Jakub Dobeš lost his mind for two seconds in overtime, stuck his arm out at a Sharks forward behind his own net, and handed San Jose the power play that finished Montreal off. Macklin Celebrini ripped the one-timer past him at 2:13 of overtime off an Ivar Stenberg feed, and that's the clip everyone will replay. The penalty was indefensible: a goalie leaving his crease to slow down a forward while his own team has the puck, in overtime, in a 3-3 game at the Bell Centre, is a decision you can't explain.
⚡ Upset:Sharks had a 29% chance before puck drop and beat Canadiens 4–3.
24%
But it isn't why the Canadiens lost. The score was already 3-3 before the penalty happened. Montreal built a two-goal lead in the second period and watched it evaporate. Michael Misa got behind Noah Dobson and cut it to 3-2 in the third. Tyler Toffoli tied it on the power play at 11:09, with Arber Xhekaj sitting in the box for unsportsmanlike conduct. That's the game. By the time Dobeš gave away the extra man in overtime, the Canadiens had already surrendered everything that mattered. The lead was gone long before his arm went up.
This is the fourth time this season Montreal has coughed up a two-goal lead. Four, in roughly nine games. A number like that comes from a team that gets ahead and then forgets how to play with a lead, game after game, against whoever's across from them. Celebrini and Stenberg, the first and second overall picks the Sharks are rebuilding around, collected the winner. Montreal left the door open well before they walked through it.
RatingSan Jose isn't even a team you should be losing to like this. The Sharks went into Tuesday winless in regulation, a team that had been outscored in the third period through its first seven games, a team that survives games it has no business surviving. Montreal had them beaten and let them off the hook anyway. You can't put away a team that can't win in regulation and then blame the goalie for the twenty seconds after the collapse was already finished.
Dobeš deserves scrutiny beyond this one penalty. His season has been rough. After a strong year where he posted a .901 save percentage, he came into this game allowing goals at a rate and a save percentage that look nothing like the goalie Montreal thought it had. The penalty feeds a bigger worry about whether he's the answer in net at all. You can pile all of that on him. What you can't do is pretend his two seconds of madness explain how three periods went.
The building went quiet and gutted, and it should have. Losing in overtime to a team that can't win in regulation, at home, after leading by two, sits in your stomach. But Montreal fans spending the week screaming at a goalie are letting everyone else off easy: the defensemen who stopped skating with a lead and the structure that keeps melting in third periods, a habit that's now four games deep.
Dobeš earned the roasting he's getting for that penalty. He doesn't deserve the whole bill. Montreal keeps handing out two-goal leads like free samples, and until that stops, the goalie will keep being the easy name to blame.
