If you’re going to talk the talk, you better be able to walk the walk.
Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobes learned that lesson the hard way during his team’s 2025 Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Washington Capitals. The 24-year-old backup recalled his first NHL postseason action during a panel discussion at teammate Alex Newhook’s charity golf event on Monday, which was unearthed by Bleacher Report. He revealed his overconfidence on the bench quickly backfired after starting netminder Sam Montembeault went down with a groin injury early in Game 3.
“They were definitely not nice to me the first five minutes,” Dobes said of the treatment he received from the Caps once he took the crease.
Teammate Arber Xhekaj, who joined him on the panel, explained to the audience how Dobes actually caused the second intermission bench brawl between Capitals and Canadiens players that same night. The altercation sparked an epic bout between Tom Wilson and Josh Anderson which yielded a viral meme where the Capitals enforcer did a crybaby taunt at Juraj Slafkovsky.
“So, Dobey stands by the bench, right close to their bench, and he’s looking over and he’s chirping every single guy to come off the ice, yelling at them, chirping them, next thing you know our goalie gets hurt and Dobey has to go on the ice,” Xhekaj said gleefully. “The period’s over so the other team has to skate across the ice and Dobey has to skate through all of them. So, nobody left, they just waited for Dobey, because they wanted to have a word with him, and then I got in there and it was just – it was madness.”
“It was crazy,” Dobes described of his experience. “I was probably the most nervous ever. But we won.”
Dobes didn’t reveal what exactly he was chirping at the Caps before being called into action to relieve Montembault, but he was grateful his efforts were enough to see Montreal through to a 6-3 victory. The Caps eventually took the series four games to one.
“I didn’t say anything that bad, so I don’t understand,” he said giggling. “But I guess it worked out. I stopped chirping in Game 4 … I was just being quiet.”
Dobes, selected 136th overall by Montreal in the 2020 NHL Draft, allowed seven goals in the 144 minutes of ice time he saw during the playoff series.
