Lariviere: Noah Dobson’s Physical Play Helping The Montreal Canadiens

Although it could be considered a one-off night for Dobson, the early going of the regular season shows that he has been playing a lot more physically in general. He has started the season not as afraid to throw his body around. Now that isn’t to say that Dobson will start averaging three or four hits a night, because that just isn’t realistic, but if he can stay healthy throughout the regular season, he seems like he could reach 100 hits for the first time in his NHL career. Dobson’s current career-high in hits is 84, which he had with the New York Islanders in 79 games during the 2023-24 season. It was the only time in Dobson’s career that he averaged over a hit per game.

After the game against the Sabres, Dobson is up to 10 hits in 6 games, which ranks him tied for fourth with captain Nick Suzuki on the Montreal Canadiens roster. Sure, his last game makes a big difference, but even without it, he has been averaging a hit every game and has recorded at least one hit in four of the six games this season.

In fact, Dobson’s more consistent physical play goes back to a game against the Boston Bruins on March 17th last season, where he had two hits. According to Statmuse.com, he has not recorded a hit in only four of his 20 regular season games since March 17th, compared to 10 times in the previous 27 games. Dobson has a total of 31 hits in his last 20 regular season games, which averages out to 1.55 hits per night. This would put him on pace to record 130 hits over a full healthy 84-game season. 

The reality is that at 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, there is no reason that Dobson shouldn’t be physical as a bigger defenseman. It seems that while it may never be the biggest part of his game, he is finally making it a part of it. It will be interesting to see if he can reach the 100 hits total for the first time in his career, as the current pace he has so far through six games would have him get 140 hits. It’s probably unlikely that he gets that many hits over the full season coming off an outlier 5-hit performance, but the pace of 120-130 hits could be plausible given that the sample size has gotten a lot larger.

The physicality that Dobson brings on a nightly basis also goes beyond his hitting abilities; he also seems to be a lot harder on the puck and is outmuscling opponents (see clip above), which was often an issue in the past despite him being an above-average-sized defenseman. This could be a sign that Dobson finally realizes what he can do with his strength and be more than just an offensive defenseman. Now, hopefully the physicality sticks in his game as the season goes along.