Dobes embracing playing the villain in Canadiens’ run to East Final

BUFFALO -- Jakub Dobes is grateful to the fans of Buffalo.

For mocking him.

And if the rowdy fans of the Carolina Hurricanes known as the Caniacs want to verbally berate him in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final at Lenovo Center on Thursday (8 p.m. ET: HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC), the Montreal Canadiens goalie says bring it on.

Because he embraces every single derogatory word.

“Their fans like to chant my name, so I like that,” the 24-year-old said of the Sabres fans at KeyBank Center after Montreal’s 3-2 overtime victory in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on Monday.

 “Thank you. Thanks for that,” Dobes said. “Actually, that was giving me fire because I like when you're the villain (and) you’re in this situation.”

The colorful Dobes is many things. A villain. A “goofy goalie,” as he referred to himself after Montreal’s 6-2 victory in Game 3. An emotional competitor who’s shed his share of tears behind his mask in these 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, both from adulation and frustration.

The one thing he’s not is boring.

And when the chips were down, when his team needed him the most, the rookie goalie was at his best in Game 7, stopping 37 Sabres shots before Alex Newhook scored the series winner at 11:22 of overtime.

This after he was almost pulled after allowing three goals on the first four shots he faced in Game 5. The decision by interim goalie coach Marco Marciano to keep him in ultimately proved to be the correct one when he stopped the remaining 32 shots he faced in Montreal’s 6-3 win.

He did get the hook in Game 6 after allowing six goals on 33 shots, part of Buffalo’s 8-3 victory at Bell Centre. In the process, there was plenty of speculation of how Dobes, who’d only had the No. 1 job since mid-January, would react to the pressure of a Game 7 after his game seemed to be developing some deep cracks.

In the end, his way of dealing with it was pure Dobes through and through.

“I was playing video games with the guys after Game 6,” he explained with a chuckle.

Then he went out in Game 7 and was a stud, making a couple of snow-angel stops that were reminiscent of Dominik Hasek, his fellow countryman from Czechia who regularly performed similar theatrics for the Sabres in this same building decades earlier.

It’s another example of the resiliency shown by Dobes, who had to bounce back after he allowed a game-changing goal in Game 4 on a neutral zone dump-in from Sabres forward Tage Thompson that ricocheted off a stanchion on the Zamboni door in the corner at Bell Centre and deflected off him into the net.

He’s a very motivated kid, if nothing else, seemingly fueled by adversity. 

“I think me getting pulled at home was kind of a wakeup call,” he said of Game 6.  “I took it personal.”

And then he took it out on the Sabres in Game 7.

Now he’ll face a Carolina team that likes to put as many pucks to the net as they can and create chaos around the crease, the type of system that can easily toy with the emotions of the combustible Dobes.

“Look, we know how to bounce back,” he said. “We just keep getting experience. And I think that every round, every game, every experience makes us a better team for the playoffs and for the future because we are a really young group and we are learning a lot.”

He certainly seems to be. In fact, Dobes became just the second goalie in NHL history, behind late Canadiens Hall of Famer Ken Dryden, to win multiple road Game 7s in a single playoff year, having previously played in Montreal’s 2-1 win at the Tampa Bay Lighting in the first round.

And if you think the grind of playing each and every one of Montreal’s 14 playoff games thus far is wearing on him, he rejected that notion during an on-ice interview with Sportsnet after the post-series handshake line between the Sabres and Canadiens had been completed.

“Me? Oh, I can play 40 more,” he said matter of factly.

“Really?” Sportsnet’s Kyle Bukauskas replied, almost as if he’d been caught off guard by Dobes’ response.

After seeing the roller-coaster ride he’s been on the past month, only to always find a way to somehow, someway, come out on top, this much is certain: With Dobes, anything, the good and the bad, is possible.

It shouldn’t take long for the Hurricanes to discover that for themselves.