Dobes continues quick rise for Canadiens in Game 3 win of Eastern 2nd Round

MONTREAL -- Jakub Dobes fought back the tears as he pointed to his heart, then up to the crowd that was chanting his name.

Five minutes earlier, his Montreal Canadiens had finished off their most impressive showing of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 6-2 victory against the Buffalo Sabres in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on Sunday. Thirteen different Canadiens recorded a point in what was a complete team effort, one that put the Canadiens up 2-1 in this best-of-7 series heading into Game 4 in Montreal on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, ESPN).

And on this special night at Bell Centre, the majority of the jubilant crowd of 20,962 weren’t about to leave right away.

Not with the newly crowned Dobes being interviewed at center ice.

“Dob-ie, Dob-ie, Do-bie,” they yelled with passion for the Canadiens goaltender.

On a young team that this hockey-crazed city is so embracing this spring, what’s it like to be a cult hero here, NHL.com asked him.

“I’m not a hero,” Dobes replied with the innocence of a 24-year-old rookie who didn’t become Montreal’s No. 1 goalie until January. “I’m just me. I’m just a goofy goalie who tries to stop pucks.

“Trust me, I don’t call myself a hero. I pretty much will go home, eat, watch “Game of Thrones” and go to bed. I don’t think that’s anything heroic. And when it’s time to do my job, I will do anything to win and make this franchise, these fans happy, and hopefully will win on Tuesday.”

The media scrum around him in the Canadiens dressing room did a double take.

Did Dobes just describe himself as a “goofy goalie?”

We canvassed a number of his teammates to see if that was accurate.

“That’s true,” defenseman Lane Hutson, himself one of the stars of the game with two assists, said. “He couldn’t have said it any better. But that’s pretty funny.”

Thoughts, Nick Suzuki?

“Yeah, that’s pretty accurate,” the Canadiens captain said with a chuckle. “He’s definitely goofy but has the type of self-confidence that you need.

“He’s a special guy, and they’ve embraced him here over the past three months. This is a town that’s always embraced their goalies so he’s doing a great job.”

The final word came from forward Cole Caufield, who was one of Montreal’s many outstanding players in the victory and ended a one-goal-in-nine game funk by putting the Canadiens ahead 2-1 at 6:05 of the second period, a lead they would never relinquish.

“I’m glad that’s all he said,” Caufield replied, breaking into laughter.

Care to elaborate?

“He’s a funny kid,” the Canadiens forward said of Dobes’ 26-save performance. “Obviously he’s been huge for us, and saves us when we need him the most. And he’s been unbelievable throughout these playoffs and kept us in every game. So he’s going to keep it going.

“He works hard every day, and is prepared for every moment.”

The same could be said for all these Canadiens, goofy goalie and all.

They laugh at and with their goalie and, for that matter, with each other. They don’t buckle under pressure; they embrace it. With Caufield, a 51-goal scorer during the regular season, barely contributing offensively entering Game 3, they didn’t use it as an excuse and relied on depth scoring to get this deep into the second round. And when they went 26:55 without a shot in Game 7 in their first round sudden-death showdown with the Tampa Bay Lightning, they still found a way to win 2-1 on an Alex Newhook third-period goal that he swatted out of the air from behind the goal line that bounced off the back off goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy and into the net.

Dobes was greeted after that series victory with a shaving cream shower from his teammates. Coach Martin St. Louis’ postgame speech emulated a Leonardo DiCaprio scene from the hit movie “Wolf of Wall Street” punctuated by the phrase, “We’re not leaving!”

No, they’re not.

And with every passing day, with every game that takes them deeper into this playoff run, you can see their swagger and belief mushrooming, both on the ice and off.

Make no mistake. These aren’t just kids enjoying the ride. After seven one-goal games against Tampa Bay followed by a 4-2 loss to the Sabres in Game 1, the Canadiens have become dominant. They’ve outscored Buffalo 11-3 in the past six periods. As Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said afterwards: “They are a hell of a team.”

One that is dissecting the Sabres loosey-goosey structure and pouncing on mistakes.

“We’re just using our speed and trusting our process that we can take over a game with our whole five-man game,” Suzuki said. “They’re a team that thrives on the rush, so we try to limit those chances and forecheck them as hard as we can.”

“Right now, we are having success. And we want to keep it going.”

With a goofy goalie who's only allowed seven goals through the first three games of this series.

With a deep roster that has featured 12 different goal-scorers through 10 playoff games.

And if the Sabres can’t adjust, the beat will go on for a Canadiens team that continues to ascend.