Goal Line Report
Entries with the tag: Carey+Price
Debating the Canadiens’ Goaltending Controversy
by Patrick Hoffman on 01/28/10 at 10:53 AM ET
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From the NHL on TSN panel at TSN.ca:
“You really get the sense that the Montreal Canadiens coaching staff and management really wants Carey Price to be ‘the man,’ said Keith Jones.
While Price was stellar in his rookie season, his statistics have taken a hit over the past two years. Rumours have also swirled about his conduct off the ice in the hockey-mad city of Montreal, leaving the Canadiens with a very delicate situation on their hands. TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie believes that the team itself is at least partly to blame for the situation.
“If there has been a criticism of how the Canadiens have handled their goaltenders, it is that they simply won’t give the job to Halak and leave Price on the bench for a little while,” said McKenzie. “Every time that Halak has lost a game this year, he’s never gotten a start again in the following game.”
While Halak has unquestionably been the better of the two netminders of late, there are several cases for keeping Price. For one, the 22-year old is two years younger than Halak. Also, Price’s pedigree is substantially more impressive. He was a first-round draft pick by Montreal (fifth overall in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft) and was named the CHL’s goaltender of the year in 2007. That same year he backstopped Canada to gold at the IIHF World Junior hockey championship. In addition he was won the Jack Butterfield Trophy as the AHL’s playoff MVP when the Hamilton Bulldogs captured the Calder Cup in 2007. The following season he was named to the NHL’s all-rookie team and started the All-Star game last season in Montreal.
Click here for more on the Habs’ goaltending situation.
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Tags: Carey+Price, Jaroslav+Halak, Montreal+Canadiens,
An Interesting Take on Carey Price
by Patrick Hoffman on 01/27/10 at 07:35 PM ET
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From good friend of the blog Scotty Wazz of The Strangest One of All:
You have to wonder what would become of Price if he wasn’t picked where he was picked and if wasn’t as good as he was in juniors. Had he been in a lower-pressure market, would he have developed to a bigger name, albeit in a longer time frame?? We all know that goalies take the longest to develop, so was Price brought up too quickly, even given his success in the lower-levels. Yet, it would have been a catch-22 in most cases, as more often than not, Price would have been selected by a team with a big goaltending issue-- hence why they would have picked a goalie so high in the draft.
Now, if we do a what-if and Price was selected fifth overall again, he’d probably would have ended up with Phoenix or Columbus, depending on where the lotto balls fell. Either way, those are two teams who have had goalie issues in the past. Odds are, they could have ruined Price off the bat by throwing him in the fire too quickly, but it doesn’t seem like they would have been in a big rush in order to get him through the system and up to the pros in a time quicker than the speed of light. Odds are they would have developed him better and allowed him to grow. Again--at what point does he get sick of waiting, thinking he’s better than he is and lose confidence for not being called up. It’s a tight-rope walk, nowadays.
Click here for more from a good hockey pal of mine. Do you folks think the Habs would really deal Price away? Is Jaroslav Halak that trustworthy as a starter? I want to hear you Habs’ fans comment on this.
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Tags: Carey+Price, Montreal+Canadiens,
Habs Questions
by Patrick Hoffman on 04/23/09 at 12:25 PM ET
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I know that many Montreal Canadien fans are angry about the way things went this season. It was their 100th in the league and many pundits and fans alike figured that the team would be contending for the Stanley Cup.
Well, as you all know, that dream came to an end last night when the Boston Bruins completed the sweep against their biggest rival. After the loss, I am wondering about a few things that I would like you folks to comment on:
1) Who is to blame?
2) What happened to netminder Carey Price? What did you think of his gesture to the crowd last night?
3) Will Bob Gainey be with the team next season? If so, in what capacity?
4) Who will coach the Canadiens next season?
5) What can the team do to get better for next season?
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Tags: Bob+Gainey, Boston+Bruins, Carey+Price, Montreal+Canadiens,
What A Difference a Year Makes
by Patrick Hoffman on 04/16/09 at 09:15 AM ET
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It’s amazing how much things change over the course of a year in the National Hockey League. A perfect example of this would be the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens, who will meet tonight for Game one of the first round in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
About a year ago, these teams met in the first round of the playoffs but compared to this season, the roles were reversed as the Bruins now have the No. 1 seed while the Habs have the No. 8 seed. That’s not the only difference:
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Tags: Alex+Kovalev, Bob+Gainey, Boston+Bruins, Carey+Price, Guy+Carbonneau, Montreal+Canadiens, NHL, Phil+Kessel, Tim+Thomas,
Pressure?
by Patrick Hoffman on 01/24/09 at 04:45 PM ET
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Talk about pressure. You are the starting goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens, a team that has an unbelievable history of producing great netminders such as Georges Vezina, Jacques Plante, Gump Worsley, Ken Dryden and of course, Patrick Roy. This weekend, you are the starting goaltender for the Eastern Conference All-Star team at the Bell Center in Montreal. Not only that, but 16 years ago, Roy was the starting goalie for the Wales Conference at the Montreal Forum and later that same season, won the Stanley Cup.
Do you think that current Canadiens’ and now all-star netminder Carey Price is feeling the pressure? Well, if he is, he’s certainly not showing it as the 21-year-old masked man is having a fine season for Les Canadiens. In 27 games this season, he has 16 wins, a 2.35 goals against average, a .919 save percentage and one shutout. Not bad for someone who has the ghosts of past Canadien teams looking down at him.
Price also went into the break on somewhat of a role as he won three out of his last four games and in those games has a goals against of 2.00, certainly not a bad way to go into the grueling second half of the season, a half that could determine just how far the Habs will be willing to go come spring time. Again, you think Price has a lot of pressure?!
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Tags: Carey+Price, Eastern+Conference, Georges+Vezina, Gump+Worsley, Jacques+Plante, Ken+Dryden, Montreal+Canadiens, Patrick+Roy, Wales+Conference,
