The Montreal Canadiens have continued to give up a lot of goals lately, and fans are starting to point the finger at Carey Price.
Yesterday’s game was fun, wasn’t it? The Montreal Canadiens allowed two goals in the first period but then tied it up in the first half of the second. Then the Hurricanes went up by two again making it the 13th time this season where the Habs gave up two goals in less than a minute, but they came back to tie it. The rest of the game went the same way except Montreal couldn’t tie it at six and eventually lost.
As many have pointed out already on Twitter, it was pretty much the Mr. Hyde of the Habs’ Dr. Jekyll. At the beginning of the season they couldn’t even buy a goal, and as a result, they would lose. Now, they’re getting the goal-scoring but still lose. If anyone came up to you in the summer and say, “The Habs will score five goals one night, and Carey Price is in the net,” you’d put that in the bank for a win right? And this is the heart of our debate today.
Mind you; I’m not blaming Price for the loss which unfortunately a lot of fans are doing. I get it, six goals against on 29 shots (.793 save percentage) looks horrible. However, if you hold the loss on Price’s head, then I don’t think you watched the game.
The fact that Carolina only scored twice in the first period is a miracle considering they had seven high-danger scoring chances to the Habs’ one. The other four were caused by poor play at the hands of Jakub Jerabek and Jordie Benn, a Victor Mete turnover, and a deflection which is tough for any goaltender to stop.
Price’s numbers don’t look good, not going to deny that. Sportsnet Stats tweeted out his home performances in the last five games, and well, you can be the judge.
#Habs Carey Price has struggled in his last 5 home games, including an .861 Save Percentage pic.twitter.com/FsVj2OtNrD
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) January 26, 2018
However, there’s only so much he can do. I think one of Price’s blessings as well as curses is is how ‘brick wall-ish’ he can be. There have been games where the Habs have allowed an equal or greater amount of scoring chances in front of the net, but Price found a way to stop most of them all.
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We’ve gotten to the point of taking what he can do for granted and expecting it every night. You’re probably thinking, “Well if he’s going to be the highest paid goaltender in the league next season, he better find a way to make those stops,” and you’re not wrong. Having a title like that is going to come with expectations. If you’re being paid like the best, you better be the best.
Claude Julien had a great point in the post-game conference last night:
"When one guy doesn’t do his job, it really makes the other guys job a lot tougher… I would expect our players to be ready to play a game and be focused. Some of em were, but a lot of em weren’t… Pros have to be pros. We don’t babysit, we prepare guys."
It’s a chain; if you’re not ready to play defensively, you’re not going to win. The focus is already on to next year, and if the players who are planning to be there then don’t improve overall, there’s no hope of having the bounce-back season that the fans want.
Do you hang that loss on Price? How have you liked his play as of late? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Acknowledgements: Game stats from naturalstattrick.com