{"id":897014,"date":"2026-09-18T22:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T22:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897014\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T22:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T22:00:10","slug":"canadiens-dobes-has-right-mindset-to-keep-starters-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897014\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens’ Dobes has right mindset to keep starter’s role"},"content":{"rendered":"

BROSSARD, Que. \u2014 So much of goaltending is about mindset, and it\u2019s hard to imagine Jakub Dobes<\/a> having a better one heading into his first official season as Montreal Canadiens<\/a> starter.<\/p>\n

That he\u2019s unwilling to even acknowledge the job is his to lose \u2014 after an electric run from last trade deadline to Eastern Conference Final put him in pole position \u2014 is proof positive his head is in the right place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really look at it” as a job to lose, Dobes said after Thursday\u2019s camp-opening practice. \u201cWe have a really good trio of goalies right now. (Samuel Montembeault<\/a> and Jacob Fowler<\/a>) are awesome. They were supporting me. I think it\u2019s unfair to come here and say it\u2019s my spot. We will be battling all three together for a spot, and whoever gets the start on the 29th\u00a0will play. Whoever plays better deserves to play. So, that\u2019s the mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the cautionary tale Montembeault wrote last season helped Dobes adopt it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Seeing the Becancour, Que., native come in without any real threat of being knocked out of that chair before he was not only ejected from it but also relegated to the third one had to have reinforced to Dobes just how tenuous the starter\u2019s job is.<\/p>\n

Montembeault earned it and was extended a long leash to keep it after finishing top-five in the NHL in goals saved above expected over 62 appearances the season prior.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But seeing the six-foot-three goaltender trip over it to fall so far from grace would provide a valuable lesson to any backup in his presence \u2014 but especially one of Dobes\u2019 age and experience level.<\/p>\n

The Ostrava, Czech Republic, native was just 24 years old at the start of last season. He was just 16 games into his NHL career. And he, too, went on to experience dramatic highs and lows over a very short period.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good thing Dobes has that in perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of remember the struggles, too,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople can say it was a really good season, but I remember that I wasn\u2019t always at my best or I struggled a bit, too. I take that into consideration, and every day I will try to prove myself. I want to repeat (last season\u2019s success) and (also) win the Stanley Cup. I feel like we were pretty close, but not close enough. So, I don\u2019t think I\u2019m satisfied with what happened last year, because we needed to get past Carolina and then Vegas, so that\u2019s still seven more wins away. So no, I don\u2019t think anything changed. I will try to be better than I was last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was dynamite from last trade deadline through the end of the regular season, winning 10 of 14 games and posting a .924 save percentage. And no goaltender was better in the playoffs, with a league-leading 13.3 goals saved above expected through 19 games pushing him to a level few thought he\u2019d attain when he was taken in the fifth round of the 2020 draft.<\/p>\n

Heck, it was even somewhat unforeseeable Dobes would get there so soon after he failed to unseat a struggling Montembeault from October through the beginning of December.<\/p>\n

It was at that time that Fowler was recalled from the American Hockey League\u2019s Laval Rocket to the Canadiens, and the highly touted prospect didn\u2019t waste a minute before showing Dobes he was a threat to leapfrog him on the depth chart.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old, who went 69th\u00a0overall in the 2023 draft, went back down and then came back up. He ended up going 9-6-2 through his first 17 appearances in the league. He posted a .908 save percentage and 2.43 goals-against average. And in the process, he served notice he\u2019d arrived ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n

Now Fowler is fighting to stay, to keep Montembeault on the margins, and to push Dobes for the net.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s got the talent to steal it \u2014 and probably would, if Dobes felt too high on himself.<\/p>\n

Instead, the six-foot-four, 215-pound goaltender made it clear on Thursday just how grounded he is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might not even be here after two weeks,\u201d Dobes said. \u201cTwo weeks is such a long time, especially in this market. It\u2019s hard to predict the future. I try to take it day by day. Today was a good practice and tomorrow I will try to be even better because I feel like I could be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to enjoy everything. I\u2019m 25 years old, playing in the best market in the world. I try to enjoy every day and not think too much ahead because the time flies and you\u2019ve got to live in the present.\u201d<\/p>\n

That feels like the best way to take advantage of the opportunity Dobes has in front of him.<\/p>\n

Saturday Night Hockey setup<\/p>\n

Lines and pairings from Thursday remained the same Friday.<\/p>\n

Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis confirmed the A group (featuring Nick Suzuki\u2019s line) would remain in Montreal while the B group (featuring Mike Matheson and Noah Dobson) would go to Toronto for games against the Maple Leafs Saturday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROSSARD, Que. \u2014 So much of goaltending is about mindset, and it\u2019s hard to imagine Jakub Dobes having…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-897014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}