Call of the Wilde: Jakub Dobes struggles continue as the Montreal Canadiens fall to the Capitals in Washington

Back-to-back games for both the Washington Capitals and Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night. The Capitals lost to the Carolina Hurricanes while the Canadiens edged the Buffalo Sabres in a shootout. It was another strong defensive game for the Canadiens allowing only 17 shots through 65 minutes.

In Washington, the Canadiens played well, but it was another rough night for Jakub Dobes in net as they fell 5-4.

Wilde Horses 

When the Canadiens finish building their team, they will have three lines that are going to be formidable. The top line is the Nick Suzuki connection with Juraj Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield. The second line will be Ivan Demidov with likely Michael Hage and, perhaps, Zachary Bolduc.

The third line is the shocker, and what a pleasant shocker. Alex Newhook has turned into a quality centre with Josh Anderson and Chris Kreider. What a tremendous development for the sum of the parts of these three players to be so much better than the actual parts.

Anderson is rejuvenated. He scored two goals on the night on identical plays. Newhook set up Anderson for tap-ins from three feet. Kreider did excellent dirty work on both goals winning the puck. This is a line that should stay together. It’s excellent that a home has been found for Kreider already.

Kreider had another strong night. On the fourth goal, he executed a perfect screen on the Suzuki shot. Lane Hutson with the assist to go with his tally for another two-point night. Hutson is scoring at better than a point-per-game clip.

Late second period, Slafkovsky was hit in what looked like a dirty play but actually wasn’t. However, the Canadiens went straight to getting even led by Kaiden Guhle and Alexandre Carrier. The Canadiens have been intimidated a lot in this moment over the years, but they seem to have decided that it will happen no more.

Guhle is aggressive and plays with attitude, and Carrier always backs up his teammates. A couple minutes after the exchange, Arber Xhekaj also looked to get even. When this type of moment hits, a team has to make the point strongly that they will be not backing back down but will respond angrily.

Owen Beck has been trusted with only limited minutes in his first two games with the Canadiens this season, but he’s impressed in his limited time. Beck is never going to be an offensive player in the league. If he becomes an NHL regular, it will be as a fourth liner.

However, he could be a very good fourth liner. From a fourth line, the hope is to be able to compete just in case the match-up gets unfavourable against the other club’s top players. It’s also desired that the fourth line is tough and can wear down the opposition physically.

Beck is never going to be the second part of the equation, but as a centre, he can drive the first part of the equation. If Beck can play solid and smart hockey at centre, there’s a spot for him in the league. He is smart. He chooses the defensive side of the puck when unsure.

Wilde Goats

Jakub Dobes is struggling mightily to begin the season. Regression from the best goalie in last year’s playoffs was expected, but this is a lot of difficulty.

Dobes is trying too hard. He wants so much to do well that he can’t keep his body still, because he is not keeping his mind still. He is overplaying every shot. When he slides across to make a save, he is so anxious to get there that he gets beyond his target, then is out of position for a second shot.

The technical issue begins the difficulty, then losing confidence takes it from there. On a Capitals shorthanded goal, Hutson played a two-on-one well forcing the shot. It’s what the goal is for the defender, but Dobes couldn’t stop the off angle shot from Alex Tuch. Not a good goal.

The winning goal for the Capitals was scored on the Canadiens achilleas heel this season. It was a 55-foot shot that seemed to have eyes. or was deflected on the way in. All three goals were of this variety against Buffalo, and the key goal in Washington was scored in the same manner.

Head Coach Martin St. Louis spoke of his players not boxing out after the Buffalo game, but on this one, it was simply a bad goal as it wasn’t deflected late at all. Dobes made himself small on the shot. He tucked his shoulders in. All he had to do was spread his wings to make the save.

Dobes is an imposing figure. He is a giant in the net, so he needs to just let his size do the work for him. Dobes doesn’t need to move much to make saves, if he makes himself large. Before the night began, he was 59th of 64 goalies in Goals Saved Above Expected.

After this contest, he added a negative value of 1.86 and now he is 62nd among 64 goalies with a negative 5.86. The old-school numbers are equally grim. Dobes had a save percentage of .792 on the night and .842 for the season.

No one could have seen that coming. He will figure it out. Until they do, they should ride the hot hand of Jacob Fowler.

Wilde Cards

It feels like a changing of the guard is coming on the blue line for the Canadiens. The depth chart is definitely changing from last season. Sometimes it can take time for an established hierarchy to rotate.

On the first pair last season, Mike Matheson was often logging 28 to 30 minutes of ice with Noah Dobson. Lane Hutson was on the second pair logging big minutes as well, but his defensive partner always logged a lot less.

It often felt like the Matheson minutes were pushed to the limit. To accommodate Matheson, Hutson even found himself on the right side of the ice to defend, just so the hierarchy could remain intact.

This season, it’s early, but the winds of change have definitely blown in. Head Coach Martin St. Louis seems comfortable with the new first pair of Dobson and Hutson. This top pairing makes sense: Dobson is the best defender on the right side and Hutson is the best on the left side.

However, there seems to be a bigger shake-up on the horizon. Kaiden Guhle is 24 years of age. Mike Matheson is 32. Guhle still has ceiling in front of him to be a better defender. He logged 25:25 against the Sabres. He was a beast on the penalty kill.

Guhle is soon to be the second-best left side defender on the team and a natural coupling with the second best on the right-side Alexandre Carrier that has begun should stick for the long haul.

This leaves Matheson to drop all the way down to the third pair where he belongs as he begins to age. Matheson’s contract expires in 2031. To get strong years out of him, it’s not in the team’s best interests to be playing him into the ground as he heads to age 37.

Matheson dropping from 28 minutes to 16 minutes would serve his longevity well, and the team well to have him with easier match-ups. He and Arber Xhekaj would make a strong pair. Eventually, a pairing of Matheson and David Reinbacher would be interesting as well.

Reinbacher was called up on Wednesday to Washington, but he did not play.

Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sportswriter, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.