Montreal Canadiens: Is Heavy Workload Catching Up To Carey Price?

The Montreal Canadiens scored nine goals on the weekend but lost both games in regulation. Is Carey Price’s heavy workload catching up to him already?

The Montreal Canadiens were the same type of team for most of this decade. They had a great goal scorer in Max Pacioretty and a defence man or two in Andrei Markov and either P.K. Subban or Shea Weber who could provide offence from the blue line. Aside from that, they were a team that didn’t have enough goal scoring.

Luckily for them, they had the best goaltender of the decade as well. Though they were rarely a top scoring team, they had a terrific goaltender that kept them in games, or flat out stole games for them on a regular basis.

Carey Price officially took over as the number one goaltender for the Habs when Jaroslav Halak was traded following the 2009-10 season. In 2010-11, the Habs made the postseason though they ranked 22nd in the league in goals scored. In 2013-14 the Habs were 21st in the league in scoring, but marched all the way to the Eastern Conference final before Price was injured.

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The following year, the Habs were carried by Price to a 110 point season though they scored the 20th most goals in the NHL. He was so good he won the Vezina Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award and Hart Trophy for his phenomenal play.

Price was injured in 2015-16 and the team plummeted in the standings after starting well with him in goal. With Price back in 2016-17, the Habs won their division once again, scoring the 15th most goals in the league. Price struggled in 2017-18 and the team was ranked 29th in goal scoring and 28th in league standings.

This year, the Habs are finally a top ten team in goals per game. However, they have not been able to keep the puck out of their net. They currently rank 25th out of 31 teams in goals against per game. In the past, when they were allowing too many goals it was usually because Price was injured and not playing at all.

This season, the opposite may be true. Not only is Price not injured, he leads the league in games started and minutes played. Yet, the Canadiens biggest problem is allowing too many goals.

Take this past weekend for example. The Habs had a solid road trip out west before Christmas winning three of four games. They came back from their short break with games on consecutive days against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers. Montreal would score nine goals in those two games, but lost both in regulation, securing exactly zero points against two division rivals who they are battling for a playoff spot.

Price was in net for both games, allowing nine goals on 64 shots. This brings his season totals to a record of 16-13-3 with a 3.03 goals against average and a .901 save percentage. Price ranks 39th in the league in goals against average and 37th in save percentage. These rankings are of course while he ranks first in starts and minutes. So, Price is the busiest goaltender in league and he’s been far from the best.

If you look around the league, it is easy to tell goaltenders are their sharpest when they aren’t overplayed. Just go to NHL.com and sort the save percentage statistic. You will see Tristan Jarry right at the top. He has played 17 games. The rest of the top five include Anton Khudobin who has played 17 games, Darcy Kuemper who has 25 starts, Jaroslav Halak who has played 16 games and Pavel Francouz who has 17 starts.

Many of the most successful teams have turned to good tandems of goaltenders, instead of relying on one guy to play 65-70 games. The Bruins are the top team in the Eastern Conference and have Halak and Tuukka Rask basically splitting starts 50-50. The St. Louis Blues haven’t been shy to give Jake Allen every third start, and both he and Jordan Binnington have fantastic numbers.

The Colorado Avalanche are doing using the Boston motto and giving Francouz and Phillip Grubauer equal action, resulting in great stats from both netminders. The Dallas Stars are in a playoff spot with both Khudobin and Ben Bishop getting significant minutes.

Meanwhile, many of the goaltenders that have played the most minutes, have mediocre to bad statistics. Price is chief among them, but Frederik Andersen and David Rittich are almost as busy and have GAA’s near 2.75 and SV% of .914. Those stats aren’t terrible, but they are about average for and NHL goaltender.

Sergei Bobrovsky has been very busy after signing a huge contract with the Panthers last summer, but he started terribly. He was playing almost every game and allowing far too many goals. Only after the Panthers brought up Chris Driedger and trusted him to give Bobrovsky a regular break did Bobrovsky finally have a decent stretch of games.

There is no question the league is leaning toward more tandems in goal and getting away from the 70 game goaltender. Having played 32 of the Habs 39 games, Price is on pace for 67 starts which would be his most since 2010-11 when he was 24 years old. He’s 32 now and needs a reliable backup more than ever.

Price is making $10.5 million for six more years after this season. It may sound odd, but less is more with goaltenders and if they want to get their money’s worth out of Price, they have to find someone who is capable of starting 30 games to be his backup.

For the second time already this season, the Habs were forced to use Price on consecutive days. It resulted in 11 goals against and two regulation losses to teams they now need to leapfrog to get into the playoffs.