Of course Monty is not as smooth or technically as sound as Price, but what he does look to posses is a combative attitude that reminds me a lot of a younger Jonathan Quick.
Another thing that is clearly evident is that he gets totally pissed when he gives away a goal , but instead of bringing him and the team down, it often seems that it fuels him into getting his game to a higher level.
I really do like him.
And in the event that the Habs somehow make an early push into the playoffs before Fowler or any other prospect takes the net away from him, I consider Monty ´good enough ´ to get the job done.
And if history has taught us anything in the last 25 years, you don’t need an elite goalie to make a push to the Stanley cup .
I mean, Khabibulin, Ward,Giguère,Osgood,Niemi,Crawford,Murray,Holtby,Binnington,Kuemper,Hill all were #1 goalies on championship teams, but I would consider none of these as elite; they just were good enough on great teams.
In the last 25 years, one could argue that maybe Jonathan Quick and Tim Thomas were the reason why LA and Boston won their cups.
During the same time span, Brodeur, Roy, Hasek, Vasilezky
and Fleury ( maybe) were elite goalies and also won cups, but were they really the reason their team won ? They all had the privilege of playing behind elite squads.
So, in a nutshell, Monty is not an elite goalie in any shape or form, but I think he’s ´good enough ´ for the next few years that he would not drag an elite team down.
I think people tend to forget that he has played behind the youngest D core and one of the most undisciplined penalized team for the last 2 seasons.