January 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\nAs play continued on the ice, the celebration continued in the stands and slowly morphed into the fans doing the wave by the time the next television timeout came with 13:45 left to play, more than two minutes of game time after Caufield\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n
Normally during a TV timeout, there will be overly loud music playing at the Bell Centre and there will be some sort of sponsored content shown on the scoreboard. This time, however, there was none. No music, no sponsored content, nothing but the sound of the wave, the noise from the fans cascading as it wound its way around the building, and the players left to bask in it as the ice was shoveled and the scoreboard that normally showed that sponsored content instead showing video of the wave making its way around the building.<\/p>\n
And in fact, it wasn\u2019t just the players basking in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about how we have to improve our home performance overall, and I feel like we did that tonight, and I felt the fans, we haven\u2019t been in this building for a while now, and I feel like our fans gave us the support back based on how we were performing,\u201d coach Martin St. Louis said. \u201cI feel like we earned that time, and I took it all in. It\u2019s special, and I hope for many more. We don\u2019t take it for granted; we know we have to earn that, and I feel like we did that tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not taking that for granted was especially true of two players in this game. Phillip Danault was playing his first game at home since being acquired from the Los Angeles Kings just before the holiday trade freeze. His last game in a Canadiens uniform in this building was Game 4 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final in front of an announced crowd of 3,500 people that was surely significantly higher. But it was nowhere near the full house he played in front of Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Danault\u2019s first thought about his return home was centered on that wave and that TV timeout.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, the wave was awesome,\u201d he said. \u201cJust electric, and I\u2019m not surprised.<\/p>\n
\u201cI missed it. I missed it a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last time Danault played in front of these fans, Canadiens rookie goaltender Jacob Fowler was 16 years old. For Danault, that moment was nostalgic, a reaffirmation of why he wanted to be back in Montreal so badly after an incredibly frustrating season in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
For Fowler, it was brand new.<\/p>\n
\u201cBananas,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cThis place was going crazy. It\u2019s like every time I play here, it\u2019s just a new level that it reaches each time. Cool moment, I haven\u2019t played in a lot of buildings where they get the wave going and it feels like we just scored.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fowler made 28 saves to run his career record to 4-2-2, and he didn\u2019t need to be excellent to earn that moment from the Montreal fans. The Canadiens played a tight game in front of him, didn\u2019t give the Flames a whole lot, and made their rookie goalie\u2019s night relatively easy.<\/p>\n
Except that one moment when they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
With the score tied at 0 early in the second period after the Canadiens dominated the opening 20 minutes but were stymied by Wolf and his goal posts at every turn, Danault was carrying the puck through the neutral zone when he chipped a puck at the Flames blue line for Zack Bolduc to go collect. Except Bolduc had only one hand on his stick as he tried to collect it, and instead it was the Flames who got that puck and headed back toward the Canadiens zone.<\/p>\n
The result was Blake Coleman getting a chance from a few feet in front of Fowler, a chance that would have given the Flames a 1-0 lead and demoralized a Canadiens team that would have justifiably felt like it deserved to be leading that game. Instead, Coleman\u2019s shot bounced off Lane Hutson and rolled harmlessly into Fowler\u2019s pads before he covered it up for a faceoff.<\/p>\n
A little over a minute later, Alexandre Texier gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead on his way to a career-high 3-point night.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2254542258-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Fowler (right) continues to impress for the Canadiens. (Minas Panagiotakis\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
That chance for Coleman in front could have been a backbreaker. Instead, it allowed the Canadiens to rightfully take control of a game they were dominating.<\/p>\n
Fowler, however, when asked about that save, immediately pointed to what he could have done better.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose plays, we do a lot of work at practice, even morning skates, we\u2019re getting reps like that,\u201d he said. \u201cI just think I can be even more calm on that, the less movement I have, the better I can be. I tend to get sloppy if I\u2019m running around, so just try to really just move as less as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
It says a lot about how Fowler is wired. He didn\u2019t like the one goal he allowed, a Joel Farabee shot from 45 feet out that got under his glove. And he didn\u2019t like the goal that\u00a0was called back on an offside review, a Nazem Kadri shot that got under his glove on a two-on-one break that would have made it a 4-2 game with 4:32 left to play.<\/p>\n
To Fowler, it was as if he allowed two goals in this game. And he wasn\u2019t thrilled about either one.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more that you just, not laugh it off, but look at it like, \u2018Jeez, that was a brutal goal. Don\u2019t give up another one like that,\u2019\u201d Fowler said of the Farabee goal. \u201cI was fortunate the video guys and our coaching staff was able to get that offside call, because again, that\u2019s another shot that beat me clean low glove. You don\u2019t see it on the board at the end of the game, but any time you get beat twice like that, you\u2019re going to work on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t played too many games; I\u2019m pretty young, so learn from it. You want to be better every night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty young\u201d is a bit of an understatement. Fowler, 21, is the youngest goalie in the NHL by a wide margin \u2014 two years younger than Minnesota Wild phenom and impending Olympian Jesper Wallstedt.<\/p>\n
Fowler has a .912 save percentage and continues to make it difficult for the Canadiens to send him back to the AHL because he has objectively been their best goalie since being called up the night of Dec. 9, in the immediate aftermath of a 6-1 loss on home ice to the Tampa Bay Lightning, a night the Bell Centre fans were not doing the wave.<\/p>\n
When general manager Kent Hughes was asked Tuesday about Fowler and whether they would want to protect him from how difficult this market can be on a young goaltender, he not only acknowledged it is a concern, but also noted how mentally strong Fowler is despite his age.<\/p>\n
A day later, the market showed that young goaltender the other side of that coin, how much fun it can be to succeed here, and Fowler\u2019s soaking that TV timeout in and gaining an appreciation for that side of that coin is incredibly valuable for a young player who is a big part of this team\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
However, Fowler was not aware of Hughes\u2019 comments a day earlier, and when they were related to him after the game, his response basically validated those comments from his general manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad to hear that what I think is what other people think, because I like to have fun and joke around with guys off the ice and be pretty unserious at times, but I feel like when the game\u2019s on, I have a good balance and understanding that hockey\u2019s a big part of my life, but it isn\u2019t everything,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cAnd with that comes, you know, one goal doesn\u2019t define who I am, but I want to make every save that I can. I was born playing this game, wanted to play at the highest level and be a big part of that. So whatever I can do to stay mentally strong and understand it\u2019s going to take a lot more mentally to break me than other guys, I just think you can take skill out of it, that\u2019s more important.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is indeed more important. And the more Fowler plays, the more he defies the odds and the intuitive notion that a goaltender his age does not belong in the NHL, the more it becomes difficult to find a reason to send him back down to the AHL.<\/p>\n
He is built differently. He is wired differently. And perhaps conventional wisdom does not apply to Jacob Fowler.<\/p>\n