A Winning Habit
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Montreal Canadiens: Three Reasons To Be Optimistic About The Habs Playoff Chances

By Ken MacMillan

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 06: Nate Thompson #44 and Carey Price #31 of the Montreal Canadiens celebrate after defeating the New York Rangers 2-1 at Madison Square Garden on December 6, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 06: Nate Thompson #44 and Carey Price #31 of the Montreal Canadiens celebrate after defeating the New York Rangers 2-1 at Madison Square Garden on December 6, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 06: Carey Price #31 of the Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 06: Carey Price #31 of the Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Carey Price

The Canadiens hitched their wagon to Carey Price when they signed him to an eight year contract worth $84 million. Well, they technically hitched their wagon to him in 2010 when they traded Jaroslav Halak and made Alex Auld the backup goaltender. With all due respect to Alex Auld, who did a great job for the Habs, but we all knew he wasn’t coming in to play 40 games.

Price started off with a solid month of October. Not fantastic which is something we have come to expect from him. Not awful either, just solid goaltending and it was enough for the team to put together a 6-3-1 record in his starts.

In those ten games, Price had a 2.59 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage. (Ever wonder why the call it a percentage when it’s actually a decimal. No? Just me. Okay.) Again, those aren’t fantastic numbers, just above league average really, but it was enough for the team to secure 13 out of 20 possible points. Getting 13 points every ten games would have a team well on their way to 100 points and a definite playoff berth.

Then, the wheels completely fell off in November. Price had 11 starts, the team went 4-5-2 in those games and his GAA ballooned to 3.77 to go with his .882 SV%. Not great. Not even good. Not even average. Those stats are just atrocious.

Since the calendar flipped to December, Price has started just three games, but is clear he put the ugly month of November behind him. He lost to the Bruins 3-1, but won his last two starts against the New York teams, 4-2 and 2-1. He has a 2.01 GAA and a .931 SV% in those three games.

Why can we be so sure he can continue this play instead of reverting back to his November numbers? Well, he did the exact same thing last season.

In October of 2018 he had a 2.24 GAA and a .914 SV%. Not awful, but not Vezina Trophy worthy. He followed that up with a 3.81 GAA and .886 SV% in November. That’s basically identical to November 2019, and his October SV% was virtually the same each October.

Dating all the way back to his first full season as a starting goaltender in 2010-11, he always seems to have one bad month before the New Year. That year it was December where his GAA shot up near three and his SV% was well below .900.

It seems odd that he always had one lousy month of the first three. Why would that happen? Who knows. Maybe it takes time to get used to the defenders in front of him. Maybe it’s the skaters who are inconsistent in front of him. Maybe he gets a cold or flu like every other human this time of year and isn’t really himself.

It’s hard to pinpoint the reason as an outside observer, but it is easy to tell he can quickly put a bad stretch of games behind him and be dominant for longer periods of time. It looks like we have already seen the worst of Carey Price this season and he should be much better for the rest of the year.

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