The Montreal Canadiens saw several stars suffer injuries in their first-round playoff series against the Washington Capitals. Perhaps their most notable loss was goaltender Sam Montembeault, who left Game 3 seemingly at random during the second period.
According to Montembeault, who spoke to Canadiens reporters on locker clean-out day Friday, he yielded the crease to Jakub Dobeš due to, in his words, “a double groin tear.” He tore two of the three muscles in his groin.
“It was the 10th shot of the game, via (Ryan) Leonard,” Montembeault said per Montreal Hockey Now. “It was a tear in the middle of the muscle, which is better than if it was where the muscle attaches, but, yeah, I tried to stay in the game, but I couldn’t move.”
Leonard’s shot on goal, where the injury occurred, came 4:35 into the period.
Montembeault remained in the crease until there was 8:21 remaining, meaning he played seven minutes and four seconds with the painful injury. During that time span, the Canadiens’ netminder stopped three of four shots, yielding a goal to Jakob Chychrun from the top of the left circle. He seemed unable to shift laterally as the puck whizzed by his body.
“First TV timeout, I went on the bench and I told [head athletic trainer Jim Ramsay] and Dobie that I hurt my leg and to stay ready,” Montembeault said. “I tried to go back, thought I could still play, but I really couldn’t move.
“I had a really tough time getting back up, so after that, I wanted to wait at least for the second TV timeout so Dobie doesn’t have to go right away in the action and give him a little bit more time. But, yeah, I really couldn’t move, so I had to get out of the game.”
Montembeault added he would not need surgery to correct the issue.
In his three starts, Montembeault posted a goals against average of 2.76 and a save percentage of .908. He also posted a goals save above expected number of 1.3, ranking seventh among all postseason goalies.
While Dobeš played well in relief, Montembeault will have to wonder all summer what might have been if he could have remained healthy in the series.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I played pretty well in the first two games, and obviously, coming back in the third game, I got hurt. It sucked. We were playing so well that game, too. Jakub went in after and did a great job, too. We didn’t get the result we wanted, but we fought hard until the end, and every game that we lost was a one-goal game, other than the empty netters. Really proud of this group.”
Montembeault wasn’t the only key player to suffer an injury during the first-round loss. Patrik Laine missed the final three games of the series and for an understandable reason.
“I broke my finger in the second game, so since then couldn’t really hold onto a stick, which was unfortunate,” he said. “Shooting is kinda what I do, and just couldn’t do it as well as I would have liked to. Obviously, a little disappointed that I couldn’t play, but it is what it is.”
Laine believed he was injured by an errant Capitals stick that caught him at a bad spot. “It was kinda like one of those fly-by, just somebody slashed me a little bit.”
Laine, too, will not need surgery. While he wished the Habs could have gone further in the playoffs, he found a lot of positives in his journey this season. After entering NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance in January 2024 as a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets, he was dealt the following August to the Habs.
“The only goal that I had for myself this year was to really enjoy playing again,” Laine said. “And I definitely did that even though it was hard at times, but I still enjoyed every bit of it. People are always going to talk about numbers and all that, but for me, it was a success that I got to enjoy this awesome sport again.”
Canadiens forwards Nick Suzuki and Josh Anderson dealt with nagging injuries going into the postseason. Anderson, who got in a bench brawl with Tom Wilson in Game 3, wouldn’t go into specifics.
“I know everybody tells their injuries, but enough that if we weren’t in the position that we were in, I wouldn’t be playing,” Anderson said. “But I had things going on my upper and lower body, so I’ll just leave it at that.”
