Montembeault Down in Practice, Pickford Already Out

Samuel Montembeault got hurt in practice on October 7 and is day-to-day. Bryce Pickford is already on Injured Reserve. That leaves Montreal heading into the playoffs with Jakub Dobes, Jacob Fowler, and Kaapo Kahkonen as the functional goaltending options — three names who have been sharing the crease in roughly equal measure all season, none of them an established starter.

The timing is bad in the specific way that tends to matter. Montreal has been leaking goals at a rate noticeably higher than its season norm over the last 10 games, and the team is on a two-game losing streak. Montembeault's status being uncertain doesn't create the defensive problem — that problem was already there — but it removes the one variable that could have steadied things while the skaters sort themselves out.

The goaltending depth chart, as it stands, is not obviously thin on paper. Dobes and Fowler have each logged real minutes. The concern is more about what happens if Montembeault's day-to-day tag stretches into next week, and whether any of the three can hold a crease that the defense in front of them hasn't been protecting well. That's the next 10 days in a sentence.