The message Montembeault sent Dobes has people talking
The Canadiens advanced to Round 2 Sunday night, and Sam Montembeault gave Jakub Dobes a shaving cream pie to the face on live TV.
Montreal won Game 7 in Tampa 2-1, sealing the first-round series 4-3 over the Lightning.
Dobes was in goal for the clincher and earned every spray of the towel.
The 24-year-old Czech laughed it off. He had to.
The cream had to come off the visor either way, and the bench was already losing it on the broadcast.
That's the kind of moment a market like Montreal eats with a spoon.
A young goalie carries a series. A veteran teammate hands him the spotlight. The clip lives on social media for a week.
Sam’s message seems clear. He’ll stand behind Dobes, through thick and thin, until the close of this playoff run ahead.
Dobes has been the steadier hand for Martin St-Louis all year.
The 24-year-old logged 43 regular-season games on a $965,000 cap hit, making him one of the better cap-efficient goalies in the league.
Montembeault carries the bigger contract at $3.15 million. He's also a Quebecer, the local face, and the kind of teammate who knows exactly when to grab the towel and turn it into a moment.
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Why the goalie tandem just changed Montreal's offseason calculus
Tampa came in at 50-26-6 for 106 points. Montreal hit the same point total at 48-24-10. Two heavyweights, separated by nothing, and Dobes ended up on the right side of the ledger.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stole Game 6. The Habs got shut out in regulation that night and lost 0-1 in overtime at home.
The pressure on Game 7 was enormous, and the kid in net wore it without flinching.
That changes the depth chart conversation in this organization. Montreal already has Jacob Fowler waiting in the system as the long-term name.
Now Dobes has put a real playoff resume on the desk in front of Kent Hughes.
Here's the editorial line. A 24-year-old Czech goalie just outdueled a former Conn Smythe winner in a Game 7 on the road.
That happens roughly once a decade in this market. The fan base will remember Dobes the same way they remember Halak in 2010.
Noah Dobson made his return for Game 7 in his first playoff game of the spring.
The defenseman ate big minutes off the back of an upper-body injury and held up.
St-Louis pushed the right buttons all night. The lineup held. The goalie held.
Whatever happens next, the shaving cream towel is the image that lives forever.
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MAY 3, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Devon Toews | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Cale Makar | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Quinn Hughes | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Nathan MacKinnon | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Martin Necas | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Artturi Lehkonen | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sam Malinski | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Kaiden Guhle | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Nick Blankenburg | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jack Drury | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Marcus Foligno | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ryan Hartman | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Dominic James | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Marcus Johansson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nazem Kadri | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nick Suzuki | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladimir Tarasenko | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mats Zuccarello | 1 | - | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||