Cowan: Self-belief shaped Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes’s breakout season
It wasn’t the first time Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes had shotgunned a beer.
“I did … I was at Ohio State,” Dobes said with a smile when asked if he had ever slammed a beer before doing it on stage with country-music star Luke Combs and teammates Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Brendan Gallagher during a concert at Jean Drapeau Park on May 31, a couple of days after the Canadiens’ season came to an end.
“The football games are fun there,” Dobes added about Ohio State when Canadiens players met with the media for the last time this season following their Eastern Conference final loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. “I’m not the best (at shotgunning), but it was a cool moment. … I was probably more nervous than for some of the games we played because it’s a different feeling going on a stage. You’ve got to perform and there’s no hockey or there’s no net, so you’re kind of like: ‘Oof! What am I supposed to do here?’ But it was unbelievable. We had a good time and it was great to have the guys together for one more time before everyone leaves.”
Dobes has come a long way since being selected by the Canadiens in the fifth round (136th overall) of the 2020 NHL Draft and spending two seasons playing at Ohio State. He was the 13th goalie selected at the 2020 draft and was the most pleasant surprise for the Canadiens this season, earning the No. 1 job ahead of Samuel Montembeault and Jacob Fowler, who has been dubbed the team’s “goalie of the future” since being selected in the third round (69th overall) of the 2023 NHL Draft.
There will be a competition between Dobes, 25, and Fowler, 21, for that title, with the expectation that Montembeault, 29, will be traded this summer.
Dobes was the biggest reason the Canadiens advanced to the Eastern Conference final before losing in five games to the Hurricanes, posting a 2.66 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage in 19 playoff games.
When asked what the key to his success was this season, Dobes said: “Just believing in myself. Trusting the process, I would say.
“For me, the sky’s the limit in my head,” he added. “I want to do whatever I possibly can to have the best career. I feel like this is just the beginning and, hopefully, I will continue to play like that next year, too.”
The hiring of Marco Marciano as goalie coach on Jan. 28 to replace Eric Raymond helped Dobes. In the 19 regular-season games Dobes played after Marciano was promoted from the AHL’s Laval Rocket, he had a 13-5-1 record with a 2.57 GAA and a .914 save percentage.
“He’s unbelievable,” Dobes said about Marciano, who he worked with the previous two seasons while playing for the Rocket. “He’s done a lot and he had my back. I can’t thank him enough. He’s my guy. We’ve been together for a little while, so we know each other. Everything was smooth from the day he arrived. We knew right away what to do. It was nothing crazy.
“He would always remind me how good I can be,” Dobes added. “I just feel like he had my back. Even when I had a bad game, bad period, bad whatever, he would just reset me and the next period, next game, I’d be good again. I feel like he knows me better than I know myself, so that helps a lot. I was telling him that throughout the playoffs.”
Dobes has one season left on his contract with a salary-cap hit of US$965,000, while Fowler has two seasons remaining on his NHL entry-level deal with a salary-cap hit of US$945,883. That’s a big change from the days when goalie Carey Price carried a team-high US$10.5 million salary-cap hit with the Canadiens.
Dobes and Fowler have become good friends, which should help.
“He is a great kid,” Dobes said about Fowler. “We don’t really talk much about hockey, to be honest. The stuff we talk about … it’s a really healthy relationship. He’s an unbelievable goalie, same with Monty. We just go try to push each other. I think it’s a really healthy, good competition for both of us. He’s a good goalie; I’m a good goalie. So I feel like working with him and seeing what he does, and I do feel like we have a good connection. We’ll see next year what’s going to happen.”
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Dobes showed this season that he can handle the bright spotlight and the pressure that comes from being a goalie with the Canadiens, playing 62 games, including the playoffs.
“We talked about it yesterday with Fowls … playing for the Montreal Canadiens, there’s nothing better than playing for the Canadiens,” Dobes said. “The jersey, the tradition, the Bell Centre. It’s like living a dream every day over and over again. I’m very proud to be a Canadien.
“It’s amazing what this franchise, this city, is about,” the Czech Republic native added. “We’re just excited that we have a chance with this team to win a Stanley Cup — hopefully next year.”
