PITTSBURGH — It was a night Jacob Fowler met his destiny, taking his first steps down the path paved by the great Montreal Canadiens goaltenders of the past.
The 21-year-old debuted with a win in Pittsburgh, just like Ken Dryden did in 1971, Patrick Roy did in 1985 and Carey Price did in 2007. Just like all of them, Fowler did it projecting the confidence of a goaltender who knew he belonged exactly where he was. Just like all of them, he arrived there sooner than anticipated. And just like all of them, he gave the Canadiens exactly what they needed when they needed it most.
“Fowler was so calm,” said Juraj Slafkovsky, who set up two of Montreal’s goals in the 4-2 win that saw his goaltender tested 38 times.
The Canadiens entered Thursday coming off a loss in which both of their other goaltenders were the opposite of calm.
Jakub Dobes allowed the first three goals before Samuel Montembeault replaced him to allow the next three in a 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Canadiens were out of sorts in front of them.
In front of Fowler, they fed off his energy and denied the Penguins a shot until the end of the 10th minute of play.
How Fowler handled that, playing in his first-ever game, which was delayed 30 minutes due to an accident that prevented several Penguins players from reaching PPG Paints Arena on time, was a harbinger of things to come.
A back-door pass across the crease fed Anthony Mantha two scoring chances in that 10th minute, but Fowler smoothly stifled them with his left pad.
The kid ended the night with three straight saves on “Sid the Kid” Crosby, with stars in his eyes after receiving first-star honours. What made it so impressive was that Fowler quieted all the noise that came with being grouped with Canadiens royalty, and he silenced the buzz of being heir apparent to Montreal’s four-by-six throne as he just focused on being the best version of himself.
“I think before, I always relied on certain moments in the past that kind of hold me grounded,” Fowler said. “I’ve played on big stages before — the world juniors and the national championship — but I think I’m just living in the moment every day, right here, right now, not worrying about a shot that hasn’t been taken yet. There’s so many things that go around of who you play like or who you want to be like. I’d be lying if I didn’t want to be like every great goalie who’s ever played, but I understand that I’ve got to be myself, and that starts every day with doing the right things.”
Those habits brought Fowler to stardom in the United States Hockey League, and then in the NCAA, in between at the world junior championship with Team USA, and finally with the Laval Rocket in the American Hockey League.
The vault towards becoming the first Florida-born goaltender to play in the NHL was inevitable, and he stuck the landing as expected.
“You’re always hesitant to compare him to Price because it puts a lot of pressure on the kid,” said Brendan Gallagher, who scored Montreal’s second goal of the game in the same way he scored many goals in front of Price — with a one-timed shot to the roof.
“One thing I’ll say is he seems to be very calm in the net and has limited movement, and that’s something that Price did very well,” Gallagher continued. “Price seemed to make hard saves look easy, and in the limited time I’ve seen Fowls, that’s what I’ve seen. He’s obviously a talented kid. He’s done it every level he’s played at.”
Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis watched Fowler at the minor-league level, and at every other one after that, and he had an inkling of what he might look like in the NHL.
“I’ve known him from his youth hockey,” he said earlier on Thursday. “From what I know, he’s a gamer.”
It’s what permitted Fowler not be intimidated by the last three shots from Crosby, not to mention the first four the Penguins’ captain hit him with.
He wasn’t rattled by the slot chances Bryan Rust had, nor the high-slot tips Erik Karlsson set.
And Fowler wasn’t vexed, either, after Rust and Karlsson scored on him.
The six-foot-two, 213-pound goaltender just played the whole game even keel, square to shooters, gobbling up rebounds and, along the way, giving the Canadiens the confidence to play their game much more effectively than they did their last one.
They stopped more plays before they got to their zone, they managed the puck more efficiently, and they found a way to be more compact and connected defensively, even if they weren’t perfect.
Putting the league’s best power play to work six times wasn’t part of Montreal’s plan.
But it was under that pressure that Fowler stopped 15-of-16 shots, and several of those saves built his first NHL highlight pack.
Montreal’s goaltending dominated the lowlights through the first 29 games. Some bright spots aside, Dobes and Montembeault combined for the lowest goals-saved above expected numbers in the league, making Montreal’s 15-11-3 record coming into this one somewhat miraculous.
It’s too soon to say Fowler’s performance in one game will turn the tide and end the referendum on their defensive system, but it’s not premature to suggest this win was likely the first of many he and the Canadiens will combine for over the coming years.
The Canadiens started this one with some swagger to earn the lead, and Fowler strutted his to help them maintain it.
“I think it keeps the confidence in the group, for sure,” said St. Louis. “We all know we’re chasing perfection, knowing that we’ll never get there, so there’s going to be moments when he’s going to have to make saves. There’s good players on the other side, their PP is No. 1 in the league, they pull their goalie with five minutes to go, there’s no structure with that that’s bulletproof; he’s going to have to make some good saves, and I thought he did.”
It’s what was expected of Fowler, even if it was unfair to expect such things of a goaltender his age.
But he’s not just any young goaltender, and neither were those greats that came before him.
“He’s a guy that’s been doing kind of this his whole life,” said St. Louis. “He’s won at every level, I think he’s used to the big stage, and I feel his play reflected that a little bit.”