Martin St. Louis is sticking with the goalie who has given the Canadiens the safest bet in net right now.
Jacob Fowler will start for the third game in a row Tuesday night when Montreal faces the Blues in St. Louis (8 p.m., TSN2, RDS).
Fowler is riding a five-game winning streak, a run that includes Sunday’s 2-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets in the Heritage Classic outdoors. That win pushed his season line to 5-1 with a 1.79 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage.
Against Winnipeg, Fowler turned aside 33 of 34 shots and handled nine high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
"He's playing good hockey, that's for sure," St. Louis told reporters in St.
Louis Tuesday afternoon about Fowler. "It always helps the team when your goalie plays like that."
Over the last two seasons, Fowler’s NHL record is 14-7-2 with a 2.26 GAA and a .912 save percentage.
Montreal will make one lineup tweak for the matchup with St. Louis.
Adam Engstrom is in for Arber Xhekaj, which means Xhekaj will be a healthy scratch for the first time this season. Xhekaj had just 10:18 of ice time in Sunday’s game in Winnipeg.
Tuesday’s game also brings Jacob Fowler back to St. Louis, where he attended De Smet Jesuit High School after leaving the Czech Republic at 16.
He graduated in 2020 after playing for the St. Louis Triple-A Blues and the Topeka Pilots in the NAHL during high school, then moved on to the Omaha Lancers in the USHL and Ohio State University.
The Canadiens picked Fowler in the fifth round, 136th overall, of the 2020 NHL Draft.
In Other News...
Cole Caufield Sees Something Building Canadiens Fans Will Love
Cole Caufield has been around long enough now to know the difference between playing in a hockey market and playing in Montreal. The Canadiens winger talked about what it means to perform in front of the Bell Centre crowd, where the energy rises quickly and the expectation rises with it, and he pointed back to the lessons from the clubs recent playoff run as part of the learning curve for a young group trying to move from promise to results.
Caufields optimism comes from more than just what happened last spring. He sees a core that is in place and a room that keeps challenging itself every day, which is exactly the kind of internal push the Canadiens have been searching for as they try to build something lasting. For a fan base that has stayed loud through the lean years, the appeal is obvious: Caufield believes the motivation is there, and the goal is to turn all that noise into a team worth cheering for deep into the spring. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Just Sparked A Trade Question Fans Wont Ignore
Adam Engstrom is back in the Canadiens lineup for the game in St. Louis, a wrinkle that immediately caught attention around the rink because Montreal is always watched closely when young defensemen start drawing extra eyes. The timing is notable, too, with Arber Xhekaj sitting as a healthy scratch, a reminder that roster decisions at this stage of the season can say as much about organizational priorities as they do about one nights matchup.
The added intrigue comes from the seats rather than the bench, where Red Wings executive Kris Draper was in attendance and helped stir up the usual trade chatter that follows a prospect with a growing profile. There has been no confirmation of any talks or of what Detroit was specifically there to evaluate, but with Engstrom back in the mix and outside interest hovering, this is the kind of situation Canadiens fans will keep watching closely. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Just Did Something Impressive Without Suzuki And Demidov
The Canadiens kept rolling on the road with a 2-0 win over the St. Louis Blues, extending their streak away from home even while missing injured regulars Nick Suzuki and Ivan Demidov. Montreal got the kind of composed, structured effort teams usually need to survive a gap in the lineup, with rookie goaltending and timely finishing carrying the night in a game that looked anything but ordinary.
Zachary Bolduc scored against his former team, giving the Canadiens a goal with a little extra edge, and the result only sharpened the sense that this group is finding ways to win in different forms. The larger question now is whether Montreal can keep that same standard if the injury picture doesn't clear up soon, because the latest victory came with one more reminder that the margin for error remains thin. [Read more 🡒]