After being the subject of trade rumors for a big portion of the offseason, Anaheim defenseman Cam Fowler used the motivation of those talks into honing his game even further and as a result, is easily off to the best start to a season of his career, writes Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register. His 22 points leads all Ducks blueliners while sitting seventh among all NHL defendes.
During the summer, Fowler worked with former Washington winger Pat Peake who is now a skills coach. Among the areas that they worked on was his shot and there have been immediate dividends as not only is his nine goals just one shy of his career high from his rookie season, it also ranks second overall among NHL defensemen only behind San Jose’s Brent Burns. Fowler also gives a lot of credit for his success this year to head coach Randy Carlyle, who coached Fowler during his first stint behind the bench:
“It’s his approach to me. The way he handles me as a player. He knows that if I make a mistake, there’s nobody that understands it better than me. He knows maybe if it’s needed to kind of light a fire underneath me. Or he knows that I made a mistake (but) this game’s all about mistakes so I trust him. I’m going to use him in all situations.”
Although Fowler’s play has quieted the trade speculation for now, it’s almost certain to come back up in the offseason where he will be entering the final year of his contract before being eligible for unrestricted free agency. As things stand, he’s playing himself into quite the handsome raise come the summer of 2018.
Other notes from the Pacific:
- While a mid-December game between the Oilers and Coyotes wouldn’t be the most noteworthy on the surface, Edmonton’s 3-2 victory last night was their first regulation win against Phoenix/Arizona in 26 tries. As Sarah McLellan of the Arizona Republic notes, not only did this streak last nearly six calendar years, it was the sixth longest streak like that in NHL history and the longest in over 30 years (the Flyers had a 33 game streak against the Kings from 1974-1983). Also from that game, Oilers right winger Zack Kassian will not face any disciplinary action from the league after being issued a match penalty in the final minute of the third period, a league spokesman confirmed to NBC Sports’ Mike Halford.
- Kings left winger Marian Gaborik has long had the reputation of being a pure goal scorer after three seasons of more than 40 goals. The last of those came back in 2011-12 and at the age of 34, it doesn’t seem likely that he’ll reach that mark again. As a result, head coach Darryl Sutter is looking for Gaborik to bring a more defined role to the table than just being a natural goal scorer, he told Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider. The Slovak winger has just one goal through 10 games this year after returning to the lineup from a broken foot sustained in the World Cup and was a healthy scratch last weekend for the first since joining Los Angeles back in 2014.