Cowan: Sharper mental game fuels playoff success for Canadiens’ Jakub Dobes
Just before 10 p.m. Saturday, I received a text message from Pete Fry, a goalie mindset coach, who works with the Canadiens’ Jakub Dobes.
“Just got off (the phone) with Jakub,” Fry wrote. “He is locked in for tomorrow.”
The next night, the rookie goalie made 28 saves as the Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series, improving his playoff save percentage to .923.
Next up for the Canadiens and Dobes is the Buffalo Sabres in the second round, with Game 1 slated for Wednesday in Buffalo (7 p.m., CBC, SN, TVA Sports).
Goaltending in the NHL — especially in the playoffs — can be as much a mental game as a physical one since they are the last line of defence with a very bright spotlight on them.
When Dobes was with the AHL’s Laval Rocket during the 2023-24 season, the team’s goalie coach at the time, Marco Marciano, suggested he start working with Fry, who for the last nine years has operated his own full-time business — Pete Fry Goalie Mindset Training — working with goalies on the mental side of the game.
Dobes was reluctant at first, but was impressed with Fry after his first session and has continued to work regularly with him ever since.
In January, the Canadiens decided to hire Marciano as their goalie coach, replacing Éric Raymond. In the 19 regular-season games Dobes played after Marciano was hired, he had a 13-5-1 record with a 2.57 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage. In the seven playoff games against the Lightning, Dobes had a 2.03 GAA to go along with his .923 save percentage.
Fry isn’t surprised that Marciano has helped bring the best out of Dobes.
“I know how positive Marco is,” Fry said in a phone interview Monday afternoon. “I knew the guys love him. Cayden (Primeau) loved him in Laval. Jakub loved him … I’m sure Sam (Montembeault) loves him, too. It makes a big difference.
“A goalie coach was telling me recently, ‘We lost a game and the head coach came up to me and said: Why didn’t you yell at the goaltender because he didn’t make a save he should have made?’ Goalies know when they should have made a save — they know that 100 per cent. But sometimes a coach will just tear a strip off them in the heat of the moment, whereas Marco is super positive. Focus on the positives. And the way the brain works, we have our Reticular Activating System. So what that means is that whatever we focus on, we get more of. You know who was really good at this? Carey Price. If after a game we’re focused on what we did well, we’ll get more of it instead of if we’re focused on the one or two or three saves we didn’t make.
“There’s a lot of good technical goalie coaches, but if they don’t understand how the brain works, how the mind works, they can go backwards when they want to go forward,” Fry added.
Fry did a Zoom session with Dobes on Saturday night to help get him ready for Game 7.
“The reason why I felt that he was locked in was just our communication back and forth,” Fry said. “On our Zooms, I always do what’s called end-point visualization. He really looks up to and respects (Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andrei) Vasilevskiy, and Vasilevskiy is just a phenomenal goaltender. So one of the things that I had Jakub imagine was at the end of the game with the team celebrating, Vasilevskiy congratulating him in the handshake line and wishing him luck going on to the next series. That was the moment for him.”
That moment actually happened after Game 7.
Fry believes the subconscious mind is more powerful than the conscious mind and it’s important to visualize an end point — like shaking hands with Vasilevskiy — to gain confidence and eliminate negativity from the mind.
“Beliefs drive everything we do,” Fry said. “If we believe we’re a Stanley Cup-winning goaltender, Vézina (Trophy) goaltender, a Conn Smythe Trophy goaltender, then how we act is so different.”
After the Game 7 win, captain Nick Suzuki spoke about how Dobes has grown as a goalie this season and earned the No. 1 job with the Canadiens in the process.
Editor’s Picks
“He’s super confident in himself, which you love to see,” Suzuki told reporters in Tampa. “He puts the work in every single day away from the rink and preparing himself to go into games in a proper mindset. I learned a lot of his routine last night, which was pretty cool.”
Fry chuckled when he heard that comment.
“I don’t know if (Suzuki) was around Jakub, but we were on Zoom Saturday night so he might have been nearby,” Fry said.
“He believes in himself,” Fry added about Dobes. “He sees himself as a dominant goaltender. And, at the same time, he’s such a humble human being. He’s so nice; he’s a great human. I see all of that coming together, and there’s no arrogance whatsoever. It’s true confidence that is now coming out from his belief systems — and he’s the guy.”
He certainly was against the Lightning.
The post Cowan: Sharper mental game fuels playoff success for Canadiens’ Jakub Dobes appeared first on Montreal Gazette.