{"id":409561,"date":"2026-01-15T21:30:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/409561\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T21:30:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:30:32","slug":"canadiens-name-starting-goalie-for-crucial-game-against-the-sabres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/409561\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens name starting goalie for crucial game against the Sabres"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p>PUBLICATION<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.habsfanatics.com\/collaborators\/leo-honein\" class=\"lediv\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leo Honein<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJanuary 15, 2026\u00a0\u00a0(12:06)<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t  &#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/633907.webp.webp\" style=\"width:100%;\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Jacob Fowler and Jakub Dobes\" title=\"Jacob Fowler and Jakub Dobes\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: Screenshot<\/p>\n<p>We were eagerly awaiting a decision regarding the Montreal Canadiens&#8217; starting goaltender for Thursday&#8217;s game against the Buffalo Sabres.<\/p>\n<p>Martin St-Louis has now made his choice<\/p>\n<p>Jacob Fowler expected to start tonight against the Sabres<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re therefore very eager to see the young Fowler back in action.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, Jacob Fowler will be the starting goaltender Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres (barring a major last-minute change).<\/p>\n<p>For Jakub Dobes, it&#8217;s another slap in the face in an already heavy situation. When you&#8217;re a goaltender and you&#8217;re not playing, you can&#8217;t answer on the ice, especially after his recent comments to reporters.<\/p>\n<p>And now, without saying much, the Montreal Canadiens have just told him that the current pecking order has changed.<\/p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t just a game-to-game decision. It&#8217;s a message. Fowler gets another major opportunity, while Dobes watches and waits.<\/p>\n<p>In a three-goalie situation, every start becomes a vote, and every vote leaves a mark.<\/p>\n<p>This NHL season, Fowler has already played nine games, posting a 2.46 goals-against average with a .908 save percentage.<\/p>\n<p>Dobes, meanwhile, is carrying a heavier workload. This season, he has appeared in 22 games and owns a 14-5-3 record. His goals-against average sits at 3.01, with a .888 save percentage.<\/p>\n<p>And this is where it gets tough for him. Even when you have wins, you still have to wait in the stands, or at the end of the bench.<\/p>\n<p>When another goaltender comes in and starts getting games, you lose rhythm, and then you lose ground.<\/p>\n<p>The game against Buffalo is important in the standings, and Montreal clearly wants an immediate response after Washington.<\/p>\n<p>Fowler now has the puck in his court, while Dobes can only hope the door reopens quickly.<\/p>\n<p>Previously on Montreal Hockey Fanatics<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PUBLICATION Leo Honein January 15, 2026\u00a0\u00a0(12:06) &#13; &#13; &#13; Photo credit: Screenshot We were eagerly awaiting a decision&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[229,1782,5,3567,412,21,4,906],"class_list":{"0":"post-409561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-buffalo-sabres","9":"tag-goaltender","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-jacob-fowler","12":"tag-martin-st-louis","13":"tag-montreal-canadiens","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-samuel-montembeault"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115901251799566652","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}