Stu’s Slapshots: Canadiens silence Jakub Dobes
It looks like Montreal fans won’t get to hear what goalie Jakub Dobes has to say anymore about the team or his performances.
The Canadiens have decided they will no longer make Dobes available to the media and he didn’t speak after each of the last two games — a 5-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes and a 2-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets — during which he stopped 66 of 69 shots for a .957 save percentage.
That’s too bad because Dobes has a gregarious personality, is always a great interview and answers questions honestly.
Maybe too honestly for the Canadiens.
The Canadiens weren’t happy when my Gazette colleague Herb Zurkowsky asked Dobes in early January if he was concerned he might get sent back to the AHL’s Laval Rocket after Jacob Fowler was called up.
It was a good question and Dobes gave a very good answer.
“Maybe some people feel it’s better for me to go down,” the goalie said. “But if I win games. … For me to go down, it would be something that I wouldn’t understand. But I don’t make these decisions. I’m just trying to prove that I belong. I feel like if I keep winning, I’ll be just fine.
“I don’t really have any answers because I don’t really know what’s happening,” Dobes added. “I wish I could tell you (something), but I do not understand. I just try to be there for my teammates and play for my amazing fans. That’s all I really have, those two things. I just try to win. That’s what I’ve been doing my whole life since junior; learning how to win. I keep trying to do that and we’ll see what happens tomorrow. All I know is I left everything on the table (making 20 saves in a 6-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 12) that I could. And we won. That’s it.”
Dobes has since earned the No. 1 goalie job with the Canadiens and now has a 24-8-4 record with a 2.83 goals-against average and a .898 save percentage.
The last media interview Dobes did was with Anthony Martineau of TVA Sports after practice last Monday in Brossard, following a 7-3 win over the New York Islanders on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
Dobes was the backup to Fowler for that game, but appeared to get into some chirping with Islanders players from the bench. It brought back memories of last year’s playoffs when Dobes was barking at Washington players from the bench and it resulted in a fight between the Canadiens’ Josh Anderson and the Capitals’ Tom Wilson at the end of the second period of Game 3 at the Bell Centre. Anderson and Wilson ended up going over the boards and fighting on the Washington bench.
Martineau was doing his job — which he does very well — when he asked Dobes what happened with the Islanders. It was a good question and Dobes gave an honest answer.
“I feel like people read too much into it,” the goalie said. “I saw some comments about the referee, but I wasn’t even doing really anything. He told me that they have a lot on their hands so if you don’t get involved it will help them and people think that I was the person who started all the chirping. They just asked me not to get involved. I feel like people read too much.
“I heard everything that was going on between the benches,” Dobes added. “There was something that one player said on the other team that probably shouldn’t be said and I just told the referees: ‘Hey, please be careful, this stuff doesn’t belong to the game, blah, blah, blah.’ I told him: ‘Hey, don’t act like that’ … and that’s pretty much it.”
Dobes didn’t say which Islanders player said something that shouldn’t be said.
“After that I saw that I was a part of the chirping (in media),” Dobes told Martineau. “But since the last year, that whole Washington thing, I try to stay out of it. I try to focus more on my game. I’m not even good at chirping, really. I feel like people read too much into it and I don’t think it’s true that I was getting like a warning by the referee. They just asked me to not get involved because I’m sitting right in between of the benches. Just so they need to protect the players on the ice and also on the bench. So they were just asking nicely to be careful.”
The Canadiens didn’t seem to like that interview and now Dobes isn’t speaking with the media.
Head coach Martin St. Louis has also decided he will no longer announce who his starting goalie is — or other lineup changes — until game time.
Dobes having fun
Dobes was in good spirits — like usual — and smiling a lot during Monday’s interview with Martineau.
“I feel confident,” he added. “I just feel really strongly about my game right now. I feel good and I feel like I’m ready to play good hockey and whatever they ask me to do I feel like I’m ready. So I just feel good. I try to work hard in practices and games and help my teammates, be the best possible teammate and also help them to get better in practice or to help them as much in a game. That’s pretty much it.”
“It’s fun,” he said about the Canadiens recent success, winning three straight home games before starting a five-game road trip Saturday in Nashville against the Predators (7 p.m., City, SNE, TVA Sports). “Me, personally, it’s kind of similar like last year. Every game matters a lot and when you win it means even more than a couple of months ago. So I feel like we’re kind of now in that playoff mindset. You want to win every game. You don’t want to give the other team any advantage. You just want to really focus and fight for your life. I feel like with the standings and what’s coming ahead of us I feel like the last three weeks (of the season) are really important. I try to be really dialled in and be the best for my teammates towards the end of the year and also playoffs.
Seinfeld characters
It’s hard not to like Dobes with his outgoing personality and sense of humour and it’s the same with teammate Juraj Slafkovsky.
I joked on The Gazette’s Hockey Inside/Out Show this week with former Canadiens teammates and 1986 Stanley Cup champions Chris Nilan and Rick Green that Dobes and Slafkovsky both could have been characters on the old Seinfeld sitcom as Kramer’s buddies if they were playing for the New York Rangers.
Canadiens defenceman Jayden Struble chuckled when I mentioned Dobes could have been a Seinfeld character. I actually wondered if Struble, 24, might be too young to even know about the Seinfeld show.
“No, I watch it,” he said. It’s hilarious.
“He’s actually like a TV show character,” Struble added about Dobes. “I think that helps, though. He’s just so different. I think he doesn’t think about things in the same way that other people would and I think that inevitably helps him to just kind of brush things off and kind of be in his own world, which is good to see.”
Praise for Fowler
Former Canadiens goalie Carey Price was a guest this week on Julie Petry and Cat Toffoli’s Never Offside podcast and was asked if there’s a goalie in the NHL now who reminds him of himself.
“Yeah, Jacob Fowler,” Price said. “When I watch him play he just reminds me a lot of me when I was his age.
“I’ve talked to their goalies a little bit,” Price added. “I’ve talked to Jacob a couple of times. I’m not trying to get in his head or anything. I just gave him my number and if he ever has any questions about anything I’m always open to help out in any way I can. But he looks like he’s doing just fine to me.”
Getting ready for playoffs
Heading into Saturday’s game in Nashville against the Predators the Canadiens had a 40-21-10 record for 90 points and were in third place in the Atlantic Division with a 94.7 per cent chance of making the playoffs, according to the Hockey-Reference website.
Last season, the Canadiens made the playoffs for the first time in four years with 91 points to earn the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with a 40-31-11 record.
Canadiens season-ticket holders have already received the team’s pricing list for the playoffs for their seats at the Bell Centre. Tickets for the first round range from $130 to $676. Second-round tickets range from $163 to $845. Eastern Conference final tickets range from $212 to $1,099 and Stanley Cup final tickets range from $286 to $1,484.
Hitting the road
Jake Evans is happy the Canadiens are starting a five-game road trip because it will give him a chance to get more sleep.
Evans’s wife gave birth to twins last summer and she was at the Bell Centre with the two boys for Thursday night’s pregame warmup.
“That was the first time,” Evans said. “They had their headphones on … it was really cool. They went right back home afterwards. It’s cool to see. Hopefully as the years go on they can start to remember stuff like this. At least we have pictures for them.”
After playing the Predators on Saturday, the Canadiens will face the Hurricanes Sunday in Carolina (5 p.m., TSN2, RDS) ahead of games against the Lightning in Tampa on Tuesday, the Rangers in New York on Thursday and the Devils in New Jersey on Saturday.
“It’s an odd trip,” Evans said. “I feel like we’re going all over a bit. But guys are excited. I’m excited to sleep a little more and that’s about it.”
The Canadiens have a 22-13-2 record at home and were 18-8-8 on the road before facing the Predators.
“It doesn’t really change how we play,” Evans said about going on the road. “I think we’re starting to play more mature hockey, which should help us go on the road.”
Lane Hutson was also looking forward to the long road trip.
“I think we got a pretty good group that likes going on the road,” the defenceman said. “It’s fun to just kind of be with the group and be around each other even more. It’s no problem for us. We enjoy it.”
Music City
Canadiens defenceman Kaiden Guhle grew up in Edmonton and is a big country-music fan, so he loves going to Nashville.
During the Olympic break in the NHL schedule, Guhle went to Cancun and then Nashville with a couple of buddies.
“It was fun to get some sun and then Nashville wasn’t really that warm — but live music, can’t beat it,” Guhle said. “It was fun to go do that and see a couple of buddies from home, too.
“It’s one of my favourite (NHL cities),” Guhle added about Nashville. “Being from out West I love country music, live music. Going for business this time around, so won’t really get to enjoy it really. But always fun to go there. Fun building to play in, too. It’s always pretty rowdy, pretty loud. It will be fun to get out there again and be around the vibe of the city. It’s always fun.”
Guhle’s favourite country-music star is Luke Combs, who will be playing two outdoor concerts at Montreal’s Parc Jean-Drapeau on May 29-30.
“Hopefully, we’re still playing (in the playoffs) and, hopefully, I won’t get the chance to see him,” Guhle said. “It will be cool to hopefully not see him.”
Rock’n’roll
Speaking of music, Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Rick Bowness, who is 71, had one of the best quotes this season when asked before Thursday night’s game at the Bell Centre about relating to his young players.
“I bring up Led Zeppelin and they have no idea what I’m talking about,” Bowness said. “I always tell them: ‘If you want to keep me out of your room, keep playing that music you play.’”
The Blue Jackets had a 19-19-7 record and were in last place in the Eastern Conference when GM Don Waddell decided to fire Dean Evason as head coach on Jan. 12 and hire Bowness, who had retired after coaching the Winnipeg Jets for the 2023-24 season. The Blue Jackets had a 19-4-4 record with Bowness behind the bench and were holding a playoff spot in third place in the Metropolitan Division before facing the San Jose Sharks on Saturday in Columbus.
St. Louis is impressed how Bowness has never lost his passion for the game.
When asked what has made Bowness a successful coach for so long, St. Louis said: “One is his experience. The quality of human. His communication. It’s not one thing. But I think it always starts with a human side and Bones is an excellent human.”
Bowness has a Montreal connection. The Moncton, N.B., native played junior hockey for the Montreal Red White and Blue in the QMJHL, posting 24-71-95 totals and 132 penalty minutes in 71 games as a centre during the 1974-75 season.
Hage sidelined with leg injury
Michael Hage’s University of Michigan career isn’t over yet.
Michigan, the top-ranked team in U.S. college hockey, beat No. 20 Bentley 5-1 Friday in Albany, N.Y., advancing to Sunday’s regional final game of the NCAA Tournament against Minnesota Duluth.
Hage, the Canadiens’ first-round pick (21st overall) at the 2024 NHL Draft, didn’t play in Friday’s game because of a leg injury that isn’t considered to be serious. In 37 games this season, the 6-foot-1, 199-pound sophomore centre has 13-38-51 totals. There’s a good chance the 19-year-old will turn pro once Michigan’s season comes to an end.
ESPN did a wonderful feature video on Hage’s hockey journey ahead of the NCAA tournament, including the death of his father, Alain, at age 51 in a swimming pool accident on July 7, 2023. Alain grew up in Montreal as a huge Canadiens fan and passed that along to his two sons, Michael and Alex.
Hage wore No. 9 in youth hockey in the Toronto area as a tribute to Canadiens legend Maurice Richard.
In the ESPN feature, Hage’s mother, Rania, explains her late husband died after diving into their in-ground backyard pool and hitting his head on the concrete wall.
“My brother and one of his close buddies were the ones to pull him out of the pool,” Hage’s brother says in the ESPN feature. “Tried giving him CPR and then just nothing worked out.”
Hage said it was like a nightmare.
“It was the worst day of my life,” he told ESPN. “It was horrible. I try not to think about it a lot to this day.”
At the 2024 NHL Draft, Hage had family photos with his father stitched inside his suit jacket along with the words his mother told him following his dad’s death: “Don’t move on just move forward.”
After the Canadiens drafted Hage, his mother hugged him and said: “This is a sign from God, baby. You know that this is dad with you.”
Canadiens sign Protz
The Canadiens announced Friday they have signed Owen Protz to a three-year, NHL entry-level contract.
The Canadiens selected the 6-foot-2, 207-pound defenceman who shoots left in the fourth round (102nd overall) of the 2024 NHL Draft. In 64 games this season with the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs, the 20-year-old had 5-18-23 totals and 84 penalty minutes along with a plus-45 differential.
Protz is a physical, stay-at-home defenceman.
“He knows what he is and that’s a gift, that’s a skill, because they don’t always at that age,” Laval Rocket head coach Pascal Vincent said when asked about Protz at the Canadiens’ development camp last summer. “They think they can be somebody else.”
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