Is it crazy to say it already?...

Is it crazy to say it already about Jacob Fowler? This guy is looking like the second coming up. I feel like I shouldn't say that this early, but he was unbelievable in a game filled with controversy. The Habs getting no goal calls left, right, and center three separate times. The Montreal Canadiens still managed to overcome the refereeing, the controversy with their goaltending. But it's not just good news in Montreal, as Michael Hage puts on an absolute clinic once again for Michigan and his stats will absolutely blow your mind through just four games this year yeah we're gonna dive into all of that and more coming up on this episode first things first though I gotta ask you a question is Fowler your number one goalie I'm not saying do you think that he is definitely the number one goalie from Montreal right now I'm asking is he your number one goalie not what Marty's gonna do that's why I asked is it crazy to say it is it I don't think it's crazy to say it at this point but look i will dive into that in just a little bit because before we get into this hab stuff i promise we'll talk about a lot of it i want to talk a little bit about michael hage because lost in this craziness this game tonight is michael hage once again going up now again not the strongest university anchorage alaska up there but the university of alaska anchorage campus i guess i think that's anyway but his start to the season has been unreal and there's been a lot of talk about him i like this from Montreal Hockey Now of course there were chants tonight for Larkin excuse me at the bell center including we also had a hot dog wiener and a bun getting thrown on the ice giant inflatable ones if you guys didn't see that but Hage is just casually on a three-point pace per game right now by the way three he's gonna play for Montreal unlike the other guy yeah I mean I don't necessarily think it's uh that likely that Larkin ends up here but look at this this was their game today Michael Hage with four assists 10 for 14 on face-offs so what does that mean for his season so far if you have not been keeping track Michael Hage if you look at the totals at the bottom he's now up to three goals nine assists 12 points in four games again against Bowling Green and Alaska Anchorage which are not the top tier opponents you'll see in conference in conference play Big 10 stuff coming up very soon where you're going to actually see him against his higher competition but it doesn't matter you still going to dominate the lower competition, and that's what he's doing. 46 face-off wins to only 23 losses. 67% on the face-off dot. 12 points in four games. So as good as it feels tonight to see the Montreal Canadiens thankfully get a win in a Jacob Fowler shutout, you still have to pay attention to these prospects. Alexander Sharovsky has a highlight here and there. His point production isn't quite up to par with what it was last year. Yet, still a long season to go, but you've got to keep an eye on Michael Hage. Where's he going to slot into the lineup? And we keep getting injured like tonight playing 11 forwards 7 Ds. Florian, Jack, Oliver Kapan, and Ivan Dimitrov are all injured. You might just need a guy like Hage to step in. Plus, we make another trade before deadline? I don't know. But of course, tonight was all about Jacob Fowler and the Montreal Canadiens. Let's take a look at the box score here for the Montreal Canadiens. A whole lot of nothing. Like, nothing. Minus 30 saves from Jacob Fowler. I mean, what a night. A lot of players block some shots had a few guys get some hits Caden Gooley by the way shout out to him in his return only 15 and a half minutes time on ice tonight this here is sorted by time on ice by the way Adam Engstrom being the lowest followed by Jack I followed by Kirby Doc um but anyway Caden Gooley logging four hits alongside Josh Anderson not quite leading the team because or sorry yes they they did lead the team yes they did lead the team absolutely they did because of course they did um really good stuff I thought Caden Gooley was phenomenal tonight by the way the game stack card from Hockey Stack Cards mirrors that other than Jacob Fowler Caden Gooley was the only Habs player to have an above one game score tonight it was a very even game as much as it felt like Montreal was dominating the the stretches the scoring opportunities for large chunks Detroit still had their own too and it is true Montreal especially their top line was doing a great job at controlling the scoring attempts and the shot attempts Slavkovsky Suzuki Kopfield coming in at 56% of the expected goals. 72% of the shots were controlled with them, by the way. Texeira and Obaldik, I thought they had a great night as well. 77% of the shots, 54% of expected goals. Krider, Newhook, Anderson, you can see, continuing to just dominate these lines. The defense pairings actually was interesting because Lane Hudson, his pairing with Dobson, they controlled the shots, didn't actually control the expected goals, but you know who did? Matheson Carrier and Gooley Carrier. Now, to be fair, Gooley Carrier was only used for like three and a half minutes tonight at 5v5. it was still the third most used d pairing by our team at 5v5 simply because the seven defensemen were rotating in and out kind of all the time but again it felt like the top guys from Montreal they did their job they really did their job and it felt like Montreal dominated this one the numbers always back that up not necessarily and you know this game also was filled with a ton of controversy and we'll just show the Jacob Fowler highlights here because it will also show the no goals coming after and it was the no goals that drove me nuts because i'm gonna put it in this view so you can see it this is the kind of thing let me know if you guys feel the same way this is gonna feel like a bit of a rant but like doesn't it feel like you can't celebrate your team's goals anymore like I feel like every time even from the first goal this game when Caulfield scored I was like there's no way this can be called back but you always have that thought in your mind when there's even a bit of hesitation on the ice oh they might call it back look no goal Texier OT went no absolutely not Caulfield oh look it's a goal they called it a goal on the ice no never mind like, Bolduc, he scores again, oh, wait, hold on, we'll review it, oh, no, he lightly bumped the stick, no, no, and so it's just, like, I just genuinely feel like I can't celebrate a goal anymore, this is offside, I'm not arguing that, it is obviously, very clearly, offside by probably half a foot, so, like, I'm not mad that this got called back, it's just so frustrating that that had no effect on the play, Bolduc didn't touch the puck on that play, Texier just skated it in and ripped it. That's it. And I don't know. I feel like I can't celebrate a goal anymore. But you know what? I don't even need to. I don't need to celebrate goals anymore because we have Jacob Fowler in there. I ask you again. Who is your number one goalie for Montreal right now? This is a very reactionary thing. We're all emotional after that kind of game. Jacob Fowler not only didn't let in a goal in regulation. Unlike Tarasov, he didn't even let in a disallowed goal. Nothing got past him. and then he also didn't let anything get past him in the shootout which is absurd we gotta get better in the shootout by the way um but to be fair though like we almost had a couple goals I got Texier one off the post and Texier scored the OT winner and Bolduc scored anyway is your number one like Fowler was just utterly dominant tonight 65 minutes it says 64 46 but you know penalty anyway 30 saves i don't know why we have so many decimal points in the save percentage but i think it just emphasizes emphasizes the impact there you go 100 save percentage for Jacob Fowler it's as simple as that this guy not only again shut them out he had 3.6 goals saved above expected now to be fair again Tarasov was above three himself but Fowler was low in the NHL he was at negative one roughly before this game he shot from somewhere i think in like the 50s ranked for goals saved above expected in the NHL maybe it was 40s it was very low up into the top 16 up into the top half essentially of starter NHL goalies there's 32 teams i kind of say top 16 is like you know what you know what i'm saying you know top half of the 32 teams that makes sense i know there's more goalies than that but we're right up there into the top echelon of the NHL so far this year only 15 goalies have saved more goals above expected and guess what Jacob Fowler this is second game and i found it really interesting why he was even playing Marty San Luis had this it is a bit of a bold decision Marty San Luis said look he played well and deserved another appearance it's our fourth game in eight nights we'll take a break tomorrow but we liked what we saw from Fowler they liked what they saw from him against Nashville i think we all did I know the final score was five to two two of them were empty netters the other three goals we all remember them if we watch the game tip in front tip in front didn't have a chance to stop either they were just good tips that get past you nothing you can do and a scramble where like 27 people were on the ice no one knew where the puck was and it was poked in the net so Jacob Fowler the calmness man I don't have my Price jersey behind me but like it genuinely feels like Harry Price when I'm watching him and again I gotta reiterate I'm not saying that Fowler is going to be Price that is ridiculous that would be an unrealistic expectation I think for anyone but it's just he's it's like it reminds me of Price in the sense that it's like he's reading the player's minds he is in the place that the puck is going to be before the puck gets there every time like pucks don't just beat him clean they have in the past they still will in the future it's not like he's never gonna let something get by him clean but it feels like an outlier when a puck just beats him it feels like you need to tip the puck you need to have a scramble you need to have a cross crease you need to have something that's not just a shot for it to beat him even screenshots from the point he's kicking him out it's unreal the hype around Fowler is so good and Stu Cowan saying this too looking like he could very quickly become the Habs number one goalie just straight up and and I don't want to I don't want to put down Dobie because I don't think that's what I'm doing here but it's not wrong I just I feel I feel more confident when Fowler's in it Dovish has done more for this team no doubt no doubt playoff run was unbelievable the chaos he causes the hype the energy I love Jakub Dovish but the fact that we have these two not to mention Samuel Montembeault who's hopefully he had a great preseason looking to get back into form yeah maybe he gets traded but I'm just I don't know I'm I'm feeling good I hope you guys are too leave your thoughts on all this down below that'll do it though for this episode thank you for sharing in this elation and this game finally getting over I literally it's midnight right now where I am in Newfoundland I have to get up for a flight uh at 3 30 a.m so I hope you guys appreciate me staying up this late for you um you don't need to appreciate that i chose to do this it's my fault i'm your host josh goss i'll get y'all i gotta go to sleep