Canadiens are missing Sam Montembeault, but don't blame Jakub Dobes for first period

The box score watchers will look at the first period of Game 5 and point at Jakub Dobes as the reason for the Montreal Canadiens' early deficit. The Washington Capitals had just five shots in the first 13 minutes, but scored two goals. It wasn't the most inspiring performance for Dobes after allowing three goals on 24 shots in Game 4.

We could point to the Canadiens losing this series at the end of it and blame it on the injury to Sam Montembeault. The speculation is that Montembeault would miss the rest of the playoffs no matter how deep the Canadiens go, which could be too much too quickly for Dobes. Many pointed to the similarities between Dobeš and Jaroslav Halak in the 2010 playoffs against the Capitals. However, there's a reason we only have one example to lean on in the 116-year history of the Canadiens.

Dobes has been far from the problem over the last few games, and he proved it again in the first period by ensuring the deficit didn't get any worse than two goals with one of the best saves of the entire postseason. However, his teammates haven't been doing much to help him, whether it be a lack of urgency or poor defensive zone coverage.

The Canadiens had a chance to capitalize on a poor penalty from Pierre-Luc Dubois, but an uninspiring performance from their first powerplay unit ended in a bad penalty from Juraj Slafkovsky. It ended up to be a costly mistake, as Alex Ovechkin made him pay with a quick goal once their powerplay began.

The Jakob Chychrun goal was a result of some poor defensive zone coverage from Cole Caufield. He lost Chychrun in coverage, and then Dobes went down a little too early to put himself out of position to make the save. It's a poor start on the road, and the Canadiens are playing with fire if they expect to dig themselves out of that hole.