ST. LOUIS (AP) — When St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong traded for defenseman Cam Fowler in December, he was hoping to give a team in the final phase of a retool a chance to make an NHL playoff run.
The 33-year-old defenseman has met, if not exceeded, expectations as he scored his second goal of the postseason in Game 6 of the team’s first round series against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night to give him 10 points this series to set a franchise record for most points by a defenseman in a playoff series.
“Incredibly cerebral,” said Blues coach Jim Montgomery, who was hired nearly three weeks before Fowler was acquired. “He’s a player, when you try and change things that you do, he goes out and implements it right away just because that’s how intelligent he is, and it’s really underrated how competitive he is.
"Did not know that when you coach against him, but once you get him in your own locker room and you get to see the eyes and you see the intensity in his eyes and you couple that with the calmness and poise to make the plays he makes at both ends of the ice, it’s pretty impressive.”
Fowler has carried a heavy workload playing on the team’s top defensive pairing with Colton Parayko and anchoring the team’s first power-play unit. His presence has helped the team’s defensemen record an NHL-best six goals and 17 assists this postseason.
“I think we feel like we have guys on the back end that can contribute offensively, especially the way that we can skate and try and move the puck through the neutral zone,” Fowler said. “It’s been a point of emphasis for our group, and we have guys that can execute it. I think when we’re doing that and we’re working as a five-man unit, it’s hard to defend.”
The Blues and Jets will face off in Winnipeg on Sunday night in the deciding Game 7 of their series where the home team has won all six games.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
David Solomon, The Associated Press
