- Samuel Montembeault will miss 10 to 14 days with a lower-body injury
- Jacob Fowler stays up as Jakub Dobes’ backup
- Read below for the timeline and what it means for Montreal’s crease
Samuel Montembeault is going to be out for a while.
TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie reported Friday that the Canadiens goalie will miss 10 to 14 days with a lower-body injury, a timeline Martin St. Louis gave reporters in Brossard.
Montembeault got hurt at practice on Wednesday, when he twisted awkwardly on a rebound and left the ice in a hurry. We showed you the moment when it happened:
Montreal answered by recalling Fowler from Laval the same afternoon. The rookie got the start Thursday against Nashville and stopped 15 of 18 shots in a 5-2 loss at the Bell Centre.
That loss was the third straight in which the Canadiens allowed at least five goals. Dobes started the first four games and is sitting on a .857 save percentage and a 4.44 goals-against average.
A 10-to-14-day window puts Montembeault’s earliest return around Oct. 20 against San Jose or Oct. 23 against Chicago. Montreal hosts Detroit on Saturday and Buffalo on Tuesday before then.
Montembeault was already on thin ice. He went 10-8-4 with an .872 save percentage last season and lost the starting job to Dobes. He is also in the last year of his three-year, $9.45 million contract, so every game he misses is one Fowler gets to play.
Dobes and Fowler have to figure out the rebounds and the rush chances fast, because Detroit is coming Saturday.
