Canadiens’ goaltending tandem ranked 13th, according to The Athletic

On March 8, Kent Hughes made a deal that no one expected. He succeeded in trading Jake Allen to the New Jersey Devils.

Many fans had given up hope on the less-than-ideal situation in front of the net.

Now it’s the team of Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau, who are doing well. Allen is also doing very well in New Jersey so far. In fact, he just made not one, but two spectacular saves against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Jake. Allen. #NJDevils pic.twitter.com/kly91R4irm

– NHL News (@PuckReportNHL) March 19, 2024

But hey. In today’s NHL, having two good goalies on a team is paramount.

Top teams like the Rangers, Jets and Panthers all have something in common: a quality second goalie. So it’s no surprise that in the league’s top tandem rankings, all three teams are in the top-4 (according to The Athletic).

The Bruins, with Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman, come in second.

But as for the Canadiens, the tandem ranks 13th, which isn’t bad at all.

NHL goalie tandem power rankings 2.0: A massive gap at the top of the listhttps://t.co/YDu3XHxdjW

– The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) March 19, 2024

The man who wrote the text, Jesse Granger, explains that the goalies are performing very well, even if they’re playing behind an atrocious defense.

The statistics are there to support his argument.

But Granger also says that if Jake Allen hadn’t been traded, Montreal’s goaltending trio would have been much higher in the standings.

He’s one of the league’s most reliable backups and will help New Jersey next season, when he still has one year left on his contract. – Jesse Granger

So you’re going to tell me that the Devils’ tandem must be well ranked, with Allen? Well, no. Even with the acquisition of the former Habs goaltender and Kaapo Kahonen, Granger ranked him 30th (out of 32). Only the goalies of the Blackhawks (Petr Mrazek and Arvid Soderblom) and Senators (Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg) do worse.

With Allen, New Jersey is in the bottom-3. Without Allen, the Habs aren’t as high as they could have been. It’s true that Monty and Primeau are having good seasons…

Gossip

– Of note.

While we wait for the warm-up and the trios, Cole Caufield, with 73 goals, is 1570th in NHL history, tied with Tim Taylor, Lorne Henning and Tom Bladon.

– Guillaume Lefrançois (@glefrancoisLP) March 20, 2024

– She’s a little lost.

Former #Canucks and #njdevils employee Rachel Doerrie suggested that the #njdevils trade their #2nd overall draft pick Simon Nemec to Boston for Linus Ullmark and then compared Ullmark to Crosby. What kind of drugs is she taking? pic.twitter.com/p2uXFX2jUz

– John Puck (@johnpuck1992) March 19, 2024

– Pierre Houde and Marc Denis can put their clothes back on.