Canadiens Postgame
Habs Highlights: Montembeault Vs. Dobes Debate Resurfaces

The Montreal Canadiens hosted their longtime rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, on Saturday night, the third meeting between the two Canadian clubs this season.
Head coach Martin St-Louis opted to give Samuel Montembeault the start, preferring to keep his white-hot rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes for the second leg of the back-to-back games.
The Habs started the game on the right not, as evidenced by their 3-0 first period lead, but things quickly fell apart in the second and third periods, leading to a 7-2 Maple Leafs win.
Let’s dive into the highlights!
Second-Line Production
It took a while to get here, but the second line is starting to produce at 5v5, as evidenced by their fifth even-strength goals in the last three games. Kirby Dach scored his ninth of the season, and while he certainly deserves credit for the goal, it must be said the entire team contributed to the scoring play by pinning the Leafs deep in their own zone for an extended shift.
Dach now has seven goals in his last 11 games, and if you’re wondering why we’re discussing 11 games instead of 10, it’s because he scored a pair of goals 11 games ago. Is it an arbitrary cutoff? Absolutely, but it does serve as a reminder that the 23-year-old forward has recovered from a very difficult start to the year.
Kirby Dach opens the scoring for the #GoHabsGo after the team pinned Toronto in its own zone. pic.twitter.com/VR6PlkK0Bv
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 19, 2025
Patrik Play
Second-liner Patrik Laine did not score his goal at 5v5, but he did manage to do something incredibly surprising.
Believe it or not, Laine scored on the powerplay. I know, I know, it’s tough to process, and even more difficult to accept, but I saw it with my own eyes. His 11th goal of the year gave the Canadiens a well-deserved 2-0 lead in the first period.
This is going to shock everyone, but Patrik Laine scored on the powerplay! #GoHabsGo up 2-0 on the Leafs. pic.twitter.com/mmitaLeKKp
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 19, 2025
The cherry on top of Montreal’s great start was a play that featured Josh Anderson embarrassing former Hab Max Domi on his way to scoring a highlight-reel goal.
The fantastic individual effort allowed the Canadiens to enter the first intermission with a 3-0 lead, a crucial cushion against a team like Toronto that possesses a long list of potent offensive weapons.
Josh Anderson walks Max Domi on his way to scoring a great goal. #GoHabsGo now have a well-deserved 3-0 lead on Toronto. pic.twitter.com/Ls7AyrX3UT
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 19, 2025
Game Management
With the Habs up 3-0, Arber Xhekaj refused to fight Ryan Reaves, who was desperately attempting to make himself useful as he chased the play all night long. For the record, Reaves refused to fight Xhekaj the last time these two teams met.
Scoreboard. pic.twitter.com/elXKRfeSBR
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) January 19, 2025
Xhekaj did oblige Reaves with some physical play shortly afterwards, sending the 37-year-old scrapper to the ice with a big, clean hit.
Arber Xhekaj with a big hit on Ryan Reaves. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/7pdHz0jBwO
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 19, 2025
Reversal Of Fortunes
We’re used to the Habs falling behind the eight-ball early, and then completing an impressive, hard-earned, comeback win thanks to a surge in the second half of the game.
This time around, it was the Leafs who took control of the momentum midway through the second period, leading to seven straight Leafs goals, including two powerplay markers, not to mention a shorthanded goal by Auston Matthews.
You could argue Montembeault did not have his best game, and you’d be correct, but all things considered, the Leafs were clearly the better team from the moment the Canadiens established a 3-0 lead.
As for the short-term goaltending situation, if Dobes manages to have yet another impressive start on Sunday, pushing his career record to 5-0 in the process, the Habs should probably consider giving him an even split of starts with Montembeault going forward, at the very least.
If Dobes goes 5-0 tomorrow night does he start Tuesday against Tampa?
— Alexi (@FT_Alexi) January 19, 2025
The goal is not to disrespect Montembeault, who has provided the organization with a laundry-list of quality starts over the years, but there’s a potential playoff berth in play, and the Canadiens simply can’t afford the luxury of ignoring a dominant goaltender at this stage of the rebuild.
The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Sunday. They will host the New York Rangers at the Bell Centre, with the puck drop scheduled for 7 pm ET. All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.
Oh, boy. That was hard to take. Not simply because the Habs lost to the over-hyped Leafs — at home no less. But because they let the Leafs gain momentum in the second period, and carry it into the third. To be clear — the Leafs won, they deserve the 2 points, but if the Leafs and their insufferable fans think the Leafs were not the recipient of unbelievable puck-luck and a goaltender that was on fire, they are fooling themselves. Leafs are lucky not to be on the losing end of an 8-7 score. One wonders what might have been if Dvorak had scored in the second instead of hitting the crossbar and allowing McMann to go back and score to make it 3-1. Having said all that I still like the fight I’m seeing in the Habs. Hopefully they use this game as motivation to beat the Rangers Sunday.
It’s a real question if Arber has the hockey IQ to play in the NHL. A lot of positioning work to do, feel like he’s now a weak llink in a progressing team. Tonight? Gee, he figured out how to hold back for once. (fighting is totally outmoded in the current game. It is laughable.)
And when is there going to be appropriate discipline for the most undisciplined lineup in the NHL from a penalty perspective?. We finally saw the benching with Pezzetta–finally, but what player even noticed? Apparently few, as seen from the reality of tonight.
If most penalized in the NHL isn’t a coaching flaw, then nothing is. When the team was losing, it’s the one quality that made the team barely watchable.
been waiting until a loss to come out of the weeds huh.
This is a young team… YOUNG… young men make dumb decisions.. its nature. it will get better. BTW if you dont see how much Xhekaj has improved you are simply not looking. They are NOT going to play .800% for the rest of the year. Your answer is to fire MSL and trade arber?… 31 teams are picking up the phone as fast as they can..
agree w tony and mike, theyre young, mistakes happen, i like their fight, however, i felt maybe they were a little spent by the 3rd period, the effort was not the same as in the 1st period, gave snipers like nylander too many shots on goal, cant do that, leafs are a late come on team; going forward need to see even effort across 3 periods as in dallas, that game was excellent, and also pull monte asap, cant give up wide open goal after goal, cant do 6 on 33, go w hot hand dobie. this is a great team, im us based and havent followed a team in years, esp after tranny nights, its fun watching men play hockey again.
I was happy to see Xhekaj turn down a fight with Reaves when we were leading 3-0, however, I think if he had initiated one himself at 3-3 or 4-3, it perhaps could have stopped the momentum swing for the Leafs. I also thought MSL could/should have called a timeout to have a little calming chit chat with the kiddies. I understand that you can let the players figure it out for themselves, but the job of the coach is to make key decisions at key times to impact the outcome of the game, especially when things aren’t going right. I wish he would have stepped in and brought some calm back. You could see the team was flustered and discombobulated, and some sage words from the guru could have brought them back at a time when we really needed it.