After a wildly disappointing effort at home on Tuesday night, the Montreal Canadiens hit the road for a Thursday night matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Before hitting the road – in fact, immediately following the aforementioned debacle against Tampa – they called up some reinforcements from Laval, looking to shake things up in search of a win.
The most notable lineup change saw them give a first NHL start to Jacob Fowler in goal, and their top goaltending prospect didn’t disappoint.
JACOB FOWLER HUGE BACK-TO-BACK SAVES 😲 pic.twitter.com/RH7JZ5aloZ
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) December 12, 2025
He made an impressive 33 saves on 35 shots in the win, many of which came on Pittsburgh’s six power play attempts. The Habs were the better team at five-on-five, which was refreshing to see, but their penalty kill was important in securing the win, and Fowler was arguably the most important penalty killer. If he doesn’t stop 14 shots on the power play alone, this could have been a very different game.
Most impressive was the sheer poise he showed. He looked calm, tracked the puck very well, and gave nothing easy to his opponents. When he allowed rebounds, they were mostly steered from danger, or quickly corralled by his stick and covered up. This was perhaps the most confident, relaxed performance this team has seen from a goaltender this season.
Now, they’ll have to decide what to do next. Making a rash decision after one game is a bad idea, but Fowler’s game at minimum warrants keeping him around a little longer to see if this level of play is something they can expect regularly. Consistency in net is something that has been hard to come by for these Habs, so they can’t assume this is an anomaly and just send him back without exploring the possibility that he’s ready to run.
One of the eeriest stats this fan base has ever seen is the fact that Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy, and Carey Price all made their respective NHL debuts against the Penguins on the road. These are wild names to be held in comparison to after one NHL game, but Fowler went into that game with all that noise around it, and turned in a stellar performance. He’s earned a few more shots to prove it wasn’t a fluke.
Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be back on Saturday night after the Habs’ visit to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
