It’s going on five years since Montreal’s Carey Price wedged his pads in the way of what most thought would be a long post-season run by the Maple Leafs.
Since that first-round upset to this season, Canadiens’ netminding hasn‘t been much of a factor in regular play where Toronto mostly owned the series (7-3-1) and built its 100-point campaigns at the expense of the Habs, who’ve never returned to playoffs.
But October opened with Samuel Montembeault’s 48-save 1-0 shutout at the Bell Centre and, while the Team Canada 4 Nations Face-Off roster pick gave up four in a loss to the Leafs a month later, a hot ‘gardien de but’ is once more the topic du jour.
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Jakub Dobes, a 23-year-old from Czechia has created wild-card wildfire talk for his team with four wins in as many starts, a club-record fewest four goals against for a newbie and a sparkling .963 save percentage.
“It seems that everything that hits him, sticks to him,” Montreal centre Nick Suzuki told media in Dallas on Thursday after Dobes made 26 of his 32 saves in the final 40 minutes of a 3-1 win. “He’s having a great start to his career. Real confident goalie for a young guy.”
Trained in the USHL plus two years at Ohio State University, he has a bit of a chip on his 6-foot-4 shoulder. He broke through this season’s planned Montembeault-Cayden Primeau projection with strong AHL numbers in Laval.
“I wanted to be here, wanted to prove that I belong here,” he insisted Thursday. “It’s kind of motivation to show everyone that maybe they were wrong. I just want to prove myself.”
Tack his triumphs atop Montreal’s vastly improved record (11-2-1 since Dec. 17) and it’s easy to see why scalpers will score in this 849th meeting of the NHL’s oldest rivals when the usual caravan of Leafs fans arrive.
There’s a bit of pressure off the visitors following their own eventful win on Thursday, rallying three times against the buzzsaw New Jersey Devils to win in overtime and reverse recent booing at home.
A fourth-straight loss would’ve extended the season-high for new coach Craig Berube, who instead takes a three-point Atlantic Division lead over Florida into Montreal.
In Toronto’s first game of what will be at least a week minus injured centre John Tavares (lower body) the Core Four were re-invented as the Trio Grande with Auston Matthews and William Nylander scoring twice and Mitch Marner delivering two nifty passes on the tying and winning goals.
They and Bobby McMann all factored in a Matthews’ power-play goal, giving the Leafs strikes in back-to-back games for the much-maligned five-forward unit.
When engaged, the three could make life miserable on Dobes while Matthew Knies, Max Domi and McMann are overdue for some offence. Domi had one of his better games of late on Thursday as Tavares’ understudy.
“We’ve talked about that all year, we’ve had injuries, guys stepping up with big moments and playing big minutes,” Marner said Thursday. “Domes isn’t shy to that, he’s always up to that challenge and he’s a hell of a player. His patience and passing are top notch.”
On the blueline, Jake McCabe came back from a week’s absence with a suspected concussion. He played a game-high 24:15, took five shots on goal and blocked five of the 16 that Toronto skaters stopped.
“It meant a lot to have him back,” Matthews said. “He plays such a big role for us, offensively and then defensively, and he’s playing against the top lines (with partner Chris Tanev).”
The Leafs took Friday off and Berube could make at least one change on defence Saturday. Laval native Simon Benoit was benched for his first game in two months on Thursday with Berube’s probable intent to fire him up for a hometown game.
Domi and Max Pacioretty also are former Habs and, with a couple of days to get re-acclimatized to the Leafs, Berube is considering centre Fraser Minten for a third- or fourth-line role since he was called up from the Marlies to fill Tavares’ place on the roster.
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