"I don't know why it's hard": Martin St. Louis admits confusion over modern-day goalies' challenge to play back-to-back

The Montreal Canadiens closed their back-to-back weekend with a 4-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Sunday. Following the game, Habs head coach Martin St. Louis voiced confusion over why NHL teams no longer lean on goaltenders for consecutive starts.

With Samuel Montembeault unavailable due to illness, Jakub Dobes made his second start in as many nights. Asked why modern goaltenders are viewed as unable to handle back-to-backs in the way skaters regularly do, St. Louis admitted he had no clear explanation.

St. Louis said he never played the position and therefore can’t fully understand the physical toll, but noted that the league now manages goalie workloads very differently than in past eras.

“I can't remember if we had less back-to-backs back then. There's more now. I don't know, but I know goalies used to play way more games than they do now, and so you share the load in the back-to-back and have a fresh guy,” he said.

He added that while defensemen play heavy minutes, goaltenders face their own demanding, uninterrupted 60-minute workload.

“But I've never played that position, so I don't know why it's hard. I guess because you're in the net for 60 minutes, as in other positions, you're playing... if you're a lot of ice time, you're in the 20 minutes. So, I don't know why.”

Meanwhile on the ice, Jakub Dobes allowed four goals on 18 shots in the emergency start.

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Martin St. Louis wants to make sure Habs have ‘gas in the tank’

With the Canadiens entering a stretch of four games per week through the end of the year, head coach Martin St. Louis said the team has no choice but to adapt to the congested schedule and manage its energy carefully.

The Habs HC said he would prefer to distribute minutes more evenly but Sunday’s loss to St. Louis forced Montreal to chase the game, limiting his ability to balance workloads. He noted that after a strong first period he expected to spread the ice time more effectively but game flow dictated otherwise.

Looking ahead, St. Louis mentioned that the staff will be deliberate in how they handle non-game days using off-ice planning and controlled workloads to keep players fresh.

“I feel like we're going to try to be very calculated on the off-days, the non-game days, and what we do, make sure we have gas in the tank. I can see,” he said.

He added that despite the results he was satisfied with much of Montreal’s overall play across the back-to-back. He preferred the team’s third period in Toronto on Saturday and felt that aside from a costly two-minute stretch against the Blues, Montreal generated forecheck pressure, limited chances and stayed within structure.