Montreal Canadiens: Should Jake Allen Start One of Next Two Games?
Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price is the biggest reason that the Habs are still playing hockey right now. Though many others have played well, without the heroics of Price late in the first round, the Canadiens would have been eliminated by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
While Price was exceptional in a Game 1 win over the Maple Leafs, he stopped 80 of 89 shots in the next three games as the team fell behind 3-1 in the series. THat’s just a .899 save percentage and it put the team on the brink of elimination.
Then, Price stepped up to steal the series from Toronto.
He would stop 103 of the 109 shots fired at him in Game 5, 6 and 7 combined and close out the series with a .945 save percentage in those three games. Price allowed three goals on 30 shots in Game 1 against the Winnipeg Jets in round two, before slamming the door shut on them in Game 2, posting his 8th career shutout by turning aside all 30 shots he faced.
He has been dialled in to say the least.
Though he is carrying the team on his shoulders, the Canadiens run the risk of leaning on him a little too heavily once again.
For years, the Habs would get off to a hot start and sputter down the stretch because Price was struggling to carry a heavy workload. He is 33 years old and simply can’t play 70 games at a high level like he did a decade ago.
The Habs playoff schedule has been fairly busy. The North Division playoffs started later than the rest and Game 3 and 4 of the first round were played on back to back nights in Montreal. That means the seven games were played with just five days off. The Canadiens only had one off day after their series with Toronto and had to use it to travel to Winnipeg.
The schedule for the Winnipeg series is set up the exact same with Game 3 and 4 being played tonight and tomorrow night in Montreal. It will result in the Canadiens playing 11 games in just 19 days. If the series with the Jets goes the distance, the Canadiens will play 14 games in 25 days.
Should Carey Price play them all? Or does it make sense to use Jake Allen for a game?
If he is going to play any games this postseason, Allen would be suiting up tonight or tomorrow night. Throughout the regular season, when the Habs played on consecutive nights, Price would start one of them and Allen would get the other.
The first time all season that Price played on back to back nights was Game 4 against the Maple Leafs and he allowed three goals on 27 shots for a .889 save percentage and the team lost.
With the team not using him on consecutive nights all regular season, and the playoff workload starting to become heavy, it could make sense to give Allen a start in Game 4.
There are however, a couple of problems with giving Allen a start. First of all, Price is playing exceptional hockey so the Habs best chance of winning is with their star goaltender in net. It is the playoffs and you obviously just try to win every game by putting the best lineup together.
Also, though Allen was really good for the Canadiens this year, he was not good at all against the Winnipeg Jets.
Allen started five games against Winnipeg, winning just one and putting up a goals against average of 3.36 and a save percentage of .860. That is just five of his games, and Mark Scheifele wouldn’t be playing so it’s a different looking team, but those numbers don’t inspire enough confidence to take Price out of the crease for a game.
The Canadiens best chance at a long playoff run is with a rested Carey Price. Their best chance at getting a rest is to finish a series early and their best chance of finishing this series early is by putting Price in net every night.
Don’t overthink it. Don’t take a series lead for granted. Just start the superstar goaltender who is standing on his head every game.