ST. LOUIS — It’s amazing what a change of scenery did for Cam Fowler.
After spending the first 14-plus seasons of his career with the only team he ever knew — the Anaheim Ducks — that drafted him with the No. 12 pick of the 2010 NHL Draft, there comes a time in a player’s career, even after spending it with one organization, that a player needs a fresh start to revitalize one’s career.
For the St. Louis Blues defenseman, being traded by the Ducks to the Blues on Dec. 14 wound up being a blessing of disguise for the 33-year-old.
Not only did Fowler revitalize his own career, he helped shape the Blues’ defense and helped fuel a run to Game 7 of the Western Conference First Round against the Winnipeg Jets.
Fowler, who had 36 points (nine goals, 27 assists) and was a plus-19 in 51 games with St. Louis after having just four assists in 17 games with the Ducks, talked about his move to the Blues, what it meant for his career and what he’s excited about with this team moving forward; he led the Blues with 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in the series against the Jets:
On not knowing what to expect when you decided to come to St. Louis. Looking back on it, was it the best thing for you and are you excited for what lies ahead?
Yeah absolutely. I’ve said this a lot, but I’m so grateful and thankful to this organization from top to bottom for giving me this opportunity and making me and my family feel so comfortable here. As scary as that decision was at the time, I’m really happy with how everything’s turned out and me and my family have been so happy here and with this team. I’m really excited for the future and I definitely feel like I’m a part of this group now and the way that everyone has welcomed me into the locker room has made that transition easy for me so I’m thankful for that and to all these guys. I’m really excited about our group and what lies ahead in the future.
Would you like to talk about signing here beyond the one year you have remaining on your contract?
Yeah, absolutely. Those decisions and those conversations will have to be something that we go through over the summer with Doug [Armstrong] and the whole group here. I would love to be around as long as they’d like me here. I just honest can’t say enough about this team and this city and what it means to be a Blue and what that means for the players and for the fans in the community. It’s just something that I’ve really enjoyed. If those conversations come up, I’d be happy to talk about that and we’ll see what the summer brings with all of that.
Why were you able to have so much success when you came to St. Louis?
I think a major part of that was the system that we have in place here with ‘Monty’ and kind specifically for me how he wants the D-men to approach the game. I just found myself very comfortable in the system and we have amazing players here obviously too that helps make my job a little bit easier. I think it was the opportunity and the way that ‘Monty’ wants us to utilize our skating ability and jump up in the play offensively and then I had a good opportunity on the power play too with ‘Tommer’ and ‘Buchy’, ‘Boldy.’ We got that clicking pretty good. I think it was just a combination of it all, but the main thing for me was playing in a system that the coaching staff has set in place for us. It was something I was comfortable with and I was able to try and work my game around that as best as I could.
You’d love to forget about what happened in Game 7, but is it OK to carry that forward with you as players to remind of how you don’t want to feel again and use it as motivation?
It’s a little bit of both in my opinion. You have to learn from it, understand what happened and the way it happened is something that’s going to sit with us for a little while. I don’t think it’s something that you can dwell on. It’s nothing that should be used as a negative for next season. I think if anything, it shows us as a group how close we feel like we are and we were in a great position in a great opportunity. Unfortunately, it slipped through our fingers, but I think sometimes you have to go through those moments as a group to learn from them and try and reach the point that you’re all trying to get to. I know individually, a lot of us will be thinking about it for weeks to come and using it as motivation, but when we all come back for training camp next year, I think it’ll be motivation for us of course, but it’s not something that we’ll be dwelling on and we’ll be excited for the start of next season, where this group can grow and a point that we can get to as a team.
Read the full article here
