Notebook: Pressure on Dobes could be alleviated by breakthrough for Canadiens stars

MONTREAL — It took many years for the Montreal Canadiens to ice a roster that didn’t must depend upon miracles from its goaltender to win, however this star-studded model of the group wouldn’t be gazing its first alternative to dispatch the Tampa Bay Lightning from the Stanley Cup Playoffs far prior to anticipated if not for the divine performances Jakub Dobes has delivered.

By the numbers, the 24-year-old has been the most effective goaltender within the NHL since early March, saving 18.9 objectives above anticipated over his final 20 video games of the common season earlier than stopping 121 of the 134 photographs he’s confronted from the Lightning this sequence.

Dobes’ 40 saves — together with 10 within the last 3:31 — in Game 5 performed the largest function in getting the Canadiens right here, and those the rookie makes subsequent may get them to the subsequent spherical by the tip of Friday evening (7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT, Sportsnet, Sportsnet+).

Who’d have had Dobes out-dueling Vezina finalist Andrei Vasilevskiy thus far?

Well, Kaiden Guhle for one.

“He’s been great. I don’t think anyone’s shocked,” Guhle stated on Thursday. “He’s a confident guy. He likes these big moments, he wants these big moments. I think if you look back to his first game last year — a shutout against the defending Stanley Cup champs — he lives for this. I think that’s what makes him so good. He comes up and he shows up in these big moments, and he made a lot of big saves for us (Wednesday), and that’s what you need from your goalie in the playoffs sometimes is to make those big saves when a team really makes a push. He’s been really good for us so far.”

He’s been a distinction maker, whereas Montreal’s superstars have been trying to find the objectives that might alleviate the strain on him to be one.

Could Game 6 be the one for Suzuki, Caufield and Slafkosky?

Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky have made their mark on the facility play, however all three have been held to zeroes at five-on-five by means of this sequence.

They’ve been focused by the Lightning, suffocated with and with out the puck, they usually’re all preventing for oxygen to do what they do finest.

If they’ll ship in Friday’s Game 6, it’s onerous to think about there being a Game 7 come Sunday.

“I just want to help create more for the group,” stated Caufield, “and I think tonight’s a great opportunity to do that.”

He has one purpose on this sequence after scoring 51 this season.

Slafkovsky, who beat his profession excessive of 20 by 10, scored a hat trick within the opening sport however has been on the receiving finish of far more harm than he’s inflicted since then.

There was the Game 2 battle with Brandon Hagel, wherein he was dropped with a proper hand to the chin.

And there was the Game 4 hit from Max Crozier, which not solely knocked Slafkovsky off his ft but additionally knocked him out of rhythm.

“It happens,” the 22-year-old stated Friday morning. “I turned, and I saw him coming too, and there just wasn’t much space where I could go at that moment. He got a good hit. Good for the guy. Doesn’t play much, so maybe it makes him play a little more. Have to take it. But it doesn’t matter if I get hit or anything; it’s how I come back. I just want to keep playing hard the same way, and I think it’s all good.”

What can be good is for Slafkovsky to hit again on the scoreboard, the place he may cause the Lightning probably the most ache.

“I would love to do more, love to get on the board more, score more goals and stuff,” he stated. “But typically it’s going to be like that.

“Obviously I expect more of myself, but anytime it’ll come I’ll take it.”

The Canadiens would take it proper now.

Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis is aware of how Suzuki, Caufield and Slafovsky should be feeling.

He too was a focused high participant within the playoffs. He too is aware of how deep it’s essential to dig to interrupt by means of.

“You have your own expectations, (and) you hear everybody else’s expectation,” St. Louis stated. “All that is noise and chaotic, and can you just stay focused and clear with the reads that you have to make while all this is around you? You can’t control that (noise and chaos). You can control this (your focus).”

Easier stated than carried out when elite gamers like Hagel, Anthony Cirelli and Nikita Kucherov are doing the checking.

“Both teams are defending extremely well and extremely hard, and I feel like you have to be able to manage the way the game is played,” stated St. Louis. “Sometimes you end up having to defend extra than simply worrying about offence, as a result of their matchup hasn’t been straightforward. They’re taking part in towards guys who’re defending onerous they usually’re making an attempt to attain too.

“Sometimes you could have matchups the place it’s simpler within the sense that the road that’s matching you is just not essentially making an attempt to attain too, so you’ll be able to actually have extra calculated danger in your sport. I’ve skilled each, and you must be on excessive alert as an offensive man whenever you’re getting defended by offensive guys which are taking part in defence too. It’s not that straightforward, and I really feel like our sequence is tight due to that. Offensive guys from each groups are taking part in defence as properly.”

Jon Cooper stated earlier than arriving in Montreal on Thursday that the Lightning would study lots about themselves in Game 6.

When requested what they need to count on to study themselves after saying on Friday he’s not anticipating their season to finish on the Bell Centre, Cooper responded: “Everybody talks about expertise and stuff like that that may get you thru sequence. You know what will get you thru a sequence? Execution, taking part in onerous, ending checks, all of the stuff you do in a hockey sport; that’s what will get you thru. Getting an enormous purpose whenever you want it or getting an enormous save whenever you want it; that’s what will get you thru sequence. But it’s placing that collectively…

“We’ve got that core group of guys and then kind of a whole bunch of newcomers coming in, and what we’re saying to ourselves is, ‘What are we?’ This is our time. It is time to rise to the occasion. I look back at training camp and just so many things that have gone on with this group and how they’ve literally fought their way to this point, and that’s what we’re talking about. It’s like, was it all for nought?”

Cooper confirmed Lightning captain Victor Hedman received’t play Game 6.

“He’s going to be an option really soon,” Cooper stated.

But Hedman hasn’t been one for the Lightning since March 19, and it seems uncertain he’ll be one earlier than this sequence ends.

Cooper wouldn’t verify if Charles-Edouard D’Astous or Nick Paul will play Game 6, but it surely seems each are probably returning to the Lightning lineup.

D’Astous spoke with media after the morning skate, which he hasn’t carried out since struggling the hit that from Josh Anderson that knocked him out in the course of Game 1. And Paul additionally informed reporters he was feeling higher after lacking Game 5 as a consequence of sickness.

On the Canadiens facet, although Noah Dobson joined his teammates on the non-obligatory morning skate for the second time, he’s not anticipated to play Game 6.

Dobson has been out since struggling an damage to his left hand on April 11.