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The Year of Carey Price: Canadiens Season a Team Success

By Mat Germain

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THE YEAR OF CAREY PRICE

Carey Price will finish the season with a record 43 or 44 wins. I expect 44 since he will in fact make the start against the Leafs. The success that the Montreal Canadiens achieved in the 2014-15 season is immensely due to his incredible performance and should be remembered as the year of Carey Price. To break such a record on the most storied NHL team is a feat that is immeasurable and inspiring to say the least.

May 12, 2014; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens goalie

Carey Price

(31) during the second period against Boston Bruins in the game six of the second round of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports

Make no mistake, this has been a historic season for the Montreal Canadiens. There have been tied records (42 Wins), broken records, and passing on of all time greats (Jean Beliveau, Elmer Lach, Dollard St-Laurent). As we reflect on those issues, our hopes are that this is finally the year the Habs land Stanley Cup number twenty-five.

While everybody is pondering just how the Habs will win without Max Pacioretty – something I strongly believe the Habs will figure out without my help – I though it would be important to take a look at how the season breaks down for Price compared to previous seasons, in comparison to another great Habs goalie. On the subject of Max I’ll only say this, I hope he makes it back asap, we’re better with him in the lineup, but so long as Carey Price is in net, the Habs will be a force to be reckoned with in the 2014-15 playoffs. He is the rock behind their success.

The team finished 1st in the Atlantic Division and set itself up for a great playoff matchup as a result. The highlights include a great Goals For (GF) vs Goals Against (GA) differential, winning more games than any season going back to 1992-93, and a great goal differential (30) which is better than any they’ve had since 1994 aside from the 2007-08 season when the Habs had a 40 goal differential (262 to 222).

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The first item I want to touch on is the end result in terms of success vs failure, namely goal differential. In 2014-15, the team reached new heights in terms of total points in the standings and achieved some great feats that should be highlighted.

GF vs GA: The Habs have given up fewer than 200 goals for the first time since 2002-03, when they let in 192. Success in achieving this new t

Much of their success on that front comes from a strong D and the incredible performances of Carey Price. In order to get a better handle on just how great his numbers are, I’ve matched them up against Patrick Roy‘s numbers at the same age while both were with the Habs through those years. It comes out as follows:

[table id=8 /]

Now, before anyone says you can’t compare goalies from different eras, I entirely agree with you. There’s no way to compare two different seasons, never mind two different goalies from different eras! However, you can measure just how impactful and successful a player or goalie was by evaluating each aspect of their statistics and measuring them against another. In this case, we see a few interesting things:

  • Price has the highest win total in a season with 43 vs Roy’s highest total of 36 (could be 44)
  • Roy has the highest number of wins overall with 201 vs 198 for Price
  • Price faced more shots (11,595) than Roy (10,192) and still wound up with a better save%, 91.9% vs 90.4%
  • Roy may have only a slight edge in wins, but he only lost 111 games compared to 141 losses for Price
  • Price played 1615 minutes more than Roy over the same year span
  • Roy had won 3 x Vezina trophies by this point, Price has yet to win one…until this year?
  • Price has 31 shutouts to Roy’s 19. As much as Roy has dominated in awards, Price has dominated in shutouts

Overall, what we can immediately see is that Carey Price may very well be reaching a new level of dominance in the NHL, one that puts him in the conversation as the league’s most valuable player. His stats in 2014-15 tower over those of recent years and there’s little doubt he’ll win his first Vezina trophy this year. It’s his season, and he’s earned every bit of it.

If you talk to Carey Price, he’ll tell you that he’s as good as he is because of the team he has in front of him. That may be true to some extent. The Habs had 3 players in the top 30 for Blocked Shots (Andrei Markov 10th with 169, Tom Gilbert 13th with 164, and P.K. Subban 29th with 137). Washington’s Braden Holtby also strengthens this argument with his great performance while having 3 defenders in the top 13 blocked shot experts (John Carlson 3rd with 197, Brooks Orpik 4th with 190, and Karl Alzner 13th with 164). This has resulted in the closest rival Price has for the Vezina with 41 Wins, a 2.21 GAA, a 92.3% save%, and 9 shutouts.

The other thing the D has done better than I can remember is exit the defensive zone more effectively. Turnovers are less frequent than in recent years, and It’s fair to say the D has stepped up for Price. However, it’s not only the D that deserves the credit, as many forwards have stepped up their back checking and their +/- jumps indicate just how much work they’ve put in.

You can’t help but admire the massive improvement we have seen in Max Pacioretty‘s game defensively and how complete a player he has become. The majority of the forwards have seen an uptick in their stats because they play a more cohesive game in the Canadiens zone. They support the D, although sometimes you do have to question mental errors – something that is always going to be part of the game.

Going back to Carey Price, we sit here today with one game remaining in the season and already know he has just had one of the most historic seasons a Canadiens goaltender has ever had. When you consider the past of this storied franchise, that’s one heck of a feat. Georges Vezina, Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy, George Hainsworth, Gump Worsley…. the list is long and glorious. And as of this season, we can officially speak of Carey Price in the same breadth. He’s earned a place amongst the all-time Habs great, and we all congratulate him and thank him  sincerely for the show he has put on. It truly makes each game worth watching.

Throughout the season, Carey Price has carried himself in the most professional manner, has shown true leadership, and has made fans a priority focus. After breaking the wins record agains the Wings, he was entirely focused on giving fans pucks and spent his time flinging them over the glass. His team mates, who apparently always try to get to him with pranks, actually felt comfortable enough to pie him after he spoke to adoring fans. This, my friends, is his season. It’s Carey Price’s season. And we’re thankful for it being his season, because it’s been one immense success overall!

As we reflect on 2014-15, I leave you with this MUST SEE video made by Connor Grandy. He did an amazing job building this and if it doesn’t give you shivers, you’re not alive or not watching the video!

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