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Montreal will play host to the 4 Nations Face-Off. But when Canada plays Sweden in the first game of the tournament on Wednesday, don’t expect much of a hometown advantage in Montreal.
Technically, the province of Quebec will be represented by just one player — and there’s a good chance he won’t see a second of ice time.
If all goes according to plan, Samuel Montembeault will not even be on the bench.
To some, he shouldn’t be on the team.
Team Canada’s goaltenders since the 4 Nations roster was announced:
Adin Hill — .900 (17 games)
Jordan Binnington — .900 (19 games)
Sam Montembeault — .896 (21 games)Versus:
Logan Thompson — .931 (17 games)
Darcy Kuemper — .927 (19 games)
MacKenzie Blackwood — .925 (23 games)— Dave Hall (@davehall1289) February 8, 2025
Only one other goalie in the NHL has lost more games than Montreal’s Montembeault this year. Heading into the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Montreal Canadiens goalie ranks 34th overall with an .897 save percentage and 39th with a 3.00 goals-against average (3.00) among netminders with at least 20 games played.
Among Canadians, there are a whopping 10 others who have better numbers.
Those include Washington’s Logan Thompson, Los Angeles’ Darcy Kuemper and Colorado’s Mackenzie Blackwood — all passed over in favor of Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill and Montembeault.
There is no question that Binnington and Hill haven’t been great this season. But at least they have won the Stanley Cup.
Which raises the question: was Montembeault’s selection over Ontario’s Thompson, Saskatchewan’s Kuemper and British Columbia’s Blackwood based on something more than merit?
Canada already has plenty of players from Ontario, Saskatchewan and B.C. What they were missing was a player from Quebec.
“It doesn’t get mentioned very much, this is Hockey Canada,” longtime hockey analyst John Shannon said on Oilers Now with Bob Stauffer in early December. “And I know it’s not a topic that gets brought up a lot in the province of Alberta, but if you look at the ratio of French-Canadian players to Anglos on the Canadian team, I don’t think they had any choice but to pick Samuel Montembeault for this roster.”
It’s no secret that Canada always strives for representation from across the country. On the 4 Nations Face-Off roster, there are seven players born in Ontario, four each in Alberta and B.C., three each from Manitoba and Nova Scotia, and one each from Quebec and…