Montreal Canadiens: Cayden Primeau Admirably Battles Through Exhausting Week

The Montreal Canadiens picked up goaltender Andrew Hammond in a trade with the Minnesota Wild two weeks ago.

The former Ottawa Senators goaltender was playing in the American Hockey League for most of the past couple seasons so it was not a blockbuster trade by any means. It was Brandon Baddock heading back the other way and he was a depth winger for the Laval Rocket.

The biggest reason for the trade was to protect the Canadiens young goaltenders on the roster.

Cayden Primeau was forced to play a lot of minutes for the Canadiens for a few weeks and it was not going well. It seemed like every game either Primeau would get pulled after forth minutes or he would have to go on in relief of Sam Montembeault who was getting yanked after a rough start.

It wasn’t really the fault of the goaltenders, but the team in front of them was so bad they didn’t really stand a chance.

So, the Canadiens traded for a veteran goalie in Hammond so that Primeau cold return to the minors. However, the goalie’s workload has certainly increased since being sent down.

Primeau just wrapped up a seven day stretch where he played five games. It is almost unheard of for a team to play five games in seven days and they never have the same goalie play every game.

It stated last Sunday when Primeau stopped 20 of 30 shots in a win over the Rochester Americans.

The following day, Michael McNiven got the start against the Toronto Marlies but was pulled after allowing four goals in 20 minutes of action. Primeau went in and turned aside 19 of 21 shots in the final two periods in Monday night’s game.

On Wednesday, Primeau allowed four goals on 34 shots but earned the win over the Marlies.

The Rocket hosted the Belleville Senators on Friday night and Primeau was sharp, but not busy, stopping 19 of 20 shots in another win.

Since he wasn’t tested a lot on Friday, the Rocket started Primeau again on Saturday afternoon in a rematch with the Sens. Things looked great after two periods as Primeau had not allowed a goal, but then the exhaustion set in. Belleville scored four times in the third period to steal the win, and Primeau’s terrific week of hockey ended on a sour note.

Even with the four goal period to close out the wild week, Primeau still had a 2.58 GAA and a .919 SV% during his five games in seven days stint. That was well below a 2.00 GAA before the final period where Primeau was clearly out of gas.

The Habs prospect goaltender had his ups and downs during his NHL stint this season. It was great to see him playing so well during his first stint back in the minors, even if he maybe played a bit too much.