TORONTO — It was with a fraction of a second remaining in the first win of this Montreal Canadiens season that Jakub Dobes yanked John Tavares’ stick from his hands and goaded the Toronto Maple Leafs forward into pushing him.
The puck was out of sight, the game was all but over, but not for the feisty goaltender who made it clear from the start he would battle to the last whistle — and beyond if he had to.
That last gesture was a clear message to Tavares. A rather unnecessary one in the eyes of just about anyone other than Dobes.
The thing is, though, this is what he thrives on.
“We all know he’s a competitor,” said winning goal-scorer Alexandre Carrier, though that doesn’t fully sum up what Dobes is.
He is a defiant competitor, a guy blocking every puck like he’s batting away every barb of criticism that’s ever stung him.
If you were keeping count Tuesday, Dobes blocked 26 pucks — including three from Auston Matthews, three of five from William Nylander, four from Kirill Marchenko, and yes, four from Tavares — in this season-opening 3-2 win at Scotiabank Arena.
Then he came out after the game and said, “I feel pretty good, I saw that a lot of people have a lot of opinions about me…”
About that…
In the lead up to Tuesday’s game there’s was understandably some buzz around the hockey world about whether Dobes could follow up the outstanding finish to his rookie season with a stable start to his sophomore year.
Coupled with all the positive noise around Samuel Montembeault’s resurgence through pre-season and some totally misplaced scrutiny of his last practice before the Canadiens took off for Toronto, the 25-year-old was obviously irked before the puck even dropped.
After it did, and after Dobes allowed the first of the two Nylander shots that got by him, he played like his middle finger was holding his glove up for the rest of the night.
Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis called Dobes “excellent,” though “reassuring” would’ve worked just as well.
No goaltender was better from trade deadline through three rounds of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He topped all of them in goals saved above expected, winning 10 of his last 14 regular-season games before winning nine more in the post-season and setting the bar almost impossibly high to clear.
But, as Carrier said after Tuesday’s game, “You could feel he was in control, focused, and he took off on the same foot he left off on last season.”
The Canadiens forced Dobes to do that, and he responded as they’d hoped he would.
“He made some really big saves for us, especially early on,” said St. Louis. “I felt like we weren’t playing fast enough, and he bought us some time to get going.”
No doubt.
Then, in front of friends and family from his nearby hometown of Burlington, Ont., Josh Anderson did what he always does against the Leafs. His 17th regular-season goal in the 42nd game of his career versus Toronto tied things up 1-1.
The Canadiens tilted the ice over the next 15 minutes spread over the second half of the first period and first third of the second period and Zachary Bolduc capped that sequence by finishing a nice play from Mike Matheson to put them up 2-1.
Carrier’s goal at 13:12 of the third period would’ve put this game out of reach if not for a phenomenal play by Nylander to pull the Leafs back within a goal with 4:14 to play.
But Dobes had the last laugh — though not the last push — when he charged out of his crease to make a great stop on Matthews to seal the win.
All of Dobes’ best ones looked like that.
When asked how he’s found this perfect balance between patience and aggression, he quipped, “I was playing with it during the pre-season, but had a really good practice… Monday? Yeah, Monday…”
Again, defiance.
You could say Dobes needn’t get wrapped up in whatever’s being said about him off the ice or whatever’s happening in front of him on it, but to suggest it’s distracting him would be inaccurate. We have enough of a sample — especially after watching some of his antics in the playoffs — to know it’s quite the opposite.
“Well, you could see it at the end (with Tavares), said Carrier. “I think it’s part of his mindset, his attitude; he wants to be that guy. And I personally love it.”
The Canadiens should because it seems to bring out the best in Dobes.
It certainly did on this night, when the Canadiens were far from their best and needed him at his feistiest.
