TAMPA, Fla. — The Montreal Canadiens’ 2026 postseason journey was 10 seconds old when it was hit with a moment of uncertainty.
The puck was dumped into the Canadiens’ zone, and when veteran Tampa Bay Lightning centre Anthony Cirelli collected it near the sideboards, he immediately fired the puck on goal.
Waiting for it was Canadiens rookie goalie Jakub Dobeš. It was a routine save. Nothing special. Except when Dobeš went to glove the shot, the puck hit his trapper and fell at his feet.
If the Lightning had a forward waiting for that puck to fall, the Canadiens would have been down 1-0 after only 10 seconds, Benchmark International Arena would have exploded, and a game the Canadiens eventually won 4-3 in overtime to take a 1-0 lead in their series against the Lightning could have gone much differently.
The Lightning did not, however, have a forward there waiting for that puck to fall, and Dobeš fell on that puck instead, forcing a faceoff.
Watching from the Canadiens bench was coach Martin St. Louis, and when he was asked about that sequence Monday after practice, he made a point of specifying just how early it was.
“It was very early,” St. Louis said with a little smile. “It was the first shot. From the corner.”
That can be unnerving for a coach that early into his young team’s first playoff game, and St. Louis noted how a veteran team like Tampa Bay took an opportunity to test a young goalie’s nerves early.
A couple of minutes later, Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov tried something very similar, skating a puck toward the Canadiens’ blue line before suddenly spinning and putting it on goal. The Lightning were clearly trying to test Dobeš, and that first experiment from Cirelli suggested it was worth further poking.
About two minutes after that save on Kucherov, the Lightning were again working the puck around the Canadiens’ zone when a Jake Guentzel pass from below the goal line found Tampa Bay defenceman Erik Černák all alone in the slot.
Dobeš pushed off his post and, without hesitation, headed straight for the top of his crease to challenge Černák, and once he had made the save and was done sliding, he wound up between the faceoff circles.
It was a very aggressive save, made with no hesitation and no nerves whatsoever.
And it was far closer to the version of Dobeš that has driven the Canadiens since the March 6 trade deadline when he became their unchallenged No. 1 goaltender.
But despite that six-week stretch of success, despite being one of the league’s best goaltenders over that stretch, Dobeš remains a rookie. There were questions over how he would handle this stage — questions that only intensified after that early bobble in Game 1.
“I feel like that’s what we’ve seen down the stretch with him,” St. Louis said. “It’s a big save at that time. I think he’s confident. Yeah, that’s reassuring, definitely. For everybody.”
Dobeš has been reassuring for this team for some time. His play on the ice has been impeccable, and the eight-game winning streak that propelled the Canadiens into a firm playoff spot and into this matchup with the Lightning came largely on his back.
“He has been dialed for a long time now,” Canadiens defenceman Kaiden Guhle said Monday. “It’s a big part of why we went on that run and why we’ve been playing so well is him back there.”
Off the ice, Dobeš is, shall we say, unique.
The Canadiens recently gave Dobeš what was termed as a media timeout because of a few instances when his interactions with the media were, to put it mildly, unpredictable. You never know what he might say, and that’s what makes him so fun to talk to. But that unpredictability and refreshing candor led to his saying a few things he later regretted, so the Canadiens were put in the unusual position of having to temporarily muzzle their No. 1 goaltender as the playoffs approached.
His teammates regularly poke fun at him, in a good-natured way, and it is a back-and-forth of ribbing that endears him to the group. Dobeš’ game day routine, for example, immediately elicits smiles from his teammates, none of whom would reveal what it consists of. But when defenceman Lane Hutson was asked about it recently, he immediately started laughing.
“What are you laughing at?” he was asked.
“No, he’s just funny to be around,” Hutson replied. “Just a funny guy, easy to poke fun at. But on a game day, he gets ready for the game, just like anyone. Does a couple of weird things, just like all goalies do. He just loves to compete, and it’s definitely fun for our younger group to be around him.”
By funny, did Hutson mean Dobeš is humorous, or peculiar?
“Both,” he responded.
Perhaps no one on the Canadiens gets into it with Dobeš as much as Juraj Slafkovský. It would not be the first time a Czech and a Slovak had a friendly rivalry, but this one is over the top. After a Dobeš victory, rather than softly butting heads with him as most players do with their goalie, Slafkovský will often give Dobeš a massive shove in the chest. Or sometimes, Dobeš will pre-emptively strike Slafkovský.
When asked about how Dobeš behaves before a game, Slafkovský paused and began his answer, weighing his words carefully.
“Yeah, it’s good to hang out with him on a game day …” he began.
We interrupted, asking for an honest answer.
“Yeah, I laugh at him every game day,” he said. “He does all this weird goalie stuff, and I just laugh at every routine that he does, and that’s the honest answer. But it’s cool, we have to respect that. And I would say I make fun of him, but when the time comes, and he’s concentrating and doing all this stuff, I let him be.”
Whatever it is that Dobeš does to prepare for games, whatever it is his teammates find funny, it is undoubtedly working. He entered the playoffs as one of the league’s hottest goalies, and one that settled the nerves of his coach and teammates with a big push and an aggressive save early in Game 1 to keep the Lightning off the board.
But it’s not just the aggressive saves Dobeš makes that help the Canadiens — it is also the aggressive way he leaves his net to play pucks. He is an exceptional puck handler, and St. Louis mentioned earlier this season Dobeš was encouraged to do it more often this year because of how it helps the Canadiens break pucks out of their zone and get the offence going.
“I don’t think it’s a different game plan, but it is a big factor,” defenceman Alexandre Carrier said. “Whenever he can move the puck — he likes getting out of his net sometimes, not even when they rim it, but when he comes out to make a play up the ice. It just gives us confidence, we don’t get hit as much, and you can just trust him. It doesn’t change the game plan, but it helps the body for sure.”
“It definitely keeps ice bags away from us,” Guhle added.
But perhaps the biggest reason Dobeš has been such a game changer for the Canadiens is how high his standards are and just how ambitious he is. When he was first called up to the Canadiens last season around Christmas, Dobeš immediately said his entire time in the AHL was spent wanting to prove the Canadiens were wrong to send him down to the minors to begin with, and now that he was in the NHL, he had no intention of going back. He has proved doubters wrong all along his extremely unconventional path to the NHL, and it’s all because of those personal standards.
We saw it again in Game 1 not only with the saves Dobeš made, but also with how he viewed his own performance. More than the saves, he was upset with the two goals in 29 seconds the Lightning scored in the second period that turned a 1-0 Canadiens lead into a 2-1 deficit.
“I felt good, good start,” he said after Game 1. “Definitely, the two goals can’t happen, bang-bang, you’re down 2-1. That’s one part I need to be better, give the team not to go from winning to a tie to losing the game. I need to be better at that. It’s just an adjustment.
“I felt pretty good, but I can definitely be better on Tuesday.”
Dobeš does not have a particularly long track record that would allow him to confidently deliver on that promise Tuesday, but he has given no reason to doubt him so far.
