Toronto Sun (Mike Zeisberger):
Sun, April 20, 2008
BOSTON — Guy Carbonneau would not identify Carey Price by name.
Asked about the performance of his rookie goalie after his team’s gut-wrenching 5-4 loss last night, the Montreal Canadiens coach merely replied: “This player has to be our best player.”
Carbonneau would not publicly say it but he must see what everyone else has: Price has not been that in the past two games.
Price’s giveaway in Game 5 led to a Glen Metropolit goal that snapped a 1-1 tie and ignited the Boston Bruins to a 5-1 win. More importantly, it gave the Bruins some much-needed confidence.
Last night the Bruins scored four third-period goals for the second consecutive game en route to evening the series at 3-3. They now have beaten Price 10 times in the past two contests, fuelling Boston with hope that the rookie goalie finally is showing some cracks in his game.
“It’s frustrating,” Price said. “At the same time you can’t get (down). They worked hard. The last three goals, they buried their chances.”
Marco Sturm, who scored the winner last night, admitted the Game 5 comeback showed the Bruins that Price is not invincible. Far from it.
“We just keep throwing pucks at their net and it’s paying off,” he said.
The loss spoiled the return to the Habs lineup of captain Saku Koivu, who registered a pair of assists and did not appear to miss a step.
Koivu suffered a bone fracture of the left foot during a game March 28 in Buffalo and missed the past three weeks. He had his boot cast removed last week and skated for four consecutive days before declaring himself fit to go yesterday morning.
“We can’t worry about how well they played,” Koivu said afterward. “We just have to worry about ourselves.”
He was talking about Kovalev.
I’m sorry to disagree with you but Carbonneau was talking about Carey Price:
Toronto Star: Asked about the performance of his rookie goalie after his team’s gut-wrenching 5-4 loss last night, the Montreal Canadiens coach merely replied: “This player has to be our best player.”
I think Kovalev has to be a lot better if the Canadiens are to advance past the Bruins. With that being said, Carbo understands that his goaltender has to be the best player or close to the best player in order for the Habs to go far into the playoffs……goaltending wins championships!!!
I sure hope that Carbonneau was talking about Kovalev. It’s hard to imagine Carey Price playing much better in this series. Goaltending hasn’t been the Canadiens problem.
Zeisberger from the Toronto Sun interpreted that the comments were referring to Price. TSN had a completely different take, suggesting that Carbo was referring to Kovalev and Hamrlik who both played poorly in game #6.
Tonight, Elliotte Friedman said that he believed the comments were aimed at Kovalev. EF added that Carbo met with Kovalev and showed him tape of the 2 goals he scored against Boston while beating Chara on March 20th.
Comments are closed.