📷 Vincent Ethier/Icon Sportswire
Jacob Fowler and Apophenia
One save inspired a goalie. The work, the miles, and the connections we only notice later, shaped him.
- Marc-Andre Fleury's Cup-winning double-push save on Lidstrom directly inspired Jacob Fowler to become a goaltender.
- Marco Marciano coached both Marc-Andre Fleury in the QMJHL and Jacob Fowler as his first pro goalie coach with the Canadiens.
- Fowler's NHL debut came against the Pittsburgh Penguins — Fleury's longtime team — deepening an already striking chain of connections.
- Apophenia, the tendency to see patterns in unrelated events, shapes how goaltending stories are constructed and remembered.
- Recognize that a goaltender's development depends on specific human decisions — a parent picking up hockey, a coach making a call — not just talent or fate.
A shot. A pad save. A rebound. Two pushes. A shoulder save.
That sequence made Marc-Andre Fleury a Stanley Cup Champion. And it’s what made the Montreal Canadiens’ Jacob Fowler a goaltender.
“I sent [Canadiens’ goalie coach Marco Marciano] the clip of the Fleury double-push save on Lidstrom to win the Cup,” Fowler said on Episode 339 of the InGoal Radio Podcast. “And I told him, kind of jokingly, but seriously, ‘that save made me a goalie.’”
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