CHICAGO >> It has come to the point that Cam Fowler is being asked about the Ducks’ young defensemen.
“Hampus and Sami, they seem to have everything together a lot better than I did,” Fowler said.
Hampus Lindholm is 21, Sami Vatanen is 23.
What slips past us is that Fowler is 23, too.
He has been up here since he was 18, right after he was drafted 12th in the 2010 first round when he was supposed to be drafted fourth, right as he was groping to find traction with a procession of defense partners when he was supposed to be Scott Niedermayer, Jr.
He might as well have been wearing a miner’s lamp. Everybody wanted to see gold. No one could help noticing the sludge.
Fowler and the Ducks both survived. He has become less visible, a good thing for firemen, referees and defensemen. He also is more useful.
Late in Thursday’s 2-1 win over Chicago, Fowler was the one making short, unhurried passes to escape the Blackhawks’ best players as they descended upon the Ducks. He has done that throughout the playoffs and is becoming the defenseman of his dreams, if not yours.
“I’ve tried to be the best two-way defenseman I can be,” Fowler said. “I went through some pretty rough times. But most teams understand that when you take a player right out of junior hockey, it’s a process, and it will take time.
“I never lost confidence in myself. It’s finally paying off.”
The Ducks lead this Western Conference Final 2-1 going into tonight’s Game 4, which the Blackhawks are terming a “must.” In nearly 12 periods of play Chicago has scored five goals.
“This is never a situation you want to be in,” said Brandon Saad, a 23-goal scorer in the regular season who hasn’t scored in this series yet. “Especially with the caliber Anaheim has on its team. They’re deep, they’re deadly.”
Coach Joel Quenneville was talking about chipping the puck into the zone rather than carrying it, because the Ducks’ defense has been so clingy.
“When you have to make plays in the middle of the ice, and you have to make four of five passes, the puck winds up back in your own end,” Quenneville sad. “We’re going to have to try to get it behind them.”
Meanwhile the Ducks were loose and serene. Ryan Getzlaf suggested someone find a telephone book to support Andrew Cogliano, as the economy-sized center faced reporters. When someone asked Getzlaf about Corey Perry’s personality, the captain incredulously replied, “Personality?”
Naturally these attitudes ‑ grim Blackhawks, gratified Ducks ‑ will do a 180 if Chicago wins tonight. But the Ducks’ belief is being reinforced with each game.
“I’ve learned that when I’m calmest and more poised, I’m at my best,” Fowler said. “At times I’ve had a tendency to be a little jumpy in those situations. I’m starting to understand positioning, with the skates and the stick.”
Since the Penguins traded Simon Despres to the Ducks in March, he has been Fowler’s partner. Ben Lovejoy, who went to Pittsburgh for Despres, was Fowler’s partner, too.
Over the years, Fowler has played beside Francois Beauchemin, Andreas Lilja, Bryan Allen, Paul Mara, Sheldon Brookbank, Toni Lydman and Luca Sbisa, among others.
The Ducks were just trying to patch together a defense when Fowler got here. He was minus-25 and minus-28 his first two years.
“A lot of people like to point that out, but that’s a stat that can be misleading at times,” Fowler said.
But there were times those unsightly numbers hung on his back like the “4” he wears. Bruce Boudreau urged him to forget the mistakes and party like it was 2009, when Fowler was Taylor Hall’s teammate on the Windsor Spitfires.
Last season and this season, on much better teams, Fowler was plus-15 and plus-four. He is plus-nine in the playoffs, tied for the club lead with Getzlaf and Perry, and he is averaging 22:31 of ice time per game.
Somewhere beneath, a slick-skating 19-year-old defenseman named Shea Theodore is taking it in. He was the Ducks’ first-round pick in 2013.
This season he was plus-17 for the Seattle Thunderbirds and was an All-Star in the Western Hockey League, and put up 48 points in 43 games.
Theodore’s call is coming, and Cam Fowler will leave him a more beautiful world than the one Fowler found himself.
And Theodore will probably get to Anaheim before Fowler gets to his prime. Which is the nice thing about starting at 18. Handle it, and you’re forever young.
