Major boost for Canadiens as Noah Dobson looms for Game 7

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Jonathan Ouimet
May 3, 2026  (5:00)

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Photo credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

Montreal should be getting their $9.5 million right-shot defenseman back at the most consequential moment of the spring.

Mathieu Chouinard reported Friday night that Noah Dobson is in for Sunday's Game 7 against the Lightning, barring any last-minute change.

The timing could not be louder. The Habs got shut out in regulation in Game 6, dropped a 0-1 overtime decision at home, and now travel to Tampa with the series tied 3-3.

Dobson hasn't played a single playoff game in this series. He's been parked with an upper-body issue while Mike Matheson logged the heavy minutes that should have been split between two right-shot anchors.

The 26-year-old finished the regular season with 12 goals, 35 assists, and 47 points across 80 games. He added 2 power play goals and 5 power play assists from the point.

Drop those tools into a Game 7 against Andrei Vasilevskiy. The math gets very interesting very quickly for Martin St-Louis.

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The Habs power play has been searching for answers all series. Dobson is the answer the unit was built around. A patient quarterback with a real shot from the blue line.

Through the first 6 games, Montreal scored a combined 14 goals across the series. That's not a power-play number you can ride into Tampa. Dobson's job is to flip that ratio.

His own finish to the regular season was rough. He went pointless across his last 5 games with a -6 rating before the injury shut him down completely. The body asked for a stop sign in mid-April.

Now it asks for 25 minutes against the deepest forward group his side has seen in months. There's risk wrapped around the reward, and St-Louis knows it.

Matheson has carried the freight. The 32-year-old played all 6 playoff games and posted a -1 rating with limited offensive support. Adding Dobson lets every pair downshift one notch.

Suddenly the second pairing gets stronger. The third pairing stops chasing. The matchup forwards can finally get pulled away from a top-four defender every shift.

Here's the editorial part. Activating a defenseman who hasn't played in three weeks for a road Game 7 is the kind of decision that either wins a series or shows up in a postgame autopsy. There is no middle ground.

Jon Cooper sees the report and pivots. Tampa's matchup forwards now plan around a Habs lineup with an extra puck-mover and an extra shooter from the point.

Vasilevskiy stole Game 6. The expectation in Bell Centre is that Dobson's return forces Tampa to defend differently. Whether that holds for 60 minutes on the road is the question every Habs fan goes to bed with Saturday night.

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1 HOUR AGO   |   31 ANSWERS Major boost for Canadiens as Noah Dobson looms for Game 7 Will Noah Dobson's return be enough to push the Canadiens past the Lightning in Game 7?

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