Habster:

I know I’m in the minority among Canadiens fans when I state that Bob Gainey made the right choice in trading Cristobal Huet and handing the #1 goaltending duties over to Carey Price, even if he is only 20 years old.
As I’ve said in previous articles (I don’t want to sound like a broken record….sorry!!!), Carey Price isn’t your average 20 year old goalie. He has accomplished so much in his young hockey career and I believe he can handle the added pressure of being the starting goalie for the Montreal Canadiens. He has a very, almost eerie calmness about him and doesn’t seem to get too high or too low with his emotions. This calmness will come in handy when the pressure starts to add up throughout the remainder of this season and into the playoffs.

There was a moment in a game against the Flyers where Price took exception to an unknown Flyers player being in his crease. In an uncharacteristic way, Price sholved the player out of his way which showed that underneath his calm demeanor, there is a fiercely competitive player.

Another example of his competitive nature was front and center when Price verbally laced into his teammates during the team’s Calder Cup run last spring.It was between periods of Game 2 of the final with Hershey, and the Bears were leading by a goal and were physically beating up the Bulldogs.

“The kid hadn’t said three words during the playoffs,” recalled Baines to the Hamilton Spectator.”Suddenly, Pricey stands up and says ‘some guys got to bleepin’ step it up’. Everybody looked up, then at each other.”It was one of those where-did-that-come-from moments, but no one took it lightly, stresses Baines. “He’s one of the most competitive people I’ve ever seen,” said Baines.

The kid is too talented and competitive to not succeed and will not let his teammates down when the pressure starts to mount as each game gets more and more important down the stretch run towards the playoffs. I hope I’m right otherwise I’ll be eating a lot of crow from many Canadiens fans.