Advanced statistics: Samuel Montembeault is the Canadiens’ worst goalie, according to one team

Would you like a laugh this morning?

In today’s column on BPM Sports, Renaud Lavoie talked about a number of subjects, including the Canadiens’ goaltenders. And at some point, he came up with a good one.

While chatting with a member of an organization other than the Habs (he refuses to name the team… and you’ll understand why), he realized that the team’s advanced statistics department considers Samuel Montembeault to be the Habs’ worst goaltender.

Let’s just say that everyone in the column was outraged… and rightly so.

Mind you, this doesn’t mean that the club in question considers Montembeault to be the worst goalie. What it does mean is that, according to the club’s advanced stats department, Monty is the worst of the three.

The journalist told his interviewer never to repeat that to anyone, because it sounds crazy.

He also asked what the Habs’ advanced stats said… and the logic holds: the Habs’ advanced stats put the Quebecer first.

Samuel Montembeault’s numbers would be on a mature team not giving away all those scoring chances.

He’s calm, moves well, challenges shooters with aplomb and manages to get up quickly from a bad goal.

He deserves nothing but respect.

– Anthony Martineau (@Antho_Martineau) March 1, 2024

I have three things to say about that.

The first is that it’s easy to see how the advanced statistics can differ from one team to the next. But a gap like that is still pretty… fascinating.

The second thing? There’s nothing like the eye test. After all, advanced stats should be a tool to help make decisions, but they can’t take up all the space.

Otherwise, a club might want to get Jake Allen on the assumption that he’ll be better than Samuel Montembeault. The club in question would pay its two minutes on a medium time by seeing him play…

And that brings us to the third thing.

If a club believes that Allen has good advanced stats and its GM, considering that and the fact that Allen is a good point guard, decides to go for him, it could well open the door to a deal for the veteran by Friday. I’m not holding my breath.

Breaking news

– William Trudeau is ill.

– The guys love Montreal.

– Mike Trout played against Shohei Ohtani yesterday.

– Claude Giroux is tired of losing.

– 14 coaches have lost their jobs in the last year.