TORONTO — “Once it starts back up Tuesday, it’s all zeroes again,” Samuel Montembeault said after closing out a near-perfect pre-season that enabled him to solidify his place behind Jakub Dobes on the Montreal Canadiens opening roster.

That level of sobriety was easy to come by for the goaltender who had the ground fall out from underneath him just last winter. 

If anyone on this team knows how quick the tumble from grace can come — and how hard the landing can feel — it’s Montembeault, who stopped more expected goals than all but four goaltenders in the NHL in 2024-25 but struggled more than just about any goaltender in the league to make a save last season. He went from No. 1 to no one in mere months, so treating his two-week reclamation of name and face as tenuous feels both natural and necessary.

It seems necessary for Montembeault’s teammates to also treat this upcoming season the same way, though you can’t help but wonder just how naturally inclined they’ll be to do that. 

Like Montembeault, who travelled the arduous path from waiver claim to backup to starting goaltender to top-tier starting goaltender through his first four years in Montreal, the Canadiens emerged from the ashes of a rebuild and walked towards competing before arriving at winning and now being expected to contend. But unlike Montembeault, they’re still standing on high ground.

If things go as coach Martin St. Louis expects, the Canadiens will avoid losing their balance and tumbling, because he believes they’ve avoided........

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