Will Price Carry The Torch For The Habs In 2016?

You know Carey Price, right? Well, you should if you’re here reading this since he was picked 5th overall by the Habs and has a 6 year contract worth $39M. He also had one of the best seasons with Montreal during 2014-15, breaking the record of all-time single season wins with 43.

There is just one problem with Price which many fans have come to dislike over the past season. The problem? He constantly carries his team.

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Yes, one of the main keys (or in some opinions, the main key) to winning a game or a Stanley Cup is to have a great goalie. Essentially, you want someone in net who can make saves and play phenomenal almost every night and that’s exactly what Price does.

With that said, you also need a team who’s solid. You need the forwards who can generate good offense and put points on the board for the team and you need defensemen who will take most of the work off of the goalie’s shoulders and keep the pucks out of the net. This is a struggle the Habs dealt with throughout the regular season.

Last February, when looking at the average ranking for the Habs against the rest of the NHL in the offensive department via Eyes On The Prize, the club sat at 18th. For a team with such rich history, this result was anything but uplifting. Even the defense sat at number 19 out of 30, and that’s with a solid goaltender in net.

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Most would look at this and say, “Gah! That’s brutal. Those guys aren’t going to get anywhere near the cup.” I, however, disagree. The Habs are close to the cup, so close that they could grab it the next few years but it’s not all thanks to Carey Price.

NHL.com said in a recent article that Price “has been the most dominant player in the NHL this season, with several of his colleagues and opposing coaches openly saying as much because the evidence is too obvious to ignore.” They also mentioned that the “unique advantage of having the best player in the world on the ice for them 60 minutes a game” is the reason the Habs will break their soon to be 23-year-old curse. This is bad.

He may have a 44-16-6 record, a .933 save percentage, and 1.96 goals-against average from last season, but Price isn’t and shouldn’t be the only key to grabbing a 25th cup. The Habs have the great defensive pairing of P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov, they have one of the five best goal scorers in the NHL in Max Pacioretty, and one of the best young guns in the league in Alex Galchenyuk. We also can’t forget locking in Jeff Petry, picking up Alexander Semin and Zack Kassian, and the impressive prospects we’ve seen in the pre-season like Noah Juulsen and Michael McCarron. There’s a lot of great potential for this team and a good chance for them to make it to the Stanley Cup finals all together. There’s just one thing that needs to be changed: Therrien’s system.

5 weeks ago, the Habs hired retired Canadian ice hockey left-winger and long-time NHL coach, Craig Ramsay as a coaching consultant. While Ramsay can’t personally make coaching decisions himself, he can very well influence the choices Therrien makes behind the bench. This let’s us know that despite Marc Bergevin rehiring the coaching staff for another 3 years, there’s lack of faith in the system and it could potentially demolish it. There’s also the fact that Ramsay has a Stanley Cup ring in his resume with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Coincidence? Hardly.

As I mentioned before in my article on good ‘ol Ramsay, he may inspire better tactics to deploy and give us the possibility to see that two-man fore-check with controlled zone entries and quick transition in the neutral zone once again. This not only does this fix the possession flop and put more points on the board, but it’s less stress on Jesus Price between the pipes and the self blame of last year’s playoffs can end. C’mon, Carey. Stop making it your fault. You’re only one man for crying out loud. You played the best you could.

So, will Carey Price be leading the Habs throughout this coming season to the playoffs himself? Personally, I wouldn’t put all my money on it. A lot of change is happening for the team and what goes up must come down. Even if the Habs get onto a lucky streak with plethora of goals and get to hold up Lord Stanley, it won’t all be on Price. Although, it’s safe to say he will be a huge part of a long-awaited win.

What are your thoughts on Carey Price is upcoming season? Do you think he’ll match his records again? Will he be the one to pull the Habs through the season? Let us know in the comments below!

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