Carey Price is a class-act for the Montreal Canadiens and the entire NHL

The 2019 NHL Awards had several emotional moments, but none had more of an impact then what Montreal Canadiens star Carey Price did for Anderson Whitehead.

The NHL is an entertainment business that has people come together on different teams and play hockey. There is emotion behind those games and practices as you think to all the work you had to do to get to that level leading up to an opportunity to compete for the game’s biggest prize. But there is something else the NHL has allowed its players to do: connect. And thanks to Carey Price at the 2019 NHL Awards Montreal Canadiens fans and fans around the league were reminded of one of the NHL’s most special things to do.

It’s fantastic to be a good player. You’re the face of a franchise, you get the big contract with all the performance bonuses, you get all the endorsements, you get all the hype. However, over the years, more and more NHL players have taken time to do some good with the spotlight they have. Some have done it big ways starting foundations or making donations to hospitals, while others have gone about it by just being a good person.

Which brings us back to Price and what happened at the NHL Awards.

We were reunited with Anderson Whitehead, a little boy from Bradford Ontario who unfortunately lost his mother, Laura Mckay to cancer. Laura always wanted her son to meet Price, and after her passing, the family made an effort to make that dream come true, and it did.

Price was made known of the situation and after morning skate before a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, he met Anderson. It wasn’t a ‘fan meets star’ moment but a true person-person interaction. Price game an emotional Anderson a hug letting him know that everything would be fine.

Fast forward to last night and Anderson found himself on stage in front of the thousands of people in Vegas. It was announced that his interaction with Price won the award for the Best Feel Good moment of the year voted by the fans while $100,000 would be donated to Hockey Fights Cancer.

But that wasn’t all as Price had one more trick up his sleeve. Price sent a message to Anderson on the screen saying:

"Hey Anderson. Hope you’re enjoying Vegas. I just wanted to say that your mother was a special person and sharing that moment with you is something that I’ll remember for the rest of my life it was very special to me."

Before finishing, Price came out on stage with a jersey in hand and the two shared another emotional moment before inviting him to come to the 2020 NHL All-Star Game.

This is hockey. This is why we love the game so much. It’s these moments where the barrier between fan and player is destroyed and it boils down to people caring for other people.

https://twitter.com/TSNBobMcKenzie/status/1141522606115262465

Carey Price is an example of what it means to be a great player and an incredible person. He’s a role model for the game, for the NHL, and the world needs more acts such as these as it helps us make those special connections and have those special moments between individuals.

At the end of the day, it’s moments that help define us for the bad and for the good. I’m sure Anderson will carry that moment with him for the rest of his life and we should all try do the same for someone else.