Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price is the best goaltender of his era. He has all of the accolades to prove this with his Hart Trophy, Vezina, Ted Lindsay Award, William Jennings Award, Olympic gold medal, World Cup gold medal, World Junior gold medal and Calder Cup.
The only thing missing from his trophy case is a Stanley Cup ring. Price has carried the Canadiens on a couple of deeps runs, but is on the verge of getting his team to the final four for just the second time in his NHL career.
We all remembered what happened in 2014 when Price was at the top of his game but Chris Kreider committed with him in the crease and ended his season in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final.
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So, you could argue that the Habs current situation, being one game away from the semifinals, with a 3-0 series lead in round two, is Price’s best chance ever at winning that elusive Stanley Cup. First, they will have to close out the Winnipeg Jets, but they have four chances to win just one game, and a quick look back at Price’s performances when the Canadiens have a chance to advance is pretty remarkable.
Price’s first two chances to close out a series were not all that confidence building, but he seems to have learned from two early failures.
Way back in 2008 when Price was a rookie netminder for the Canadiens, they took a 3-1 series lead over the Boston Bruins. Price was great, perfect in fact, in securing that commanding series lead when he shutout the Bruins in Game 4. However, he allowed five goals in Game 5 and again in Game 6 to force his first every Game 7.
Price proved to be up to the task, recording his second ever playoff shutout in Game 7, turning aside all 25 shots the Bruins fired his way.
The Canadiens wouldn’t win a series in 2009 and Jaro Halak carried them on a run in 2010, but Price was back between the pipes in Game 7 of the opening round series against the Boston Bruins in 2011. The Bruins jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead before Price settled down but an overtime goal by Nathan Horton gave the Bruins a 4-3 win.
It would be another three years before the Canadiens played another game that would see them advance if they won. That was in 2014 in Game 4 against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Price stopped 20 of 23 shots as the Habs cruised past the Bolts. Two weeks later, the Habs were the underdog heading into Boston to play the Bruins in yet another Game 7. This time, Price was exceptional, stopping 29 of 30 shots and helping the Canadiens move on with a 3-1 victory.
The 2015 postseason saw the Habs face the Ottawa Senators and the Canadiens jumped out to a 3-0 series lead. With a chance to advance, Price stopped 31 of 32 shots in Game 4 but the Sens won the game 1-0. Price then allowed five goals in Game 5 to give Ottawa just a glimmer of hope before stealing it all away with an amazing 43 save shutout in Game 6.
Montreal scored just five goals in the final four games of that series, but Price was so good that they won two of those games, while averaging 1.25 goals per night.
We didn’t see Price in the net with a chance to move on again until the bubble last year. The Canadiens took a 2-1 series lead into Game 4 of the Best-of-5 series and Price slammed the door on the Pittsburgh Penguins, stopping all 22 shots he faced.
Just over a week ago, Price played his most recent game with the opportunity to end another team’s season. He was excellent against the Toronto Maple Leafs in that contest, allowing just one goal (in the final seconds) on 31 shots as the Canadiens comfortably moved on.
Now, they face the Jets tonight with a ticket to the semifinals on the line. After stumbling in his first two attempts in his career to end another team, Price has developed an undeniable killer instinct in the playoffs.
The Jets will be desperate to save their season tonight, but the last nine times a team was desperate to live another day, Carey Price has stonewalled them with a 1.65 goals against average and a .943 save percentage and three shutouts.
He seems to be getting even better with age. Since the Habs swept the Lightning in 2014, Price has had six chances to end a series and posted a .956 save percentage in those contests.
Any team facing a 3-0 series deficit is in serious trouble, but the Jets are doing it without their best centre and while facing an impenetrable wall in goal. If the Habs can score just two goals tonight, I like their chances of moving on.