“Unless there’s a major turnaround, Noah Dobson will play tomorrow.”

Tomorrow night, the Canadiens will play for their season against the Lightning. The two teams will face off in Game 7 of their first-round series… and the loser of this game will see their season come to an end.

Keep in mind that right now, the weather conditions in Tampa give the Lightning an advantage.

The big question for the Habs is whether Noah Dobson will be able to return to action. We know he's been making rapid progress over the past few days, but he wasn't able to play last night.

However, according to Mathieu Chouinard (who works for TVA Sports), the news is good: barring a major turnaround, Dobson will be in the lineup tomorrow.

And obviously, I don't need to tell you that he would be a major addition to the Habs' blue line.

Update: Barring a major change, Dobson is IN tomorrow. #GOHABSGO

— Mathieu Chouinard (@Chouine) May 2, 2026

Of course, one has to wonder what kind of shape Dobson will be in if he's able to play tomorrow. He probably won't be at 100%, and it makes sense to question whether he'll be able to be the dominant defenseman we've seen this season.

Is he really capable of taking hard shots? Doing it in practice is one thing; doing it in a game situation is another.

Remember that yesterday, the word on the street was that Dobson was a 50/50 for Game 6. He didn't end up playing… but with the Habs facing elimination tomorrow, their highest-paid player is expected to make his series debut.

Let's see if, on the other side, a certain Victor Hedman will do the same…

Overtime

If Dobson is able to return to the lineup, the question is who will make way for him. Jayden Struble seems like the logical choice, but Arber Xhekaj was one of the players at fault on the sequence that led to Gage Goncalves' game-winning goal yesterday.

Unless the team decides to go with seven defensemen… but that scenario seems pretty unlikely for a team that's already struggling to generate offense at 5-on-5.