So far this season, Huet has been handily outplayed by Swiss netminder and supposed backup David Aebischer. A flubbed early goal allowed on the second shot of the game against Buffalo cost the team dearly. So is Cristobal the next Patrick Roy or the next Steve Penney?

9 games into the regular season and the story of the statistics doesn't look good for Canadiens goaltender Cristobal Huet. Huet, 31, sports an unspectacular 2.93GAA in 5 games played, along with a unimpressive .899 save percentage. Huet has 2 win in those 5 games, along with 2 overtime losses and 1 regulation loss. By contrast teammate David Aebischer has a superb .921SP, 3 wins and a 2.46GAA.

Huet had a rough outing against Buffalo on Monday night. On just the second Sabres shot of the game, the puck went off Huet's gloves and fell behind him into the net. Questions are being raised about his game by various analysts, especially his performance in the shootouts.

It is fair to say that although his performance hasn't been losing games for Montreal, it has been subpar and not on the same level of last season. Aebischer's play has been the opposite and the calls for the team to ride him until his play cools off grow louder with every game Huet loses. For now, he has the support of his coach as number one, but that may well change.

Was last night's game the definitive answer? No. But Huet's strong game has for now put any supposed goaltending controversy to rest.

Meanwhile, Canadiens winger Sergei Samsonov downplayed a report in the Boston Globe in which agent claimed that Samsonov might demand a trade if his icetime didn't increase.