Montreal Canadiens

Jakub Dobes will be the starting goaltender | Mike Matheson is questionable for tonight’s game
Félix Forget
Jakub Dobes will be the starting goaltender | Mike Matheson is questionable for tonight’s game
Credit: MONTREAL, CANADA- OCTOBER 6: Jakub Dobes #75 of the Montreal Canadiens steps off the ice during warm up of the NHL regular season game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Carolina Hurricanes at the Bell Centre on October 6, 2026 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Arianne Bergeron/NHLI via Getty Images)

Tonight, the Canadiens will face the Avalanche at the Bell Centre. It will be another big challenge for the team… even though Colorado will be without Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar.

That's a pretty big blow for the visitors, let's face it.

The question, however, was who would be the starting goaltender. Jacob Fowler continues to be on fire… but Jakub Dobes was due for a start.

And in the end, it's Dobes who will be in net tonight. The team just announced it.

Fowler, after three consecutive starts, will get the night off.

This will be a great opportunity for Dobes, especially since we know how much the team values Saturday night games at the Bell Centre. So he's getting a big vote of confidence.

It's up to him to seize this opportunity.

That said, there's one player whose status for tonight's game remains uncertain. Mike Matheson, who returned to action on Thursday, may have to sit out tonight.

He's still managing the injury that has kept him sidelined for the past few weeks. So we'll see how his condition develops today before making a decision.

Overtime

We'll also see some changes among the forwards tonight. As a reminder, we learned this morning that Chris Kreider will miss six to eight weeks of action.

We were wondering who would replace him. Logically, we expected it to be either Florian Xhekaj or Owen Beck.

And now the team has just announced that Florian will play tonight. It will be his first game since the Habs' rout by the Jets.

It's worth noting that Florian will have a great opportunity to prove himself since he'll be paired with Kreider. He'll therefore be playing with Jake Evans and Josh Anderson tonight.

This is, somewhat by default, the Canadiens' second line right now. We'll see if the young Xhekaj is able to make his mark.