The Montreal Canadiens saw their eight-game win streak come to an end on Sunday night, but the loss doesn't take away what they have been able to accomplish. They are right in the middle of the division race with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres.
The improved performance goes beyond this recent stretch of games and there is one moment this season that could be viewed as a turning point for the Canadiens. That occurred at the end of January when the Canadiens decided to fire goaltending coach Eric Raymond and replaced him with Marco Marciano, who was the goaltending coach for the Laval Rockets.
Since that moment, the goaltending for the Canadiens has been significantly improved, led by Jakub Dobes. Prior to Raymond's departure, the Canadiens' goalies combined for a save percentage of .883, a goals against average of 3.08, while facing on average 25.38 shots on goal.
However, over the past 28 games with Marciano as the goaltender coach, the Canadiens have seen the save percentage jump to .914, goals against average improve to 2.48, while actually facing more shots on average of 29.38 shots per game.
Jakub Dobes has emerged as the Montreal Canadiens' top goalie
The improvements haven't been entirely just a new goaltending coach, as Jakub Dobes has improved and taken over the role of starting goalie from Samuel Montembeault. Under Raymond, Montembeault and Dobes almost split the workload evenly, but since Marciano has been the coach, Dobes has started 15 of the 24 games for Montreal.
Dobes has been excellent during this stretch with a 11-3-1 record with a save percentage of .921 and a goals against average of 2.39. It may not be entirely clear why Dobes has improved so much, if it was just the coaching change, seeing more consistent starts, just improvement during his rookie season, or a combination of all three.
Regardless of the reason, Dobes is going to be a big part of whether or not the Canadiens have success in the playoffs this season. If he can continue to play as he has into the playoffs, Montreal has a chance to make a deep run when thinking about the scoring they have with players like Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Nick Suzuki.