Canadiens players on edge as major concern grows around Jakub Dobes before Game 6
Jakub Dobeš and Martin St-Louis are staring at one more problem before Game 6, and it has nothing to do with Montreal's blue line coverage.
The Bell Centre's Zamboni door area has become a real issue again, with pucks taking ugly and unpredictable bounces behind the net at the worst possible time.
That's not just bad luck anymore. It has now burned the Canadiens three times in 2026, which is why players are heading into Saturday night knowing one strange hop can change everything.
The latest example came in Game 4 against the Buffalo Sabres. What should have been a routine dump-in from Tage Thompson turned into a sharp carom toward the crease.
Dobeš never had a clean read on it. The puck changed angle off the gate structure, hit him unexpectedly, and ended up across the line.
That kind of bounce is hard enough in a regular-season game. In a must-win playoff spot, it becomes something the whole bench is thinking about before puck drop.
A rink quirk becomes a playoff storyline involving Jakub Dobes
This wasn't the first warning. On April 7, Dobeš dealt with another weird deflection from that same section of the Bell Centre ice against the Florida Panthers.
He survived that one, but the pattern was already there. Earlier in the season, Jacob Fowler also got caught by a strange carom in the same area, and Lucas Raymond finished the play for Detroit.
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Now it's not just a random rink quirk. It's a repeated issue in Montreal's own building, and that changes how players handle pucks below the goal line.
Defensemen have to be sharper on retrievals. Goalies have to expect the unexpected. And every rimmed puck into that corner suddenly carries more pressure than it should.
For St-Louis, that's the part that matters most. In a series this tight, the Canadiens can't afford to lose a goal to a bad bounce in their own barn.
Montreal still has enough to push this series back under control, but one soft touch off the wall or one harmless-looking clear can flip momentum fast. That's why this is sitting in the room now.
It's a strange story, but it's a real one. And heading into Game 6, the Bell Centre itself may be the one thing the Canadiens still don't fully trust.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 14, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Nick Suzuki | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Juraj Slafkovsky | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Ivan Demidov | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Mitch Marner | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Phillip Danault | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Josh Anderson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Josh Doan | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jake Evans | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mikael Granlund | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Konsta Helenius | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexandre Texier | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||