Black Aces Recall, Dobbs Excellence, Fines

Here are the Montreal Canadiens and NHL news items you may have missed on Monday.

montreal canadiens news

  • Now that the Laval Rocket are eliminated from the AHL playoffs, the Habs have announced the recall of four Black Aces. Defensemen David Rickenbacker and Adam Engstrom, forwards Florian Czekaj and Owen Beck will also be involved. You’ll notice they chose not to promote Joshua Roy or Samuel Blais.
  • The Habs have received significant contributions from a variety of players since the playoffs began, but none have been able to match the consistency of rookie netminder Jacob Dobbs. He has improved his statistics significantly, and there is no need to change his playing style, as some have suggested. [Jakub Dobes A Beacon Of Consistency For The Canadiens]
  • The NHL announced two fines after Game 3. The first penalty was on Beck Malensteen, who decided it would be a good idea to run Dobbs at full speed. The second was Habs defenseman Arbor Zekaj, who took part in the violent incident by punching Sam Carrick at the final whistle. [Canadiens And Sabres Players Fined Following Game 3 Violence]
  • It’s official. Dobbs fever is taking over Montreal.
  • I didn’t see it coming. The Center Videotron in Quebec City will host a watch party for Game 5. Several years ago, this would have been a terrible idea, as Nordiques fans vastly outnumbered Habs fans, but it appears that the rivalry is finally starting to cool down. [TVA]
  • Game 5 of the playoff series between Montreal Victoire and Minnesota Frost has been postponed due to an illness-related issue.
  • wait. Are they making a modern version of the classic movie Twins?

Sportsknot Network

  • The New Jersey Devils are officially the 12th overall pick in the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft. If you’ve read this far, you’ll know that we’ve advocated that the Devils be aggressive in moving a pick in a trade to land a top-six forward that will make an immediate impact on the roster. preferably on the line of Jack Hughes and Jasper Bratt.[New Jersey Devils]
  • The Boston Bruins front office made one thing clear this week: There is still work to be done. Bruins president Cam Neely and general manager Don Sweeney both mentioned the speed and skill he brings in their end-of-season press conference on Wednesday. Although he was pleased with the culture and identity the team has built, as well as making the playoffs, there is still much to be done before the Bruins can be a Stanley Cup contender. [Boston Bruins]
  • During the first three games of their second round series, the power play was actively hurting the Anaheim Ducks. But everything changed on Sunday night. [Anaheim Ducks]
Avatar
Mark has been covering the Habs for over a decade. He previously worked for the Journal Metro, The Athletic, The… More about Mark Dumont


#Black #Aces #Recall #Dobbs #Excellence #Fines

Capitals recall Ilya Protas from Hershey

The Washington Capitals have recalled forward Ilya Protas from AHL Hershey. Ilya is the younger brother of Capitals winger Aliaksei Protas.

Protas, 19, could make his NHL debut this Wednesday when the Capitals visit Toronto. The young Russian forward nicknamed “Little Pro” is already making a splash with the Hershey Bears this season.

Protas has recorded a team-high 62 points (28 goals, 34 assists) in 66 games with Hershey. The 6-foot-6, 225-pound forward leads all AHL rookies in points and is tied for sixth among all skaters.

Protas currently leads the Bears in goals, points, power-play goals, power-play points, shots and plus-minus. The 19-year-old most recently recorded a career-high six points (one goal, five assists) against Hartford on April 4. It was the AHL’s first six-point game since 2019.

The Capitals originally selected Protas in the third round (75th overall) in the 2024 NHL Draft. Ilya was selected five years after older brother Aliaksei, who was also drafted in the third round in 2019.

The Capitals are currently three points out of the playoff positions with four games left in the regular season. Will Little Pro’s NHL debut be enough to reach the playoffs?

Avatar
Harry Lichtman is an award-winning journalist who covers the Washington Capitals for SportsNut. He also contributes to the sites… More about Harry Lichtman

#Capitals #recall #Ilya #Protas #Hershey

Angstrom Recall, Dobbs First Star, Dutch

Here are the Montreal Canadiens news items, stories and content you may have missed on Monday.

montreal canadiens news

The Habs opted to recall defenseman Adam Engstrom from the Laval Rocket. The 22-year-old Engstrom leads all Rockets defensemen in scoring, with 10 goals and 24 assists in 45 games. This suggests another defenseman could be injured, or the team intends to use Arbor Zekaj on the fourth line as they face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night. [Canadiens Top 20 Prospects – No. 5 Smooth Skating Engstrom]

Rookie netminder Jacob Dobbs was named the NHL’s First Star of the Week, thanks to a perfect 3-0 record, not to mention an impressive .962 save percentage. [Jakub Dobes Earns First Star Honours]

There was some encouraging news on the injury front, as injured forward Kirby Dach was seen skating in Brossard.

In other injury-related news, Alexandre Texier also spent some time stretching his legs on Monday.

Canadiens power forward Juraj Slafkowski turns 22 on Monday, already having 273 games of NHL experience.

Sportsknot Network

New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald is on the hot seat, and he knows it. However, as the days go by, the feeling grows that he is going nowhere. However, this does not mean that no new ones will come. The Devils have performed very poorly this season despite their recent record – winning 10 games in their last 14 contests. [New Jersey Devils]

In a rare occurrence, Vegas Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon decided not to wait until the end of the season to make a major change, but instead gave his flagging veteran a kick to the team with only eight games remaining in the season. [Vegas Golden Knights]

It’s hard to believe that nine years have passed since the Devils selected Nico Hischier with the No. 1 pick in the 2017 NHL Draft. It’s even harder to believe that Hischier is already in the top 20 in games played in Devils history, despite the fact that he only has one Stanley Cup playoff series win to his name. [New Jersey Devils]

Avatar
Mark has been covering the Habs for over a decade. He previously worked for the Journal Metro, The Athletic, The… More about Mark Dumont


#Angstrom #Recall #Dobbs #Star #Dutch

Giannis’ play prompts Brian Windhorst to recall infamous meme

The Milwaukee Bucks recently caused a stir when it was revealed that they were not on the same page with superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo regarding a possible return to the lineup this season. The Bucks prefer to shut down the superstar for the year, while Antetokounmpo himself is eager to get back on the court.

Recently, NBA insider ESPN’s Brian Windhorst speculated on what this could mean for the team moving forward.

“It’s a failure to communicate between Giannis and the Bucks,” said Windhorst, formerly of NBA on ESPN on Twitter. “It’s a failure to get on the same page as what happened during the trade season… At the risk of making a copy of ourselves, why wouldn’t the Bucks want to play Giannis? They don’t want to play him because they don’t want him to get hurt.”

This was definitely a callback to a viral meme from a few years ago, in which a clip of Windhorst pointing to the ceiling while speculating on what was going on with the Utah Jazz at the time went viral on social media.

Windhorst expressed his belief that the Bucks currently want to keep Antetokounmpo out of the lineup so that his potential value on the trade market does not diminish this offseason. Milwaukee surprised many by opting to retain the star during the recent NBA trade deadline, though some have speculated that this was simply a move to wait out the summer, in which teams would be in a better position to make a more attractive offer.

In any case, the Bucks are next scheduled to take the floor against the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday evening as they continue their West Coast trip.


#Giannis #play #prompts #Brian #Windhorst #recall #infamous #meme

Will Lewis Hamilton win in 2026? Ferrari’s SF-26 and the recall case

Nobody handed Lewis Hamilton a reset button. He had to earn it. After publicly enduring one of the toughest seasons for any F1 veteran, where he finished 2025 without a single podium for the first time in 19 seasons, the seven-time world champion arrives in Melbourne for this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix looking, by all accounts, like a man who went somewhere quiet, sat with failure, and came out the other side with a sharp edge.

The question is not whether Hamilton is still in F1. This has been decided from his career record. The question is whether everything around him – the new car, the new rules, his own adjusted mindset – is going the way it should.

read mine? it happens. And Ferrari, for the first time since that disastrous SF-25 campaign, looks like it might actually be worthy of that.

Lewis Hamilton helped build Ferrari’s new car and it matters

Lewis Hamilton Scuderia Ferrari F1
moy/xpb images

The SF-26 really surprised people during Bahrain testing, and not in the way Paddock expected to surprise. Before the wheels even turned in pre-season, the talk was about whether these new generation cars would be embarrassingly slow. It was a concern that was rooted in what happened in 2014, the last time F1 made a massive change to its power units, when only Mercedes got it right and the field spent several months floundering.

This time it did not happen. Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur put it clearly to Motorsport Italy.

“People were saying we would be close to F2, yet we are only two or three seconds away from the 2025 timing, and the temperatures were very low during the Bahrain tests last year,” he said last month. “The most important thing is strong competition: when there is a tough battle between two or more teams, I don’t think it matters much to be one or two seconds slower than last season. What matters is to be one-tenth of a second faster than all rivals.”

This is the correct philosophy. And Ferrari backed it up with genuine innovation. The talk of the second testing week in Bahrain was about the Scuderia’s rear wing design that flips 180 degrees to reduce drag, and a new aerodynamic solution called FTM that exploits exhaust gases to aid energy recovery. This is not a team based on history. Maranello is aggressively pushing the technical limits in the new regulatory era, and this means a lot for the development race that will define who wins the race in the second half of 2026.

Now peel back the layers of what has changed for Hamilton personally. Outgoing ground-effect cars – where engineers hid performance in complex aerodynamic channels running beneath the car – never found favor with him. He himself said it repeatedly, not as an excuse but as an honest technical assessment from a driver with 20 years of experience of what is required for a good racing car. 2026 cars are smaller, lighter and more mechanically responsive. They require active management of power deployment and energy recovery that rewards the driver who thinks deeply about each input on the lap. This description fits Hamilton perfectly.

‘Happy Lewis is a fast Lewis’

Lewis Hamilton Ferrari F1

Now that the car seems to be moving in the right direction and Hamilton has reset his mind and is feeling positive, the game has changed. It appears that the harmony and happiness he has found means everything and this is a big problem for the rest of the region.

Martin Brundle on Sky Sports F1 said, “Not only in Ferrari, but Lewis has always been a pleasure to be fast.” “And I have to say that Ferrari have been quite innovative over the winter, so I’m confident that Lewis will have a better year.”

Happy and fast. This is the formula. And something has clearly changed. When Ferrari unveiled the SF-26, Hamilton described the moment to journalists, translated via Corriere Della Sera, as “feeling as happy as a child.” He is not a professional speedster. He is the person who looks at the car and recognizes the potential.

F1 broadcaster Will Buxton made it clear during a recent radio appearance that he believes Hamilton can return to form in 2021.

Buxton said, “The Ferrari looks really good, like really good, and Lewis was just waiting for this regulation change to get him back to where he was in 2021, with a car he loved.”

But it’s the self-examination that’s honestly more impactful than the racing. Reflecting on 2025 in his own words, he shows us why he is one of the greatest players ever to grace the grid.

“You have to look inward and observe the people around you, from your coworkers to your family, stay motivated and ask yourself uncomfortable questions. ‘Am I doing enough? Can I be better? Can I be kinder? How should I change my ways?’ Hamilton said.

And then on Saturday morning, before this new season started, they posted their announcement. Already 20 seasons in, he simply said: “I’m still here, 20 years later, still standing, still hungry, still focused on the dream. No turning back.”

His teammate, Charles Leclerc, won’t make it easy. Leclerc is truly elite, and his speed in qualifying, in particular, is a different animal than any former teammate Hamilton has dealt with. But that’s the point. This Ferrari lineup is capable of putting two cars out front on the right weekend and the SF-26 looks like the machinery to do it.

Hamilton won the race this year. Leclerc also wins the race. Ferrari, for the first time in what seems like forever, is going to make people nervous. The return is real. It will start on Sunday in Albert Park.

Avatar
Scott Gulbransen, a quintessential expert in the field of sports journalism, serves as an editor, nfl , mlb , Formula 1 … More about Scott Gulbransen


#Lewis #Hamilton #win #Ferraris #SF26 #recall #case