Montreal Canadiens: Carey Price on Short List For Olympic Team

Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price and Team Canada put on an absolute clinic at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Their group of future Hall of Fame defenders stifled opponents thought the event and when they did break through, Price was there to stop, well, pretty much everything.

Price played five games at that tournament and allowed just three goals, posting shutouts in the gold medal game against Sweden and the semi-finals against the United States. He was flat out sensational, and it looks like he has a pretty good chance of defending the crease again for Canada.

The Canadian contingent, along with other participating countries, had to post a long list of 55 potential Olympians by the end of last week. With the Olympic Games taking part in Beijing in February, teams had to submit a long list of players that will now be subjected to additional testing and whatnot leading up to the announcement of the actual team in January.

Although Carey Price is currently taking part in the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program, he was added to Canada’s list. In fact, he was the 56th player added to the 55 player list as they made an exemption to allow an additional player since Price’s status is unknown at the moment.

His competitors for tending the net at the Olympics again, like he did in 2014, the last time NHL players competed are Jordan Binnington, Marc-Andre Fleury, Darcy Kuemper, Mackenzie Blackwood and Carter Hart.

While Price’s regular season last year was not his finest, he has shown over the past two postseasons that he is still among the best in the business when the pressure is turned up a notch. It is difficult to find a more pressure packed environment than a win or go home game at the Olympics.

Fleury will make a good case to take on the starter’s role after a really strong season with the Vegas Golden Knights last season won him the Vezina Trophy. Kuemper has put up solid numbers when healthy. Hart was flat out terrible last season but is young and has high potential. Blackwood is not even vaccinated so he isn’t eligible at the moment and his numbers weren’t good last year. Since his playoff run in 2019, Binnington has been decent in the regular season but not terrific and has been awful in two postseason.

I’d be shocked if anyone other than Price and Fleury got a start at the Olympics. I wouldn’t go so far as to call Price a lock at the moment, but the obvious choices right now are him and Fleury as the top two and then an insurance package as the third choice.