Marc Dumont
The Montreal Canadiens are the hottest team in the NHL, as evidenced by their seven-game winning streak, which is currently the longest in the league.
With the impressive stretch in the bank, the Habs are within striking distance of first place in the Atlantic Division, a title that comes with an important reward: home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Montreal Canadiens MVPs
Hockey is a team sport; therefore, we cannot attribute all the credit to a single player, even though Cole Caufield’s pursuit of 50 goals and Nick Suzuki’s pursuit of 100 points have been highly entertaining.
However, the seven-game winning streak has provided ample evidence to suggest that the goaltenders, in particular, are owed the lion’s share of the praise.
As we previously discussed, the hiring of goaltending coach Marco Marciano has clearly been a boon for rookie netminders Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler.
In fact, the Canadiens are no longer a bottom-10 team when it comes to their 5v5 save percentage. They’re presently ranked 16th in the league, with a .904 save percentage, quite the improvement over their 29th ranking midway through the regular season (.896 save percentage).
And if we filter the results further, it becomes quite clear that both Dobes and Fowler have been the catalysts for Montreal’s success over the last seven games.
In that stretch, the team has maintained a .956 save percentage at 5v5, the epitome of encouraging goaltending results. It’s also worth pointing out the Canadiens have been outshot and outchanced significantly over the course of the last seven games, shinning an even brighter light on Dobes and Fowler.
Admittedly, using the seven-game winning streak as our sample size is arbitrary, and one bad game could quickly skew the outlook, but suffice it to say the Canadiens are enjoying their best goaltending stretch of the season now that Marciano has had a little time to work with both first-year netminders.
Jakub Dobes, the first star of the week, comes up big early in the first period. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/Fw8GOEvjdT
— Montreal Hockey Now (@MTLhockeynow) March 31, 2026
All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.
