The California goaltending roller coaster
California road trips have been historically unsuccessful for the Montreal Canadiens, and going into a Saturday night tilt with the Los Angeles Kings, their latest run in the golden state appeared to be following that trend. They were outplayed from the opening face off, seemingly confirming a failed road trip, before pulling a rabbit out of their hat in the third period to escape California with a huge two points.
They never would have had the chance to pull that rabbit out of their hat if not for Jakub Dobeš.
They’re really going to waste one of the better goalie performances they’ve had this season, eh? pic.twitter.com/jEu403IcLP
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) March 8, 2026
The second Kings goal on the night was one that Dobeš would want back; a simple swing towards the net by Scott Laughton that likely goes wide if it doesn’t go in off the pad of Dobeš. But make no mistake, there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell they were winning that game without the rest of his work. In all situations, the Kings had 26 high-danger scoring chances to the Habs’ 11. The Habs were outshot 16-1 in the first period alone. This could have been a blowout that sent the Tricolore back to Montreal with a paltry one point to show for their road trip.
It was a tour de force from Dobeš, and quite the turnaround from his rough outing against the San Jose Sharks. There, he allowed more goals than expected in one of his worst performances of the season. Against the Kings, he completely forgot about that performance and authored an absolute robbery of a win for his team. The Habs haven’t had many steals from their goaltenders this season, but they got a big one on Saturday.
Sandwiched between the good and bad of Dobeš was a Samuel Montembeault performance that arguably cost them the game against the Anaheim Ducks. It was a close game, but his habit of allowing weak point shots to end up behind him was a big factor in it going to overtime. Unlike Dobeš, we haven’t seen the ability from him to get back up to par after a bad performance. Frankly, with the way things have gone, he may not get many chances to do that anymore.
If it wasn’t clear already, it is undeniable now that Dobeš has to be their workhorse starter for the remainder of the season. He may not have the consistency of the elite number-one goaltenders around the league, but he gives them the better chance to win more often than not. After this goaltending roller coaster on the west coast, the coaching staff needs to commit to him more seriously.
Give him every game that he’s physically capable of playing. That likely won’t stop the calls for Jacob Fowler to rejoin the big club, but if he has more performances like Saturday night’s in him, they should get the team to the playoffs.
Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be back on Tuesday night, when the Habs will return to the Bell Centre to host the Toronto Maple Leafs.
