Carey Price is now another year older, and with Game 3 falling on his 33rd birthday, he could give the Montreal Canadiens, even more, to celebrate over.
Players have mixed feelings about playing games on their birthday, but the Montreal Canadiens have an interesting pattern with them.
Some find it as further motivation to give themselves and the team something else to cheer for upon a victory like when the Edmonton Oilers were on the road taking on the Vegas Golden Knights on Connor McDavid‘s 21st birthday (they won 3-2 in overtime). Others may see it as a distraction and will ignore the fact that it’s their day until after the final buzzer.
And there are those whose birthdays are so deep into the summer that they’d never even have to entertain the thought, but the Montreal Canadiens have had a number of these and today is Carey Price‘s day.
The franchise goaltender turns 33, and it still feels like yesterday when he initially joined the organization. And watching him stop pucks in these playoffs, it looks like he hasn’t aged a bit from those 2014 years of utter dominance.
The Habs have also seemed to have some good luck with birthdays as of late.
August 5th was Dale Weise‘s 32nd birthday, and the Canadiens defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins to take a 2-1 lead in the series. Just recently, team captain Shea Weber celebrated his 35th birthday, and the Habs dismantled the Philadelphia Flyers 5-0 to even up the series.
The same can’t be said for all birthdays as Nick Suzuki, and Cayden Primeau celebrated their respective birthdays on the 10th and 11th. However, there weren’t any games to be played, so for now, the pattern stands.
And of course, the Montreal Canadiens seem to have good luck on the opposition’s birthday as well. It was Sidney Crosby‘s 33rd birthday that would see the elimination of the Pittsburgh Penguins from playoff contention.
The Flyers had birthdays in between games with Carter Hart turning 22 on the 13th while Jakub Voracek and Oskar Lindblom turned 31 and 24 on the 15th.
The question is, who will be the team to get the birthday luck this time around? All signs point to Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens.
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