Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat. — Napoleon Hill
By Stevo, AllHabs.net
MONTREAL, QC. — Before coming into this afternoon’s game against the New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens’ goaltender Carey Price was 1-5-0 in games following an Alex Auld start this season. Today, he was determined to demonstrate that this particular stat would prove meaningless in the outcome of the game.
Carey Price proved once again that the Montreal Canadiens were correct to have patience with him and select him over Jaroslav Halak as the future of goaltending for their club. He had his misfortunes last season, or temporary defeat, but he has seized his opportunity this season and is making plenty of it.
After a rock solid start to the season, the Montreal Canadiens and Carey Price himself fell into a late December slump, a slump that saw the Habs only win three games over a twelve game period.
Since then however, the Canadiens and Carey Price have been steady. Over the course of his last ten games, Carey Price’s record is 6-2-2, he has a goals against average (GAA) of 2.35 and a save percentage (Sv%) of 0.927.
Over this period, the Canadiens provided Carey Price with an average of 2.74 goals per game of offensive support, slightly above their season average of 2.57 which ranks them 24th in the league. They’ve however continued to prove that if Carey Price allows more then three goals, they simply are unable to win as all six wins were obtained with Price allowing two goals or less over this period. In the four losses, Price allowed, 5, 2, 4 and 5 goals respectively. The Canadiens however only scored more than three goals once, and it was in a 7-1 win over the Ottawa Senators.
Today for Price, the only number that really mattered was zero. He was on a mission and the New York Rangers were simply not going to beat him.
The first two periods were rather quiet with Price only facing ten and six shots respectively, you could tell he was very well in his game. His positioning was sound, his movements fluid, effortless even, constantly making saves at the edge of his crease, perfectly square to the puck, and giving little rebounds.
The game was 0-0 through most of these two periods however, so it was important that Carey Price remain concentrated and focused on the task at hand. Scott Gomez broke the ice with under two minutes to go in the second period, with what would go on to be the game winning goal, as he flipped an Alex Picard rebound over Martin Biron’s shoulder.
Price had to be all the more solid in the third period as the Rangers poured it on. New York tallied for more shots in the third period (19) than they had obtained in the first periods combined (16). Price remained the same goaltender he was in the first two periods, making saves look easy and routine. His anticipation of the play in front of him has become phenomenal. He constantly appears to be one step ahead of the game and at times looks simply unbeatable.
Come to think of it, he looked exactly like what he wanted out of the fans at the beginning of the season. He looked chill, relaxed, simply cool as ice.
The Canadiens would go on to win the game 2-0, with Tomas Plekanec scoring an empty net goal.
With this, Carey Price improved his season record to 26-16-5, now alone up top the NHL with 26 wins. No other goaltender has played more ice time than he has. He posts a goals against average (GAA) of 2.30 and a save percentage (Sv%) of 0.922 ranking him sixth and ninth in the league respectively, for goalies with 30+ games played. His five shutouts rank him second in the league, with only Tim Thomas (7) and Henrik Lundqvist (7) having more.
Note on special teams, the powerplay was 0-for-5 today, but the penalty killing unit played extremely well, especially in the second period. The Canadiens were awarded four consecutive minor penalties in this period, and the Rangers were held to just about zero scoring chances over this period.
The Canadiens play another afternoon game tomorrow as the Devils are in town for a matchup starting at 3pm. Jacques Martin confirmed today that Carey Price would be starting again tomorrow (obviously). The Devils are not to be taken lightly, they’ve gone 7-1-2 in their last 10 games, Jacques Lemaire definitely having an effect on their play. If Price plays tomorrow like he did today, it won’t really matter.
The NHL three stars as voted by the fans were:
- Carey Price
- Scott Gomez
- Martin Biron
Also available at All Habs Hockey Magazine, we now have a new international correspondant from Brazil who has joined the family. Read Rovena’s latest article here:
Finally, Kristina from All Habs asks you what you would do if you were in Pierre Gauthier’s shoes with the trade deadline approaching, share your comments!
(Graphic by: Hughes/AP, Video posted at nhl.com)
I agree on Price. He looks phenomenal.
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