Canadiens turn back to Jakub Dobes in rematch against Canucks
Jakub Dobes will start in goal for the Canadiens when they face the Vancouver Canucks Monday at the Bell Centre
(7:30 p.m., Prime, RDS).
It will be Dobes’s first game
since Jan. 1, when he allowed five goals on 25 shots in a 7-5 win over the Hurricanes in Carolina.
Jacob Fowler has started three of the last five games for the Canadiens, including Saturday’s 4-0 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, with Samuel Montembeault starting the other two.
Dobes has a 13-5-3 record with a 3.01 goals-against average and an .889 save percentage. Fowler has a 4-3-2 record with a 2.46 GAA and a .908 save percentage, while Montembeault is 8-6-1 with a 3.39 GAA and a .869 save percentage.
he said carrying three goalies wasn’t ideal long-term, but also noted the Canadiens were starting a busy stretch in the schedule with five games in seven days. He added that the goalie who plays the best will play the most.
Monday’s game against the Canucks is the fourth game in that seven-day stretch, followed by Tuesday’s game in Washington against the Capitals
(7 p.m., TSN2, RDS).
Full team rosters and stats ahead of tonight’s game between the Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks at the Bell Centre (7:30 p.m., Prime, RDS) #Habs pic.twitter.com/w7BhinmFzE
— Stu Cowan (@StuCowan1) January 12, 2026
Montembeault has won all three of his starts since going down to the AHL’s Laval Rocket for a two-game conditioning stint. Montembeault has stopped 77 of 84 shots in his last three games for a .917 save percentage. Montembeault would have to clear waivers if the Canadiens wanted to send him back to Laval, while Dobes and Fowler don’t need to clear waivers.
At this point, Dobes looks like the goalie most likely to be returned to Laval when the Canadiens decide to go with two goalies, putting added pressure on him Monday night.
Head coach Martin St. Louis decided to go with Fowler for Saturday’s game against the Red Wings with first place in the Atlantic Division up for grabs. The 21-year-old stopped 20 of the 23 shots he faced, with the fourth Detroit goal an empty-netter.
“You want to play the big games,” Fowler said after playing in his ninth NHL game since getting called up from the Rocket. “That was probably the biggest game I’ve played, aside from your first one. Big points up for grabs tonight and it sucks to not get the win. But you learn a lot in moments like this.
“It’s not going to be the last pressure-filled or emotionally high-stakes game that I play and you learn from it,” Fowler added. “I didn’t think I played a bad game tonight, but any time you give up three, it’s hard to give your team a chance. Credit to them. They played tight, their goalie made some big saves. But, ultimately, you got to keep it to two or less (goals) to give your team a chance.”
Fowler said he learned a lot from the loss to Detroit.
“You can kind of look away from the results a bit,” he said. “I play the game one shot at a time. They earned a couple of good bounces tonight but, ultimately, part of me just getting reps and experience in this league is learning from that. It sucks that we didn’t put any in their net, but that’s hockey. You learn from it. Nobody goes 82-0. It’s how you respond. So we’ll flush it tonight, watch the video and hopefully get back to it on Monday.”
Here’s what forward lines and defence pairings looked like at Canadiens’ morning skate ahead of tonight’s game against Vancouver Canucks at Bell Centre (7:30 p.m., Prime, RDS). Jakub Dobes will start in goal for #Habs: pic.twitter.com/cebWEyC0hC
— Stu Cowan (@StuCowan1) January 12, 2026
St. Louis likes what he has seen so far from Fowler.
“He’s very composed,” St. Louis said after the Detroit game. “I feel he’s ready for what’s next. He’s pretty even keeled. We like what we’ve seen.”
The Canadiens (25-14-6) go into Monday night’s game sitting in third place in the Atlantic Division, two points behind the first-place Red Wings (27-15-4) and one point behind the second-place Tampa Bay Lightning (27-13-3). The Red Wings play host to the Carolina Hurricanes Monday night, while the Lightning visits the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks (16-23-5) have the worst record in the NHL and have lost their last six games (0-4-2) while being outscored 28-12.
This will be the second and final game between the Canadiens and Canucks this season.
The Canadiens won 4-3 in Vancouver on Oct. 25,
with Dobes stopping 28 of 31 shots.
“It’s going to be a tough game,” the Canadiens’ Phillip Danault told reporters after the team’s morning skate Monday at the Bell Centre. “It’s always a tough game no matter what team, where they are in the standings. It’s always going to be a hard game.”
