What the Puck: Canadiens have a goaltending carousel and no clear No. 1

With Jake Allen, Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau all sticking with the big club this season, battle for crease time could intensify.

It just might be time for a good old-fashioned Montreal Canadiens goaltending controversy.

The last time that happened was in the 2009-2010 season, when a fellow named Jaroslav Halak ended up stealing the No. 1 job from Carey Price. Then came the Halak spring, when the Slovak netminder carried the team on his shoulders to win two playoff rounds against heavyweight opponents, first the President’s Trophy-winning Washington Capitals and then the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

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Price, who was in his third season with the Habs at the time, won only 13 of his 41 starts. Halak won twice as many regular-season games. But the controversy was quickly nipped in the bud after the season, with general manager Pierre Gauthier sending Halak to St. Louis in exchange for Lars Eller and Ian Schultz.

After that, Price was unquestionably the No. 1 dude on the team … when he was healthy. The only question marks arose when he was injured, which sadly enough, occurred all too often.

The current situation is not exactly a raging controversy, but let’s just say that management’s decision to carry three goalies with the team this season has a few of us wondering what the plan is. For the moment, there is no clear No. 1 goalie. This week, most would probably say the top guy between the pipes is veteran Jake Allen, based on his stellar play in his last two starts, against the Buffalo Sabres Monday and the Capitals Saturday.

But that could change any day. Allen was chosen by head coach Martin St. Louis to open the Canadiens’ season in Toronto and a big part of the reason they lost 6-5 in the shootout to the Maple Leafs was that Allen was weak on two of Auston Matthews’s goals.

Many fans and a handful of local hockey columnists were grumbling that Samuel Montembeault should have been given the first start, given that he backstopped Canada to a gold medal at the World Championships in May and was the best goalie on the team last season. Monty got the call for the home opener versus Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks Oct. 14 and was pretty good in a 3-2 win. But he looked middling in his next start, when the CH was turned inside out by the Minnesota Wild in a 5-2 loss.

Third-string goalie Cayden Primeau, who has struggled to find a permanent home with the big team, finally nabbed his first start Tuesday and I thought he was very good in a 5-2 loss to a talented New Jersey Devils team. Honestly, his save on the first period on veteran Ondrej Palat was the best save this season by a Canadiens netminder, with Primeau diving to his right and miraculously throwing out his arm to stop the shot with his blocker.

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Presumably, a No. 1 goalie will eventually emerge here. Sure it could be Allen, but recent history suggests he has trouble maintaining his numbers as the games accumulate. Montembeault might be the favourite. He was rarely bad last season and was acclaimed for his play in the World Championships.

But what if it turned out to be a shocker and Primeau somehow stole the job? He looked good enough to do it Tuesday night. He admittedly has history against him. He just hasn’t been good enough in the past with the Habs. After Tuesday night’s loss, he has a terrible NHL record of 3-13-2.

But stranger things have happened. All this had me thinking of one of the most famous times Montreal started with three goalies. It was the 1985-1986 season and the CH netminders included Steve Penney, Doug Soetaert and a 20-year-old rookie named Patrick Roy. Penney, who had been amazing in the 1984 playoffs, was supposed to be the obvious No. 1. But he was almost immediately challenged by the heroics of the gangly young newcomer nicknamed Casseau and then Penney went down with a season-ending injury midway through the season.

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Famously in December of that season, Maurice Richard wrote a column in La Presse saying “The Canadiens’ problem is in front of the net.” La Presse hockey writer Richard Labbé in his excellent book on that unlikely 1986 Cup win, L’Équipe qui ne devait pas gagner, quotes then-Habs coach Jean Perron, who tells the story of how legendary defenceman Larry Robinson came to see him halfway through the season to say he finally understood why Perron was going with Roy.

Big Bird was friends with the two veteran goalies but he told Perron: “Coach, I understand why you put Patrick in the net. Even I can’t score on him in practice!”

And how did that goaltending controversy end? The team that wasn’t meant to win the Cup won it, with no small amount of help from Roy, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as best player in the playoffs.

OK I’m not saying history will repeat with Primeau this year, but can’t a fan dream?

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