call-of-the-wilde-montreal-canadiens-fall-in-an-overtime-shootout-in-pittsburgh-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364841\/","title":{"rendered":"Call of the Wilde: Montreal Canadiens fall in an overtime shootout in Pittsburgh – Montreal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Montreal Canadiens<\/a> wanted to keep up the pressure on the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday night. The Penguins had lost eight straight games \u2014 including a 4-0 shutout the night before \u2014 against the Canadiens.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jacob Fowler announced his arrival as a high-quality goalie in Montreal with a 31-save shutout. Jakub Dobes tried to follow suit, putting a lot of pressure on the organization looking for a place to play for Samuel Montembeault.<\/p>\n

Dobes was also strong in a contest stopping 28 of 31 shots. The Canadiens were outplayed, but managed to take it to overtime when Montreal turned it around to dominate. It went to a shootout with the Penguins scoring on two of their three shots to win 4-3.<\/p>\n

Wilde Horses<\/p>\n

The Canadiens\u2019 second line opened the scoring with all three making excellent plays. Ivan Demidov won the puck along the boards, and fed a perfect pass to Juraj Slafkovsky. Slafkovsky already had his mind made up what to do. He immediately fed it to Oliver Kapanen who one-timed it upstairs. It was a gorgeous goal brought to you by three talented players.<\/p>\n

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In the second period, they did it all over again. Kapanen was the first touch as he took a shot on a superb Slafkovsky pass. The rebound went to Slafkovsky on the half-wall and he knew exactly what he wanted to do as he got the puck. He went cross-ice to Demidov. He shot into the far side with a perfectly placed shot.<\/p>\n

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Arturs Silovs was an interesting watch in goal. He looked like a carousel trying to figure out which shooter to square up on. The puck moved so quickly, that he was far from set when Demidov shot his eighth goal of the season. The line is showing how talented it is these days, and all three of these players are just getting started at 22, 21 and 20 years of age. Remarkable.<\/p>\n

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In overtime, it was wizardry from Lane Hutson for the first minute. He owned the puck. He, Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield mesmerized the Penguins. Pittsburgh didn\u2019t touch the puck in overtime until 2:32 was left, as the Canadiens kept dominating with three new players going over the boards.<\/p>\n

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In the added five minutes, Mike Matheson hit the post, Slafkovsky hit the post and Caufield had a one-timer with five seconds left \u2014 but Silovs made a remarkable save.<\/p>\n

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Old habits die hard. The Canadiens have shown a strong improvement recently in their respect of the blue line, but on the first Penguins goal, it was that same old problem. The Canadiens had two chances to clear it, but they refused to make the easy play.<\/p>\n

On the second goal, Sidney Crosby passed Mario Lemieux<\/a> for eighth all-time in points in league history. The power play was set up when Adam Engstrom was beaten one-on-one, but the mistake train started rolling on yet another decision to not clear the puck out by Joe Veleno.<\/p>\n

The comment you always hear is Veleno couldn\u2019t get it out, but this is incorrect. Veleno could get it out, but he chose not to. That\u2019s the issue. It\u2019s more often a decision problem, not an ability problem.<\/p>\n

Of course, the Canadiens want to take over possession in their own zone and maintain it as they make their way out, but there are times where the more intelligent play is an ugly flip high over everyone\u2019s head for a clear. It\u2019s ugly, but no one is 11 feet tall, so it\u2019s always the end of pressure when it\u2019s done.<\/p>\n

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Occasionally, there isn\u2019t time to get the stick into position to flip it high. The next best thing is to get the puck into the corner. It\u2019s remarkable to watch how infrequently players throw the puck there. No one scores from the corner. The instinct is get it out, but it should be move it out of scoring position when it\u2019s frantic.<\/p>\n

The biggest error is being cute in your own zone and turning it over, allowing the scrambling hockey to continue. Making the right choice is what experience brings. It can take a lot of errors before it sinks in more consistently.<\/p>\n

Wilde Cards<\/p>\n

The Canadiens don\u2019t have a goaltending controversy; they have a goaltending predicament. There\u2019s nothing controversial at all about the numbers. The best goalie last year is the worst goalie this year, and the one who isn\u2019t supposed to be ready yet looks the most ready.<\/p>\n

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Samuel Montembeault hasn\u2019t started a game in the Montreal net since December 2, because when he faces a shot, he seems to be heading to Moose Jaw to save it. Montembeault stopped seven shots out of ten in his last start.<\/p>\n

He was sent down to the minors for a conditioning stint, but we\u2019re not sure yet whether he simply reinforced the same conditions in the American Hockey League. In his first start, Montembeault let in two weak goals out of the four that he allowed on 24 shots. It was another poor showing.<\/p>\n

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The second game in Cleveland was better, stopping 27 out of 28 shots. It was just one game, but it was a strong one. Montembeault was scheduled to return to the Canadiens Sunday hoping to build on that, but the club announced that they\u2019ll keep Montembeault in the minors until after the holiday break. The presumption is that they want him to get in a third game in Laval. He must return to the NHL after that game.<\/p>\n

The other two goalies haven\u2019t faltered in his absence. In fact, they seem quite comfortable.<\/p>\n

Jacob Fowler beat Patrick Roy and Carey Price for fastest shutout. Roy took 22 games. Price took 23 games. Fowler stopped 31 out of 31 shots for a perfect game in only his fourth contest and became the third-youngest ever to record a shutout for the Canadiens behind only Roy and Price, who both accomplished the feat when they were 20. Fowler is 21, which by today\u2019s NHL standards is very young for a goalie.<\/p>\n

Fowler has a 4.6 in Goals Saved Above Expected in his four starts. Per 60 minutes, that\u2019s the third best in the NHL. To send him back to the minors with these numbers does not make sense. The Canadiens are trying to win hockey games, not draft high. They need to put their best chance in the net.<\/p>\n

Jakub Dobes is also well ahead of Montembeault presently, so he also should not be punished for his age, or status either. Dobes can be sent to the minors without going through waivers. He shouldn\u2019t be demoted with a positive Goals Saved Above Expected of 5.0 and a save percentage 36 points higher than the veteran.<\/p>\n

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Montembeault has the third-worst Goals Saved Above Expected in the league at -6.3. His save percentage is .857, among the league\u2019s worst.<\/p>\n

Management throughout the sporting world likes to say \u201cthe players will tell us what decision we should make.\u201d That\u2019s where the predicament lies. The three goalies have already told Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton what they need to do.<\/p>\n

Youth needs to be served until youth stops succeeding. Montembeault has lost the net. He can\u2019t have it back until either Dobes or Fowler falters. If they don\u2019t falter, Montembeault will have to wait. The message in the locker room must be clear: Performance is the bottom line.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca<\/a> after each Canadiens game.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Montreal Canadiens wanted to keep up the pressure on the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday night. The Penguins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,161740,161741,5790,575,85],"class_list":["post-364841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-call-of-the-wilde","tag-habs","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}