He won’t win the Calder Trophy, but the hottest rookie as we head into the playoff run is Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobes.
The Canadiens have gone from a team hoping to grab a playoff spot to a team with aspirations of advancing beyond the opening round of the postseason. Dobes is a key component to those hopes.
Dobes is riding a four-game winning streak and has won five of his last six starts. And he has won in impressive fashion, not allowing more than two goals in any of those starts.
He made 36 saves Tuesday to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in what may be a playoff preview. He had 41 and 34 saves, respectively, in a pair of victories over the Metropolitan Division-leading Carolina Hurricanes. In his only loss during the run, he made 25 saves, but didn’t receive any run support as the Detroit Red Wings posted a 3-1 win with an empty-net goal.
Dobes appears to be under control, and his poise in the crease is a departure from the helter-skelter style that marked his play during the first four months of the season, when Dobes fashioned a 16-5-3 record despite never cracking the NHL’s top 40 in save percentage or goals-against average.
His turnaround began when Marco Marciano replaced Eric Raymond as the Canadiens’ goaltending coach. Dobes worked with Marciano in Laval and they enjoyed a good relationship. The change occurred in late January, and the two took advantage of the Olympic break to reshape Dobes’s game.
Dobes 2.0 was 7-3 in March with a 2.21 GAA and a .927 save percentage. Inconsistency was the trademark of the Montreal goaltending during the early years of the rebuild, but the future looks promising with Dobes and Jacob Fowler.
As a player, Marciano never progressed beyond the Junior AAA level, but he has paid his dues with more than two decades at the major junior and AHL levels. He was a goalie/video coach for the Canadian women’s team when it won Olympic gold behind Charline Labonté and Hockey Hall of Famer Kim St-Pierre in 2010. One of his first jobs in the QMJHL was with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, where he worked with future Hall of Famer Marc-André Fleury.
Hage set for NHL audition: Prospect Michael Hage will probably play one, and as many as three, regular-season games with the Canadiens before the playoffs begin.
There was some concern when the University of Michigan centre was scratched from the opening game of the NCAA tournament last Friday because of a minor leg injury. Hage was dressed for the regional final on Sunday, but saw limited action as a winger in a 4-3 win over Minnesota-Duluth.
The good news is that Hage, who had 13-38-51 totals in 38 games this season, will have nearly two weeks to recuperate. The hockey tournament doesn’t resume until April 9 because the NCAA doesn’t want anything to distract from the men’s basketball Final Four this weekend.
Top-ranked Michigan plays No. 4 Denver in one semifinal, with the winner advancing to the final against the winner between No. 2 North Dakota and No. 12 Wisconsin. The final is scheduled for April 11 in Las Vegas.
If Denver upsets Michigan, Hage could be in a Canadiens uniform as early as April 11 for a home game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Canadiens visit the Islanders the next night and wrap up the regular season in Philadelphia on April 14.
Hage was drafted as a centre, but when he joins the Canadiens, he’ll start on the wing.
It will be interesting to see if the Canadiens take a swing at Hage’s teammate, T.J. Hughes. An undrafted free agent, Hughes was the Wolverines’ leading scorer, with 21-35-56 totals in 39 games — and had the second-most points in NCAA hockey — and he won 57.3 per cent of his faceoffs. That’s one area where Hage must improve if he hopes to play centre in the NHL. He won 46.5 per cent of his draws.
Nick Wosika / Getty Images
Victoire victorious: The Montreal Victoire blanked the Vancouver Goldeneyes 3-0 Wednesday to clinch a playoff berth with six games remaining on the schedule. The Victoire has 49 points, two behind the first-place Boston Fleet.
The Victoire has won three straight and has a 4-2 record since captain Marie-Philip Poulin went on the injured reserve list with a knee injury suffered at the Olympics.
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