Skip to content
Your daily dose of hockey
News

No, Cayden Primeau would never have won that match.

 Félix Forget
Share : facebook icon twitter icon
No, Cayden Primeau would never have won that match.
Credit: This afternoon, the big story with the Canadiens was Jakub Dobes. The goalie, making his NHL debut, had the heavy task of facing the Florida Panthers in his first appearance in the show. With Cayden Primeau no longer in the organization’s good graces (and officially placed on waivers at 2 PM), the task of backing […]
This afternoon, the big story with the Canadiens was Jakub Dobes. The goalie, making his NHL debut, had the heavy task of facing the Florida Panthers in his first appearance in the show.

With Cayden Primeau no longer in the organization’s good graces (and officially placed on waivers at 2 PM), the task of backing up Samuel Montembeault (at least in the short term) fell to Dobes.

And how did Dobes respond in his first test? With nothing less than a shutout, making 34 saves against the reigning champions.

Of course, we must be cautious before thinking he is already the savior. It was a very encouraging start for Dobes, but we shouldn’t fall into the Ryan Poehling syndrome either.

That said, for the occasion, let’s be positive: the young goalie looked like a confident guy in front of his net, something the Canadiens have not often obtained from their backup goalie this season.

At the very least, we can agree on one thing: Dobes has today won a game that Cayden Primeau would never have won. And that’s exactly what the team needs from its backup goalie.

However, even though Dobes is the story of the day, there are other aspects of the game that intrigued me. Here’s what I take away from this 4-0 victory over the Panthers:

1. Dobes has proven to be a valuable acquisition, but what we notice is that the three guys who joined the Canadiens in December have all improved the team. Patrik Laine is scoring goals in abundance on the power play, Alexandre Carrier is the stabilizing presence the team’s blue line needed, and Dobes gives confidence to the guys in front of him.

This means that suddenly, the team is winning more and more games.

2. Jake Evans has now scored a goal in each of his last four games. Once again today, he hit the target with a beautiful goal.

He is having an exceptional season… and as he will become a free agent in a few months, he is playing like a guy who is going to land a nice lucrative contract.

3. Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook really needed a game like today’s. Seeing the former score two goals and the latter get his first two assists of the season will do them good.

If they can build on that and have a strong finish to the season, CH wouldn’t say no.

4. By defeating the Panthers today, CH secured its fourth victory of the season against a team on track for the playoffs.

To be in the famous mix, that is something that will need to improve.

A victory that will do wonders for the team and demonstrates that this new version of the Canadiens can win games against top teams, even when Samuel Montembeault rests.

I look forward to seeing what it will yield tomorrow against the Lightning.


In a nutshell

– Jakub Dobes felt at home at the Bell Centre.

– Nice moment at Place Bell.

facebook icon Share twitter icon Tweet linkedin icon Share
Copied!
More Content