There are mornings where Pascal Vincent must dress in cold water so the Rocket de Laval plunged him into an impossible decisions kettle.
His problem is not called “injuries”, no “lack of talent”, nor even “defensive efforts”. No. His problem has a 20 -year -old prodigy name: Jacob Fowler.
For two games, the Kid has been keeping the goals as if he had been playing for an 8 -digit contract. He never panic. He freezes the washers like a veteran.
He did not steal two games, he crushed Cleveland. The kind of performance that makes your locker room silent. The kind of performance that supporters love.
Worse that’s where it becomes complicated for Vincent. Because Saturday, Cayden Primeau came back from Montreal. Worse with him, a CV of loyalty and respect.
Primeau, it’s not just anyone. He is an organizational guy. It was he who brought you there. It was he who ate hard blows in the long season.
But the series are not to respect the past. It is to live the present. And the present shouts Fowler with head killing on all social platforms.
On Twitter, on RDS.ca, on Facebook forums: everyone asks one thing, one thing – keep the kid in the net.
“We do not change a winning formula” that they say, but in Quebecois, it’s clearer: not changing a goalkeeper who has just stuck two without flinching.
If you want to please supporters who fill the place Bell, you give the match #3 to Jacob Fowler. It was he came to see.
If it flakes, you bring Primeau. It’s as simple as that. But if you do the opposite, you risk losing your momentum and your audience.
Because at the moment, Jacob Fowler is more than a goalkeeper: he is a symbol. The symbol that the Rocket is ready to bet on the future.
The symbol that CH will no longer bury its young people behind the veterans just in principle. The symbol that merit passes in front of the pedigree.
But Vincent is a coach. Not influencer. Not ticket seller. He must manage ego, statutes, internal expectations that we do not know.
He knows that Primeau has worked hard. He knows that Primeau expects to resume his place. And he knows that the locker room respects it as a real one.
But respect does not earn series. What earns series is the Hot Hand. It’s the momentum. It is the guardian who freezes slices in Cleveland.
Worse, it’s Jacob Fowler. No need to do a survey: the public has already elected it. CH has drafted it for these moments. The Rocket prepared it for that.
So Pascal Vincent is there, in the center of the blaze. He has the choice between listening to the crowd, or flattering the hierarchy. Between preparing the future, or respecting the past.
There are decisions that hurt pride. This one can hurt a season. And the worst in all of this? Is that he cannot win both sides.
And if Pascal Vincent ever decides to go with Primeau, he will have to live with the noise. Because it will not be a neutral choice.
It will be a message. A message to its locker room, to its general manager, to his world. A message that loyalty still takes precedence over performance.
But if he chooses Fowler, he also agrees to brew the hierarchy, to face emotions, worse to bet on what the supporters really want.
And between us, in an amphitheater that is full to crack, with a white crowd that vibrates with each stop of the kid … it may be the time to choose the noise.
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