It's becoming rare for goaltenders to start three games in a row in the NHL now, as tandems replace workhorse starters. With that in mind, Martin St. Louis' decision to start Jacob Fowler for a third consecutive game was even more surprising on Tuesday night.
Jakub Dobes said all the right things after Fowler's second straight start, but St. Louis risks alienating last year's playoff starter if this trend continues. A week ago, Dobes was the unquestioned starter with Sam Montembeault as the backup, but now it looks like Fowler is stealing the net early.
Fowler allowed three goals on 18 shots in his season debut, which would've made it very easy to return to Dobes for Saturday night's game against the Detroit Red Wings. However, the Canadiens went back to Fowler, and he posted a 30-save shutout to earn another start Tuesday.
It wasn't Fowler's cleanest game, but a win is a win, and the goaltender played a big part in the team's second consecutive shootout victory. St. Louis will now give Dobes the net on Wednesday night in a tough road matchup against the Washington Capitals in the second game of a back-to-back with travel, which is no easy task for Montreal.
It'd be tough to see Dobes suffer through it, but he could get hung out to dry against the Capitals. If that happens, Fowler will almost certainly be the new starter in Montreal until he proves St. Louis wrong.
Canadiens fans have seen this movie before
Fowler has drawn Carey Price comparisons since he became the Canadiens' top goaltending prospect, and his demeanor and skills in the Montreal net haven't extinguished that talk. If he becomes the starter, it'll be impossible to quiet the noise, since it'd be nearly the same scenario as Price overtaking the starting job after Jaroslav Halak's great 2010 playoff run.
The expectations are almost impossible to live up to, but in an ironic twist, the Canadiens are looking like they are going to be a powerhouse at some point in the next few seasons. The greatest downfall of Price's career was a lack of talent in Montreal's lineup during all his heroic seasons, and Fowler will likely play behind much better teams than the franchise legend ever did.
With a Stanley Cup or two with this core group, would Fowler one day overtake Price in the franchise's pantheon of goaltenders? If the head coach has anything to say about it, he may start down that path sooner than anyone expected.
Is it too early for the Canadiens to give up on Dobes, or was last year's postseason really just a flash in the pan? Three games is hardly enough of a sample size for this season, but a 4.43 goals-against average and an .856 save percentage is more than bad enough for St. Louis to start looking elsewhere.
The problem is that the Canadiens don't have a real plan for when Montembeault returns. The idea was that Fowler would be going back down, but St. Louis certainly can't roll with Fowler and then expect to give the reins back to Dobes when Montembeault returns. It could be an interesting week for Montreal.
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