Jakub Dobes couldn’t have afforded a better ticket to the NHL

We don’t know how long this will last, but the recall of Jakub Dobes created a huge difference in front of the Montreal Canadiens net.

When the CH officially placed Cayden Primeau’s name on waivers, Dobes helped his team win 4-0 over the Florida Panthers, uninspired Stanley Cup champions who were victims of a fourth shutout in their last eight games.

By stopping 34 shots, the 23-year-old Czech became the first Habs goaltender to record a shutout in his debut in the National Hockey League (NHL) since Yann Danis in 2005.

The day before, head coach Martin St-Louis explained that the organization’s intention in placing Primeau on waivers was to hand him over to the Laval Rocket so that he could regain his confidence. Primeau was the worst goalie in the NHL among those who played in at least five games with an efficiency rating of just .836.

However, confidence is exactly what Dobes projected against the Panthers. The latter is an inch taller than Primeau (6’4″ instead of 6’3″), but the difference in the way he occupied space and looked big in front of his net seemed much greater than that.

A goalkeeper’s confidence is expressed, among other things, in the way he manages a match. On Saturday, Dobes constantly took care to prevent the Panthers from gaining rhythm in the Canadiens’ zone, he who stopped the puck without giving a return on no less than 16 occasions. For comparison, during his last start, on December 1 in Boston, Primeau had only done this six times in the game.

This type of gesture may seem banal, but there have been several moments this season when the Canadian found himself bottled up in his zone watching the opponent spin around in possession of the disc. The sooner a goalkeeper blows the whistle, the more he prevents this type of siege.

Among other things, there were two of these prolonged presences of the Panthers in Montreal territory following turnovers caused by Kirby Dach in the second period and Joel Armia in the third. But after seeing his teammates block shots in front of him, Dobes intervened as soon as he had the opportunity to put an end to the threats.

Dobes said he saw the pucks coming towards him, and this was an opportunity for him to demonstrate a very good shot. And when, at the start of the third period, a shot from Matthew Tkachuk ricocheted off his glove and caused a comeback, Dobes repaired his error by sticking out his right pad in front of Carter Verhaeghe. Skillful.

We will also note that, as he is accustomed to doing in Laval, he showed himself adept at handling the puck behind his net, perhaps more than Primeau or Samuel Montembeault usually do.

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These guardians in the lion’s den

That said, we should not necessarily conclude that this recent change in front of the Canadiens net means the end of Primeau in Montreal.

His failures this season mean that there has never been a better time to place him on waivers without the risk of him being claimed. Primeau needs to stop pucks if he wants to return to his level of play from last year and, for the moment, it is in Laval that he is capable of doing it. We will see if this stay with the Rocket will allow him to regain his means.

As for Dobes, such an entry on the scene adds to the memory of the excellent preparatory game he played against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the end of September. His progress over the last 12 months is encouraging. He now has a great opportunity to seize and, with a schedule that puts the Canadian in two streaks of 3 games in 4 days over the next 10 days, St-Louis needs a reliable goalkeeper to support Montembeault.

At the same time, the organization will surely be careful not to place a young man who is only in his second professional season in too perilous a situation. You only have to look at the other goalies who, like Dobes, were drafted in 2020 to see that establishing yourself in the NHL at 23 years old is not common.

Yaroslav Askarov, the only goaltender taken in the first round that year, continues to develop in the American Hockey League (AHL) even though he has appeared in four games with the San Jose Sharks so far this season.

Nico Daws (New Jersey) and Devon Levi (Buffalo) are the two goalies from the 2020 vintage who have seen the most action in the NHL, having been thrown into the lions’ den at the age of 20. They have both experienced a setback in their progress and are currently simmering in the AHL.

Same thing for Drew Commesso (Chicago), Joel Blomqvist (Pittsburgh) and Leevi Meriläinen (Ottawa), who started to see some action this season to compensate for the absence of NHL goaltenders. Their experience in the best league in the world is a trickle.

Concluding that Primeau’s troubles and Dobes’ brilliance in his first game mean that he is arriving in the NHL to stay is therefore premature. The team will take it one day at a time.

But this first day, Dobes certainly won!

A first double for Dach

The Panthers did not display the intensity necessary to hope to win, while the Canadian was tough on the forecheck and seized his scoring opportunities.

It was CH’s first victory at Sunrise in its last 10 visits to South Florida.

Besides the arrival of Dobes, the awakening of Dach is one of the best news for the team at the dawn of a grueling journey. The big center player had an encouraging performance in Columbus on Monday, and now his first double of the season against the Panthers gives him more positive elements on which to build.

On his first goal, Patrik Laine attracted three opponents towards him, before giving the disc to Kaiden Guhle. The tic-tac-toe exchange that followed in a space poorly covered by the Panthers ended up on the stick of Dach, who beat Spencer Knight even though he missed his throw somewhat.

His breakaway goal, 12 minutes later, was more convincing.

It was only the fifth game this season where Dach ended his day at the office with a positive differential, and the first where there was a +2 stuck to his name.

We can’t say it enough: Dach would save his bosses a lot of trouble if he found his way by the end of the season and avoided the organization devoting resources to finding a top 6 center. to take his place.

I find that recently he is starting to come together more, and it’s fun that he is able to get results to help his confidence, reported St-Louis on RDS. This is a step in the right direction for him. This trio did a good job.

By putting the match out of reach of the Panthers with his team’s fourth goal, Cole Caufield for his part scored his second in his last 11 games.

There was no cause for alarm, because Caufield still maintained a rate of one point per game during this sequence, which corresponds to the moment when Laine came to take his preferred place on the power play. But a scorer who knows how to score knows how to score on his marks.

In his own way, Alex Newhook also polished up his statistical record by collecting his first two assists of the season. By the 35th game of the campaign, it wasn’t too early.

What about Jake Evans? ask yourself about the 28-year-old center who scored in a fourth straight game.

Good Jack will soon deserve a more in-depth analysis of his case.