Canadiens: Fowler Still Unbeaten On The Road

With the Montreal Canadiens’ win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night by a 4-2 score, Jacob Fowler is still unbeaten on the road. The 21-year-old American netminder has a 4-0-0 record playing away from the Bell Centre. And we’re not talking about in-extremis wins in overtime or in the shootout; we’re talking about four regulation wins.

In 240 minutes of road action, the rookie has allowed only four goals, for a 1.00 GAA and a .969 save percentage. That’s the best road GAA for a masked man and the best road SV%. Furthermore, one of those four wins was a shootout on October 27 against the St-Louis Blues. Meanwhile, Jakub Dobes has also played four road games, but he has a 2-1-1 record, a 3.82 GAA, and an .851 SV.

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This week, the Canadiens host the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night as they’ll honor Carey Price and then, on Thursday, take on the Boston Bruins at TD Garden. Right now, the Bruins lead the Atlantic Division with 27 points, but the Canadiens have a game in hand and sit right behind Boston with 25. Thursday night’s game will be a must-win against a team that always seems to find a way to stay relevant, even when experts keep putting them out of the playoffs.

At home, Fowler still has a winning record at 4-1-1, but his stats are less impressive, with a 2.90 GAA and a .892 SV. Meanwhile, Dobes has played only three home games and has a 1-1-1 record, with a 4.34 GAA and a .841 SV. In other words, Fowler is the better option so far this season, at home or on the road, but Martin St-Louis will have to use Dobes at least once this week.

The Czech netminder’s last game was on November 5 against the Utah Mammoth, which is no slouch. The Mammoth has 21 points in the standings. This week, the Canadiens have two home games: the aforementioned duel with the Wild, who are second in the league, and then, on Saturday, they’ll host the Colorado Avalanche, currently 11th in the standings. They'll have a short road trip for the one game in Boston on Thursday night.

As surprising as it may be, the Avalanche are the weakest of the three teams at least on paper; will the Habs wait until Saturday to give Dobes a game? That would mean he'd waited eight days between the two starts. Samuel Montembeault is also day-to-day, and he was skating this weekend in full gear. Soon, Kent Hughes will have to decide what to do with his netminders.

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