{"id":662302,"date":"2026-05-11T13:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/662302\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T13:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:30:14","slug":"fans-dare-to-dream-big-as-canadiens-dominate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/662302\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans dare to dream big as Canadiens dominate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Montrealers have a new hero, and his name is Jakub Dobes.<\/p>\n

Fans outside the Bell Centre chanted his name, and the massive crowd went wild when he made big saves, particularly in the third period as the Buffalo Sabres were desperately trying to get back into the game. Dobes appeared on the big screens when he was interviewed on the ice as the first star of the game, and the crowd just erupted.<\/p>\n

The Czech goalie let in the first shot of the game to give the Sabres an early 1-0 lead, but he then went on to stop 26 of the next 27 shots to give Montreal a dominant 6-2 win over Buffalo. The Habs now lead the best-of-seven series 2-1, with Game 4 set for Tuesday at the Bell Centre.<\/p>\n

\"CanadiensCanadiens faithful take in Game 3 at watch party outside the Bell Centre on Sunday night. John Kenney \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-4 24-year-old is in a zone. He just radiates confidence. He was better than Tampa Bay Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy in the first round. Vasilevskiy might have won two Stanley Cups, one Conn Smythe Trophy and one V\u00e9zina, but he was outplayed by Dobey. And his dominant play is continuing in the second round.<\/p>\n

The first game wasn\u2019t his best outing, but he\u2019s been lights out in the last two games. Good enough that it\u2019s not a stretch to mention his play is a little reminiscent of a fellow named Patrick Roy, who also had an unreal playoff run with the Habs during his rookie season. And, yeah, Montreal won the Cup that year (1986). Just saying. There\u2019s a heck of a lot of hockey to still to play, even in this series, but 10 games in, the comparison with Roy is not out of line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, what a story. From backup goalie and kind of all over the place and all of a sudden showing up \u2014 and still not super technically sound, but he\u2019s there to make the big saves,\u201d Marc Ouimette said outside the Bell Centre after Game 3 Sunday night. \u201cAnd at the end, he\u2019s talking to the crowd, and he\u2019s just soaking it all in and just enjoying his time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jessica Simard, who was in the crowd with her 6-year-old son and her husband, said the story of the night was Dobes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s such a great player, and we\u2019re seeing him grow with the team right now,\u201d said Simard.<\/p>\n

James Morrison said Dobes \u201cis the best goalie in the league. I haven\u2019t seen someone like this since Carey Price. He\u2019s just a different animal. He\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoGrace Myiow, left, and Gwendolyn Gilpin used their Canadiens flag for cover outside the Bell Centre during a brief rainfall as the Canadiens played the Buffalo Sabres in Game 3 on Sunday night. John Kenney \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n

Alex Beaulne, who was carrying around an inflatable Stanley Cup, was the one guy in the crowd not ready to get too enthused about Dobes. Turns out he\u2019s a hardcore Samuel Montembeault fan. Remember Monty? The dude who used to be the No. 1 goalie until he faltered big time this season and young Dobes stole his job.<\/p>\n

Beaulne admitted Dobes did a terrific job Sunday, but he wasn\u2019t happy when I said Montembeault will likely do well elsewhere. He wants to keep the local guy.<\/p>\n

Of course, the win wasn\u2019t just about Dobes. The whole team is clicking and it\u2019s getting much-appreciated help from guys who we used to call the supporting players, notably Alex Newhook and Kirby Dach. Newhook had two goals, including an empty-netter, and Dach also scored. Newhook has five goals in these playoffs, while Dach has four. So cool. What a redemption story for Dach, who was lambasted by fans after messing up in the overtime of Game 2 against Tampa Bay, directly causing the winning goal. But Habs head coach Martin St. Louis, in maybe the defining coaching move of the run, defended his player and refused to bow to public pressure and pull him out of the lineup.<\/p>\n

\u201cNewy is a good guy; gets into the corner, digs deep, finds the puck, and scores some goals,\u201d said Dave Wheeler, who, like Newhook, hails from St. John\u2019s.<\/p>\n

He said folks in St. John\u2019s are super proud of their local Habs hero.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel they all look up to him. Everyone looks up to a local boy who makes it big,\u201d said Wheeler. \u201cWhen you see him back home, you\u2019d never know he played hockey. He\u2019s very humble.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ACharles Demers and son \u00c9mile Demers watch a big screen outside the Bell Centre during Game 3 between the Canadiens and the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday night. John Kenney \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Lane Hutson. Sunday was just another day at the office for the 22-year-old defenceman. He stunned us with his crafty moves, notably on Cole Caufield\u2019s second-period goal, as he fed the sniper who finally scored after being snake-bitten for several games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching his skate edges, just watching his ability, and just being awestruck time and time again,\u201d said Ouimette.<\/p>\n

Add it all up and fans are starting to dream big, except it doesn\u2019t even feel like a dream any more.<\/p>\n

Dale Thomas is dreaming the dream. He knows Montreal is always the underdog. Before the Tampa series, the majority of the pundits said the Lightning was bound to win. Then before this series, there was lots of chatter that the Habs were no match for the Sabres.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can go all the way. I\u2019m not scared of Carolina,\u201d said Thomas. \u201cThe toughest team so far was Tampa Bay. That was the (Eastern) Conference final in my opinion. The Sabres are out. They don\u2019t have anything left.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t blame Thomas for being optimistic. Montreal knocked out a team that was considered a Cup contender, and now they\u2019ve delivered two straight beatdowns to a team that topped the Atlantic Division. But it\u2019s only 2-1, and there are still two more games to be won. But if Dobes keeps playing like this, anything is possible.<\/p>\n

bkelly@postmedia.com<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montrealers have a new hero, and his name is Jakub Dobes. Fans outside the Bell Centre chanted his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-662302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}