After losing a game they should have won against the New York Rangers [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-rangers] on Saturday night, the Montreal Canadiens [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens] had a chance for redemption as they hosted the Edmonton Oilers [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/edmonton-oilers] on Sunday night at the Bell Centre. Martin St-Louis kept his cards close to his chest all day, not revealing who would be in the net after Jacob Fowler played the last two games until less than an hour before the game. Interestingly, he chose to give the start to Jakub Dobes, who had watched the last two games from the press gallery. At the same time, Samuel Montembeault served as backup, just like he has in the previous six games, his last start dating back to December 2 against the Ottawa Senators [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/ottawa-senators]. Canadiens Prospect Out To Prove Team Canada Wrong After Snub [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/latest-news/canadiens-prospect-out-to-prove-team-canada-wrong-after-snub] Former Canadiens Center Thriving With New Team [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/latest-news/former-canadiens-center-thriving-with-new-team] Canadiens: You Must Shoot To Win [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/latest-news/canadiens-you-must-shoot-to-win] DOBES GIVES A CLINIC Martin St-Louis’ intentions with his goaltenders are not very clear right now. Montembeault has struggled since the start of the season; Dobes cooled off after a hot start; and Fowler showed he could play in the big leagues when he took on the Pittsburgh Penguins [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins] on Thursday. Will Montreal decide to keep three goaltenders? Or will they send one down to the Laval Rocket? If they chose the latter option, Fowler and Dobes would be the most likely candidates since they do not need to clear waivers to go down, but the Czech rookie netminder did his very best in the first frame to show St-Louis that he belongs with the Canadiens. Speaking about his netminder, the coach said: > I think it gave him a lot of confidence to get through those two minutes; it > gave the team a lot of confidence as well. I know his character, I’m not > surprised. It doesn’t tell me much because I’m not surprised. - St-Louis on Dobes' performance He’s not as positionally sound as Fowler, and the way he tends net ends up being more exciting at times, which is not ideal, but he put on a goaltending clinic when the visitors got a two-minute five-on-three power play early on. He stopped Zach Hyman from in close after a perfect lateral push, frustrated Leon Draisaitl on a one-timer from the dot and even denied Connor McDavid, who had managed to make his way in alone towards him. All that in a two-minute window that could have buried the Canadiens, considering Edmonton has got the third-best power play in the league with a 31.3% success rate. That’s the kind of performance that not only keeps a team in the game but should inspire it as well. He kept it up in the second frame as well, where he killed three of the Oilers’ opportunities with perfectly timed poked checks and showed nerves of steel handling the puck outside of his crease. Asked what Dobes’ performance meant going forward, the bench boss said: > I don’t know what it means moving forward, but I thought Dobes was very good > tonight, you know. Tomorrow’s off, sure we’ll talk about a few things as a > staff, but I think we just came off playing some good hockey for three games, > with some pockets of stuff that make you scratch your head sometimes, but at > the end of the day we went and got five out of six points, that’s a good long > weekend for us. We’ll assess the things you’re talking about. It’s a good > question; I just don’t have all the answers. - St-Louis on what the future holds for his goaltenders CAPITALIZING ON OPPORTUNITIES Montreal managed to get the lead in the second frame thanks to an Ivan Demidov power play goal. The Russian rookie had drawn the penalty himself, and he finally did what the whole fanbase had been shouting at him to do: he shot the puck. Lo and behold, it went in. After 40 minutes of play, he had two shots and a missed one; he looked like he was making a conscious effort to shoot more. Asked if he had spoken to him about the need to shoot more, the coach explained: > No, I’ve said it before, good players like that, you’ve got to be mindful not > to overcoach them. I can guarantee that they come back to the bench, and they > know, as a player, I came back to the bench and told myself I should have shot > there. If every time you’re told “you should have shot”, “you should have > passed there”, eventually you’ll always be hesitant because you’ll always > wonder what the coach would like you to do in every situation. You have to > trust their instinct; you don’t want to take that away from them. - St-Louis on trusting Demidov's instincts The Canadiens’ second goal came from an excellent McDavid setup, or rather, a turnover straight in the slot to Joey Veleno. The Quebecer started the game on the fourth line with Owen Beck and Brendan Gallagher. Still, he was skating alongside Jake Evans and Josh Anderson on that play, and Anderson’s pressure on the Oilers captain caused that turnover. Veleno wasted no time firing it past Calvin Pickard to make the score 2-0. That was a great example of the Canadiens capitalizing on their opportunities, but that’s something they didn’t do enough of in this game. After 40 minutes, they had four breakaways, and none of them resulted in a goal. Pickard stopped Anderson, Suzuki twice, and Alexandre Texier as well to keep his team in the game. Had it not been for Dobes’ solid performance up to that point, though, those missed opportunities would have really hurt. Perhaps those two saves played on the captain’s mind when he found himself on a two-on-one with Brendan Gallagher and sent him the puck to shoot. EVANS AND MATHESON SHINE It hasn't been an easy season so far for Evans, but tonight, tasked with containing McDavid, he did a fantastic job. The pivot spent almost 20 minutes on the ice, a record for him this season and won 50% of his draws, facing one of the league’s very best players. Before tonight’s game, McDavid had 15 points in his last five games, but tonight he could only muster an assist, and he needed multiple power-play opportunities to do so. A job well done for the center, who was rewarded with the third star of the game. As for Mike Matheson, he has a knack for playing well against the Oilers captain, and when St-Louis was asked why that was, he replied it was all about Matheson’s speed and his ability to match with players who have the same kind of speed as McDavid. In the end, the Canadiens played one of their best games of the year and thoroughly deserved this 4-1 win over Edmonton. The Canadiens will enjoy a day off tomorrow before taking on the Philadelphia Flyers [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers] at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow Karine on X @KarineHains [https://x.com/KarineHains] Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/karinehains.bsky.social] and Threads @karinehains [https://www.threads.net/@karinehains]. 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