Hockey is an ever changing game, and that is one of the most interesting thing about watching old hockey games. The rules are different, the strategies are different, the players are different and goalies have been one of the most evolved positions in the entire league.
Way back when, we are talking about the 1920s here, the forward pass was not allowed in the neutral and defending zone. This was changed to encourage more offense.
But this isn't just an old-timer thing. Does anyone remember the two-line pass rule? Because that was still being implemented in most of our lifetimes. It was just 2005 when the NHL eliminated the red line two-line pass rule, again to encourage goals.
But its not just about scoring goals, its also about player safety.
Pretty much everyone knows about Jacques Plante, the first goalie to play in the NHL. And this was another difference (that we will definitely get to later in this article), that Plante basically strong armed coach Toe Blake, because the team didn't have a back-up goalie, and Plante refused to play without the mask. In 1974, Andy Brown was the last NHL goalie to play without a mask.
But you never want to be towards the back end of the trends. Trends are there for a reason, and generally exist because teams win more because of them.
And now we come to crux of all of this. Fatigue and Samuel Montembeault.
Its hard to not see what is happening with Samuel Montembeault and not blame fatigue.
The perfect litmus test for this is the 4 Nations break. Montembeault was picked to play in the 4 Nations tourney early, and towards the actual start of the tournament, people were questioning whether he should be in or not.
In the 10 games before the break, Montembeault lost seven of them, and was running at about .889 save percentage, which is not great.
And then the tourney came, and the Canadians ran with Jordan Binnington, and allowed Sam Montembeault to take a bit of a rest. And Monty came back really hot. He won 7 of the first 8 games he played, and the one loss was in overtime.
But Montembeault's back-up, Jakub Dobes started just 3 games so far in March, compared to 8 for Montembeault. And it has started to show. He has lost his last three starts, and has allowed 4, 5, and 5 goals in each.
Now, I understand that the Montreal Canadiens want to ride the hot hand, and Montembeault was a very hot hand. But he needs rest. Montembeault needs to saw some logs to fuel the fire to keep that hand hot, and Montembeault has not had a break since the 4 Nations break.
The common retort is that "Well, goalies used to play a lot more than this, how can Montembeault be struggling with consistency." Well, there are a lot of reasons for that.
Want to know something fun about the Montreal Canadiens between 1910 and 1925? They only had one goalie play for the team during that whole stretch. I am sure you could guess who that was. The man who they named the goalie trophy after: Georges Vezina.
Today, that would be unthinkable, but there are reasons for that. First of all, seasons were only between 20 and 30 games, which obviously is much less than the 82 the league has now.
And, not to be mean to Vezina, or any other goalie from that era or any era before this, but they were not asked to do what modern goalies do today. You did not see goalies doing the splits and bouncing around like they do today. Heck, since the '20s goalies were only allowed to stand, and not drop to their knees.
Goalies today are more flexible, and put far more strain on their bodies than they used to. Its like MLB pitchers. Pitchers used to play a lot more, but the position has been so optimized and the strain is so tremendous that it is unsafe now. A similar, but less extreme thing has happened with goalies.
And the NHL has been trending away from high usage goaltending for a while now. Like, if you take a look at the most games played by a goalie in one season, you see a lot of numbers from the late '90s and early 2000s.
The highest amount of games played in the 2010s was in the 2010-11 season, as Cam Ward played over 70 games with the Hurricanes, 18th on the list. Next in the 2010s is Cam Talbot in 2016-17 with the Edmonton Oilers, 25th on the list.
So the amount of games being played by goalies has gradually been lessening. Unless you have one thing. One of the best goalies of their generation.
Look at the games played leaders this season: Vasilevskiy, Hellebuyck, Shesterkin, Sorokin. These are some of the biggest name goalies in the entire league, and they lead the league in games played. And then right after that, with the fifth most games played is Samuel Montembeault.
I love Sam Montembeault. He is my goalie through and through. But hs is not Connor Hellebuyck. He is not on the same level as probable future Hall-of-Famer Andrei Vasilevskiy. And he likely won't be. And that is okay. Not every player gets in the Hall-Of- Fame.
But why is Montembeault being ridden like he is?
Again, Montembeault is a good 1A or 1B option, but should not be counted on to solely carry the team. When he is well rested, he plays lights out, but cannot handle the strain of 60-70 games in a season.
And goalies don't really do that anymore, despite what some people might say. Only three goalies played more than 60 games last season, and they didn't play much more than 60. Carey Price topped out at 72 games, and he is one of the greatest of his time. And unsurprisingly, dealt with massive injury problems later in his career possibly due to being overworked.
And it's definitely something that teams and players have found is safer. Look at some of the longest recent careers, like Mike Smith, who never played more than 67 games and only topped 60 games 3 times. Marc-Andre Fleury never topped 70 games, and had frequent seasons with sub 50 games played to rest.
With goalies playing less games, hopefully we should see longer careers and longer peaks. Teams have been using tandems more and more often, but Montreal seems to be stuck in the past, and its been hurting their chances and their goalie in Samuel Montembeault. There's no shame in needing a break.