Should Canadiens look to rest Jakub Dobes?

Despite outshooting the Buffalo Sabres 28-16, the Montreal Canadiens lost Game 1 of their second-round series on Wednesday by a score of 4-2. Score effects certainly contributed to the tilted shot clock, as the Sabres jumped out to an early multi-goal lead and spent much of the latter portion of the game defending. Also, Montreal goaltender Jakub Dobes didn’t exactly have his best game, allowing four goals on 16 shots, including an iffy Jordan Greenway goal early in the second period that glanced in off his glove.

Then again, maybe it’s understandable for Dobes to have an off-game, as he’s currently taking on the biggest workload of his career. The 24-year-old netminder has made eight starts in 17 days, a clip he hasn’t been used to as he split time with Sam Montembeault and Jacob Fowler during the regular season. Sitting your number-one goaltender strictly for rest is virtually unheard of in the playoffs, but it could be a consideration for the Canadiens to get Dobes back at the peak of his powers.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Colby Cohen discussed whether resting Dobes would make sense for Montreal.

Tyler Yaremchuk: These are Jakub Dobes’ starts by month throughout the regular season: six, six, seven, six, two in February because of the Olympic break, eight in March, and five in April. He’s started eight times now in the last 17 days, that matches the most starts he had in an entire month during the regular season. If you’re going to go seven games with the Buffalo Sabres here, that number is going to be 14 starts in a 30-day span. Do you rest him for a game? Do you just kind of say “Hey, it’s still your crease, but we’re going to give you Game 2 off. We have trust in Fowler, take a day off, take a breather. When this series goes back to home ice, whether it’s 1-1 or 2-0, we’re going right back to you.” I think there is something for a relatively young goalie, who even comparing year over year, started 30 more games in the NHL than he did a year ago. Give him a rest, give him a reset. I think we’d all agree he wasn’t his best in Game 1, and then give him the message of “You’re still our guy, but if we’re going to go on a long run, we don’t think you can play every second night for two months.”

Colby Cohen: I thought (Ukko Pekka Luukkonen) should’ve stayed in on a short leash and gotten a chance, and he didn’t and that really paid off for Buffalo. I thought (Jesper) Wallstedt would stay in the net, and that was a mistake. That didn’t pay off in Minnesota and the first goal of the game in that game to me was a bad goal, and I didn’t like the third goal in that game, that snap shot from the high slot. I think Wallstedt will come back in for Minnesota without question. So I haven’t had a great read on these situations, and I’ve been the guy saying “You’ve got to go back to your guy and give him a short leash.” The guy who kind of helped get you here, if you decided he was your number-one, that’s who I would stay with.

I know these questions came up with Philly, and people were saying maybe they need to give (Dan) Vladar a game and rest him. The playoffs are not about rest at any position, because you can lose a series really quickly. There could be a certain type of loss in a series that can almost be the nail in the coffin for you being able to really get your game back and get yourself back on the horse. When a team loses their confidence, forget it, it can be a massive problem. So I don’t think I would do that, I really don’t. Not that I don’t trust Fowler, because I think Fowler is a massive part of the future, but I personally believe that Dobes has been good enough. Yes, there’s the one he would like back, but I think you’ve got to leave him in the net, because if you put Fowler in and you say it’s only one game, what happens if Fowler goes and has a shutout? Well now it’s not one game. Yes, it’s a great problem, but you almost created an unnecessary story and an unnecessary problem. I just think Dobes has been so good through the first round of the playoffs, and he wasn’t abominable in Game 1. The whole team was flat, it wasn’t just the goaltending performance that let them down.

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Thursday’s episode here…