Montreal Canadiens: Three Stars vs Ottawa Senators

Carey Price

Carey Price hasn’t entered many regular season games in the past decade facing as much scrutiny as he is right now. His stats this season have been far worse than we are accustomed to seeing from the veteran netminder and it has a lot of fans worried about the salary and length of his monstrous contract.

Bringing in a reliable backup like Jake Allen was supposed to allow Price to be more rested and at the top of his game on a more regular basis. It seems to have had the opposite effect, as Price has been resting more often, but has not been at the top of his game at all this season.

However, last night was much closer to his best effort than we have seen recently.

Price didn’t need to be vintage, Hart Trophy winning, game stealing Carey Price. He just needed to be steady when called upon and he was up to the task. He looked like he was moving more calmly and confidently across his crease and made several saves where he had to travel a great distance, but was in just the right spot to make the save.

Stopping pucks shot by NHL players is never easy. So, when a goaltender makes it look easy, you know they are playing their angles perfectly and are challenging the shooters appropriately. That’s what Price did last night. Most of his saves looked routine, but many weren’t as routine as they appeared, he was just in the right spot.

The Senators had 27 shots on goal and beat Price once. He was solid early in the game as the Canadiens needed to kill off a double minor penalty in the first period, and he made the few saves he needed to in the third period to get the victory.