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When the National Hockey League decided to award a trophy to the best goaltender every season, they called it the Vezina trophy after newly retired goaltender Georges Vezina who had played eight seasons with the Montreal Canadiens. In the last two seasons of his career, Vezina had been dominating posting goals against average of 1.97 and 1.81 and leading the Canadiens to a Stanley Cup win in 1924. Since the inception of the award, it has been awarded 96 times and 29 times, it was taken by a Montreal Canadiens’ netminder.
Given how often the Habs have claimed that piece of hardware, fans have come to expect excellence for the Montreal Canadiens’ goaltender. Granted, there were some years in which an especially strong team made a rather ordinary goaltender look better than he was. Just think of Richard Sévigny in 1981 for instance.
In recent history though, no matter how weak the Canadiens were, there were always some strong goaltenders making them look better and somehow guiding them to the playoffs. Patrick Roy got the Canadiens two unexpected Stanley Cups, José Théodore won both the Vezina and the Hart trophy and for years, the Canadiens’ organization put all its chips on Carey Price, thinking he could guide them to the promise land.
Getting used to the fact that this is not the team’s identity will take some time, but this new way of thinking is why the fans shouldn’t be anxious about the situation in net. Samuel Montembeault has showed some great things between the pipes, but chances are, he’s not the goalie who will lead the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup and it doesn’t matter. As long as by the time they are ready to contend, the Canadiens find themselves a goaltender they trust, it will be fine.
The masked man in Montreal doesn’t have to be the Messiah anymore, he doesn’t have to part the sea to guide his team through a scoreless desert. The Golden Knights just won the Stanley Cup with Aidan Hill acting has their number one goaltender, in 2022 the Avalanche did it with Darcy Kuemper and the 2019 Blues did it with rookie goalie Jordan Binnington.