During Jacob Fowler’s first stint with the Montreal Canadiens, I had a conversation with former goalie coach Éric Raymond about his protégé. Fowler’s calm was impressive to him, his work ethic, his demeanor in his net. Technically, Fowler was impressive as well.
Then Raymond said something unexpected.
“Sometimes,” he said, “there’s also genetics.”
This might have been the first time I had heard anyone mention genetics as being an advantage for Fowler. One of the main reasons he was the sixth goalie taken in the 2023 NHL draft was that he was listed by NHL Central Scouting as being 6-foot-1 and the five goalies taken ahead of him were taller (though Trey Augustine only had him by a quarter-inch).
But Raymond explained Fowler’s advantage was not his height, it was his hips. They are unusually flexible, Raymond said, with a wider range of motion than a typical goaltender, allowing Fowler to move in his crease the way others can’t.
It was impossible not to think of that conversation as Fowler extended his left pad with a minute left in the Canadiens’ critical 3-2 win Wednesday at the Ottawa Senators, when he robbed Claude Giroux of what looked to be a sure goal.
Fowler was officially called up from the AHL’s Laval Rocket on Wednesday morning with a plan in place for him to play this game. He was in Ottawa Tuesday night to prepare himself, then went out and made 32 saves in the win. Six came in the final two minutes, and the crazy thing is that stop on Giroux did not even count as one, as the NHL’s official statisticians determined the shot would have gone wide, according to the play-by-play sheet.
We beg to differ.
Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis met with reporters Wednesday morning at the Canadiens’ hotel and bristled at being questioned on the decision to play Fowler instead of Sam Montembeault. St. Louis was in an impossible situation, and he repeatedly stated he felt this decision was in the team’s best interests to win in a back-to-back situation.
He clearly did not feel the need to overtly say Montembeault has not been good enough. The decision to play Fowler and sit Montembeault spoke for itself.
After the game, however, St. Louis acknowledged that it was a difficult but necessary one.
“I’ve said it before, when you’re in a position of leadership, you’re going to make decisions that affect people you adore, that you love, negatively for the benefit of the team,” he told reporters in Ottawa. “It comes with the job, that’s the price you pay as a leader. It’s not easy to make those decisions. But just because it’s a difficult decision, doesn’t mean you can’t make them. You have to make those decisions.”
The decision to play Fowler was relatively easy because of how poorly Montembeault has played since the Olympic break. In two starts — a 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders and a 6-5 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks — Montembeault allowed a tying goal in the dying minutes of regulation and allowed nine goals on 59 shots, an .847 save percentage and 4.28 goals against average.
He is costing the Canadiens points, whereas Fowler got the Canadiens two points on Wednesday.
So, the decision was not all that difficult on a professional level. What made it difficult was how St. Louis feels about Montembeault on a personal level.
Alexandre Texier netted a goal for the Canadiens Wednesday night (Chris Tanouye / Freestyle Photography / Getty Images)
An even tougher decision
St. Louis has another difficult decision in front of him, on multiple levels.
Alexandre Texier re-entered the Canadiens lineup in place of Cole Caufield, who couldn’t finish Tuesday’s 3-1 win at home against the Toronto Maple Leafs due to an illness. The Canadiens don’t play again until Saturday. Presumably, Caufield will be good to go by then.
Not only was Texier playing for the first time since that overtime loss to the Islanders on Feb. 26, he was taking Caufield’s spot on the top line with Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovský.
All Texier did was score the tying goal in the second period and did not slow down that top line one bit. He played with energy, his legs were moving, he was hitting people and being a disruptive force all over the ice. He didn’t dominate the game, but he clearly demonstrated the Canadiens are a better team — a quicker team — with him in the lineup.
“He played an excellent game,” St. Louis said. “It was a difficult stretch for him because he couldn’t play. Again, that was my decision. But I was happy to be able to put him back in the lineup, I really liked his game.”
When Caufield returns to the lineup, what does St. Louis do? Texier was nursing an injury for a long time, and still managing it while representing France at the Olympics. It was affecting his ability to move and be his most effective self, but appears to be a thing of the past.
But the fact Texier was placed on the top line to replace Caufield demonstrates how difficult it will be for St. Louis to keep him in the lineup when Caufield returns. The line of Zack Bolduc — who was scratched for Texier in the first game back from the Olympics — Kirby Dach and Jake Evans has been dynamite, rocking an expected goals ratio north of 65 percent at five-on-five in their last four games together. Obviously the top line is untouchable.
That leaves the lines of Alex Newhook, Oliver Kapanen and Ivan Demidov, and Josh Anderson, Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher.
Of those six players, Demidov is a key member of the top power-play unit and Anderson, Danault and Kapanen are important penalty-killers. That leaves two members of the second power-play unit, Newhook and Gallagher.
If sentimentality is taken out of it, the answer is unfortunately quite obvious. The calculation is not this simple, but Newhook has 18 points in 24 games, Texier has 19 points in 32 games, and Gallagher has 20 points in 64 games.
Gallagher wears a letter on his sweater and is a heart and soul player and leader who has given this franchise everything he has.
On Jan. 16, ironically at a practice in Ottawa one day before a game against the Senators, the Canadiens had Evans, Dach and Patrik Laine back after long injury absences. The internal competition for lineup spots was about to become very real.
Gallagher spoke after that practice, and when I awkwardly tried to ask how he feels about that internal competition and the security of his spot in the lineup, he interrupted me and bailed me out.
“I know what you’re saying,” Gallagher said. “But at the same time, you’ve still got to play the game, you’ve got to do what you do. That’s always been a part of the business side of it, and you put those expectations and pressure on yourself regardless. Speaking for myself personally, you’ve just got to go out there and try to help the team. Don’t try to do too much, don’t try to expand. Do what you can do to help the team win a hockey game. It’s a big game coming up, we know how desperate they are. It can be challenging at times, for sure, but I think mentally as an athlete you’ve got to be sharp.”
Gallagher is playing some good hockey right now. His line with Danault and Anderson has been effective the past few games. But the Canadiens need to find a way to get Texier in the lineup. It would make them a better team.
Sometimes, as St. Louis said, the burden of leadership is making decisions that negatively affect people you adore for the benefit of the team.