“For me (offence) isn’t my job,” the hard-luck netminder says after 2-1 loss to Predators. “I just know that I haven’t won in a while.”
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It’s beginning to become a recurring theme for Jake Allen. And, in many ways, it’s difficult not to feel empathy for the Canadiens’ hard-luck goaltender, playing behind a team that’s offensively challenged on frequent nights.
Allen, part of a three-goalie rotation that includes Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau, hasn’t won a game since Oct. 28 against Winnipeg.
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Sunday night, he lost his seventh consecutive start, 2-1, against the Nashville Predators at the Bell Centre. The 33-year-old veteran made 30 stops for a .938 save percentage, and there wasn’t much he could do on either goal that beat him — both scored by Colton Sissons.
Both teams were playing games on consecutive nights with the Predators coming off a 4-0 loss at Toronto, while Montreal defeated Buffalo 3-2 in a shootout.
But much like quarterbacks are judged by wins and losses so, too, are netminders. And Allen’s record now is 3-6-2. His goals-against average is 3.58, although his save percentage remains a healthy .901.
Over that seven-game span, the Canadiens have scored 14 goals. Other than four goals against Detroit on Dec. 2, a game Montreal lost 5-4 in overtime, only one other time has Allen’s teammates accorded him more than two goals with which to work. And in one of those games, Nov. 25 at Los Angeles, the Canadiens were shut out.
In other words, there’s not much margin for error.
“I’ve seen it all in this league, trust me,” said the engaging and honest Allen, who was playing for the first time since facing the Red Wings. “I think I went (through) a 10-game span before where I got 11 goals run-support. For me (offence) isn’t my job. I have all the trust in the world that these guys are going to put the puck in the net. That’s just the way it goes. It’s the nature of the game, the nature of the business.
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“I felt good tonight. I felt like I played well. I feel like in this stretch there has been some games that have been OK. There has been some good games where I didn’t get the result, and there was another one tonight.”
Allen repeatedly has refused to complain about his lot in life this season, although it’s becoming apparent he — more than Montembeault and Primeau — has encountered the most difficulty adjusting to the amount of inactivity. Allen also is the eldest of the trio.
If the consecutive losses are adding any pressure, Allen has masked that aspect well.
“I’ve never looked at numbers all year,” he said. “I just know that I haven’t won in a while. I look at numbers at the end of the year. I try to literally stay oblivious to all that. It’s all feel. I know how I’m playing. That’s the basic of it. That’s the way I approach it.”
Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis acknowledged Allen isn’t getting much offensive support at times.
“We didn’t give him any run-support tonight, but I thought he played a strong game,” St. Louis said. “I’m happy for him.”
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Jake Evans, who scored the Canadiens’ first goal this season at Toronto on Oct. 11, was the only Montreal player to beat the Predators’ Juuse Saros. Evans’ goal, on a backhand low to the stick side in the final minute of the second period, came moments after an apparent score by Joel Armia was disallowed because of goalie interference on Brendan Gallagher.
Oddly, no penalty was assessed on the play. Referees Jake Brenk and Chris Schlenker, assessed nine minor penalties between the teams through two periods — including an unsportsmanlike conduct call against Nashville — but only one infraction in the third.
“You guys watched the game,” Gallagher said. “I’m not going to comment on that anymore. Write whatever you see.”
Evans’ goal provided the Canadiens with some momentum in the final period, when they outshot the visitors 14-6. Of Montreal’s 37 total shots, 28 came over the final 40 minutes. Gallagher, with an incredible 10 shots, was the Canadiens’ best player.
“Obviously, (Saros) is a good goaltender, but we’ve got to find ways to beat him,” Gallagher said.
Montreal also was its own worst enemy, going 0-for-5 on the power-play. During one second-period sequence, the Canadiens had a three-on-one break with Josh Anderson feeding Sean Monahan, only to have the puck deflect off his stick.
Following the game, the Canadiens announced Tanner Pearson, the latest casualty, is expected to miss between four and six weeks with an upper body injury. The game also marked the return of defenceman David Savard, who missed 22 games with a fractured left hand.
Montreal’s three-game homestand continues Wednesday night against Pittsburgh.
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