Samuel Montembeault back in net tonight

Not surprisingly, Samuel Montembeault will get tonight’s start.

The Québécois goaltender, on the strength of his excellent start to the season, is the club’s #1 goaltender, but we wondered whether Martin St-Louis would want to give Cayden Primeau an “easier” start against the Penguins.

But in the end, logic prevailed: the best goalie will play tonight.

Samuel Montembeault starts vs. Penguins

– Eric Engels (@EricEngels) October 14, 2024

It’s obviously not a 50/50 split between the two goalies at the start of the season, which is fine, since Monty deserves his playing time right now.

I wonder when Primeau will be back on the ice. Will it be Thursday against the Kings? Saturday in New York? Or next week? On the road, it seems likely/logical.

Also note that during practice, we saw Jayden Struble work overtime. So we could assume that he wasn’t going to return to action tonight, and that guys like Arber Xhekaj and Justin Barron were going to play.

That doesn’t tell us whether Struble is able to play, as he’s recovering from injury.

Jayden Struble still on the ice, Arber Xhekaj and Justin Barron are in the room. We’ll see what that means for tonight, but likely means no changes on blue line.

– Eric Engels (@EricEngels) October 14, 2024

Details to come…