Canadiens fail Primeau vs. Red Wings, near tough decision on goaltender's future

MONTREAL— It took almost five minutes for the Detroit Red Wings to notch their first shot in Tuesday’s game, but it went in. 

How it beat Cayden Primeau was emblematic of the young goaltender’s plight with the Montreal Canadiens. 

He was buried on his goal line, waiting as Lucas Raymond turned an odd-man rush into a much more dangerous situation than it should’ve been. As Raymond backed Joel Edmundson and Joel Armia down with his speed, Primeau froze in his place, dropped to his knees and gave himself little to no chance of stopping the shot that beat him over the shoulder. 

To sit here and dissect the other four goals that beat the 23-year-old in this 5-0 loss in order to come up with some firm conclusion about his future at this level would be a fool’s game. We wouldn’t even fully pin that first one on him, especially considering how elite of a shot it was from Raymond.

It’s just that it said much about Primeau’s position within the Canadiens organization. He’s frozen, stuck behind Samuel Montembeault and Jake Allen, and it appears that there’s little to nothing he can do to change it for now.

“I still see him as a future No. 1 goaltender in this league,” said a scout who attended Tuesday’s game and has been to see many more of Primeau’s in Laval over the last few seasons than I have.

But the goaltender’s standing with the Canadiens makes you wonder if that future is going to be realized with them.

Would it be all that different had Primeau come up and stolen wins against Detroit on Tuesday and against Philadelphia last Tuesday? Probably not.

It definitely doesn’t help him, though, that the Canadiens essentially forced him to play above what should’ve been expected of him to even have a chance of winning either one game.

“I wish we could’ve played better for him,” said Mike Matheson. “Pretty unfair for him to look back on this year and know that those were the two games that he got down the stretch. So hopefully he’s able to get another one and we play better for him.”

The Canadiens had good intentions against Detroit. 

As captain Nick Suzuki said, “We worked hard.”

But as he also rightly pointed out, they didn’t work smart. 

Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said afterwards the goals—Raymond’s, a breakaway gifted to David Perron, a scramble in the goalmouth that left Matt Luff unmarked, a power-play tip from right in front for untouched Joe Veleno and a cross-crease pass to Perron—were self-inflicted wounds, and that’s hard to argue with.

Against Philadelphia, a week ago, the Canadiens were exhausted, playing their third game in four nights and their second in as many, and they failed to generate more than a couple of quality scoring chances before losing 3-2.

As St. Louis said, “We didn’t give (Primeau) any run support.”

They also looked about as good as they have in any game Primeau has played with the Canadiens since the beginning of last season, which is to say they didn’t look good at all.

As he struggled behind what could easily be considered the worst edition of the Canadiens in their 114-year history—from mid-November of 2021 to early-February of 2022—you had to wonder what kind of damage was being done to his psyche. 

But Primeau went back down to Laval, finished the season strong, and he played exceptionally well to carry the Rocket through a 14-game playoff push. 

He suffered a concussion earlier this season when he caught a friendly-fire high stick while sitting on the Rocket’s bench. He came out of it and rode the pine behind Montembeault for a series of games with the Canadiens in January -- when Allen was hurt and Montembeault was on fire -- and then returned to Laval and started on an impressive stretch that earned him the opportunity to play these late-season games with the Canadiens.

They may not have pushed Primeau closer to where he wants to be, but they weren’t a waste.

“He gets reps,” said St. Louis. “I don’t think he’s fragile. I think he’s played very well this year. Had a tough start with the injury that he had. He’s played really well down there down the stretch, was probably the big reason they’re still in the mix and fighting to get in, and we hope that they get in. And if they do get in, he’s going to be a big reason. And if they make any noise in the playoffs, he’ll be a big part of that. So I don’t see this game as a negative for him at all.”

It just won’t change the perception that he’s stuck behind Montembeault (who’s emerged as a potential starter), and Allen (who’s under contract for two more seasons after this one).

Meanwhile, Primeau will arrive at next season’s training camp as a waiver-eligible player for the first time in his career and the Canadiens will be forced to make a hard decision on his future. 

The scout we spoke to thinks they should hang on no matter what he looks like—even if it means starting the season with three goaltenders.

“Most goaltenders pop in their mid-to-late 20s in this league,” he said. “I like them around that age, after they’ve spent years getting there in the AHL.”

He pointed to Red Wings goaltender Ville Husso, who played four seasons in the AHL and even did a stint in the ECHL, and said, “He’s a good one, and look how long it took him.”

Even if Primeau was highly touted after two banner seasons at Northeastern University, there was a sense within the Canadiens’ organization it would take him time to realize his potential. 

The team’s brass was perfectly comfortable living with that reality, with Carey Price healthy at the time and appearing seemingly capable of competing at a high level for many more years than he proved he was able to in the end. 

But there’s been turnover in the front office—and in the Canadiens’ net—since, Primeau’s place in the hierarchy hasn’t changed, and we’re nearing a point where a decision on his future in the organization hangs in the balance.

It won’t be based on a single goal, like the one he allowed to Raymond, or on these starts behind a poor-performing Canadiens team. 

The problem is, it’s going to be hard for the Canadiens to get a larger, more representative sample of what Primeau can do at this level before they have to make that decision.