Canadiens rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes said he’s living his dream since making his NHL debut last month.
Now, the 23-year-old native of the Czech Republic only hopes the Washington Capitals in general — and veteran sniper Alex Ovechkin specifically — don’t turn that dream into a nightmare.
“There’s not one thing I can complain about,” Dobes said after the Canadiens practised Thursday morning at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard. “I feel like everything that we do, that people have done here for quite many years, is incredible. I can’t say which one is the best and there’s definitely nothing that’s the worst.
“I have a blast every day.”
Dobes, 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, is scheduled to make his third start Friday night against the Capitals (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN Radio-690, 98.5 FM). Samuel Montembeault is slated to play Saturday, when Montreal returns home to face Dallas.
Washington (27-10-4) leads the Metropolitan Division, while Ovechkin has 19 goals and 30 points in 25 games this season. In his career, he has scored 872 goals.
“It’s going to be exciting,” Dobes said. “We’ll see. I’ll try to compete against his shot. We’ll see who will win.”
Dobes’s start to his NHL career has been magical.
He made 34 saves and shut out Florida — the defending Stanley Cup champions — on Dec. 28, one day after being recalled from AHL Laval. Dobes became the fourth goalie in Canadiens history to record a shutout in his NHL debut and the seventh in league history to defeat the defending Cup champs in his debut.
Then, on Jan. 4, he again was stellar against Colorado in the Canadiens’ 2-1 shootout victory, not allowing an Avalanche shooter to beat him after Mikko Rantanen scored nine minutes into the game.
Dobes, selected in the fifth round (136th overall) by Montreal in 2020, has a spectacular 0.48 average along with a .982 save percentage. In 14 games with the Rocket, he went 9-3-1 with a 2.44 average and .910 save percentage.
Whether Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis has deliberately elected to try and protect Dobes by playing him on the road is open to speculation. But the rookie has no qualms with how he’s being utilized and knows it’s only a matter of time before he gets a Bell Centre start in front of Montreal’s demanding and fickle supporters.
“From the hockey point of view, it’s great,” Dobes said. “You dream to be here from the time you’re 5 or 6 years old, when you realize there’s an NHL. From that point I’m really happy. I feel like I work for something that finally, after so many years, paid off. It’s a good feeling.
“Maybe it’s easier to start on the road,” he added. “It’s probably less pressure. It’s kind of a different animal playing at home. There’s way more people. Even during the warm-up there’s 16,000 or 17,000 people. On the road you’re with the team, focusing on each other in the locker room. You don’t need to focus on the outside, on family and fans. I’m happy for every game that I get. Every game is special.”
While the Canadiens made Dobes’s task easier by blocking 22 shots against the Panthers, he has done what has been necessary to lead Montreal to victories. Dobes takes up much of the net, providing opposing shooters with few openings. While soft-spoken, Dobes appears supremely confident. In the shootout, he was calm, composed and unflappable, and did not surrender a goal.
“I’ve liked shootouts since I was young,” he said. “I feel like the compete level goes even higher. I try to compete as much as I can. You never know; it’s a shootout. If they have a good move they might score. But you probably will make two out of three saves.
“At 6-foot-4 you probably should take up most of the net. I have to at this point. There are good shooters in this league. If they don’t see the net it’s better. It forces them to miss or take a bad shot.”
Montembeault understandably has been impressed by what Dobes has brought to the Canadiens. It also has allowed Montembeault, who played 10 consecutive games last month, an opportunity for rest.
“He’s pretty good, no?” Montembeault rhetorically asked. “He plays so big and he moves well for his size. I was really impressed.”
In other news, although Patrik Laine and David Savard both practised on Thursday, neither player accompanied the team to Washington. Both have missed the last three games; Laine with flu-like symptoms and Savard with an upper-body injury.