Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes asked for an icing while his own team was on the power play, and it's a lot funnier than it sounds.
A reel making the rounds Thursday has hockey fans grinning. A goalie is supposed to be the calmest person in the building, which is why this one stands out.
Start with the rules. A team killing a penalty can't be called for icing, so the side with the man advantage has no reason to want one. Whatever Dobes had in mind, the whistle was never coming.
Goalies see the game from 200 feet away, and sometimes that distance shows. Dobes is 6'4, and he spends most of his night watching the puck travel the length of the ice toward him.
He's also had little reason to stress this season. Dobes has played 6 games for Montreal in 2026-27, and he's picked up 2 penalty minutes along the way, which is a lot for a goalie.
Nobody should read much into a moment like this. It's harmless, human and the kind of thing that makes a goalie more fun to follow.
Dobes and the crowded Canadiens crease
The bigger story in Montreal has little to do with icing calls. It's about who plays.
Dobes has 65 regular-season games over his NHL career and another 22 in the playoffs. He was a fifth-round pick, 136th overall, in 2020, and he's now 25, born in Ostrava. That's real experience for a goalie who still gets treated like a question mark.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens have talked about Jacob Fowler and a three-goalie setup in recent days. Reporter Pagnotta said the club was likely to keep that arrangement for now.
That puts Dobes in a tricky spot. Every start he gets will be watched closely, and so will every mistake, even a funny one. With three goalies in the picture, a goalie who draws attention for an icing request on the power play is one who needs the games to speak louder than the clip.
Montreal has to find playing time for all three, and nothing in the current picture says how that gets sorted out. Dobes will want his next outing to be remembered for saves.
Should the Canadiens keep three goalies on the roster while Jakub Dobes fights for starts?
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