Flyers-Canadiens: Carey Price Crushed as Philadelphia Flies in Game Three

The Philadelphia Flyers found a way to get Carey Price off of his game.

Granted there were a few games in the first round of the playoffs against the Boston Bruins were the Canadiens' rookie sensation looked beatable, but every goalie has those shaky outings—attributing those few games solely to Bostons "drive and determination" and completely overlooking the fact that Price was probably suffering from nerves greater than most of us will ever know is like saying Brittany Spears earned her spot (number 31) on the FHM's list of the 100 Sexiest Women of 2008.

Sidenote: Seriously? She's number Thirty-One? See at first I was shocked that Hillary Duff was in the top ten. But Brittany's in the top fifty? I guess that just speaks to what society finds sexy now: Blondes, 36 DDs and legs that go from here to Ohio are out, and unbalanced starlets who have fallen hard from their once glorious perch with substance abuse problems and bald heads are in.

The only thing that could possibly make what's happened to Spears over the past year more disturbing, is if some story were to hit the press about Kevin Federline being her cousin, or some deranged development along that line. But that's too low, even for Brittany. Right? RIGHT?!?!? 

Someone will probably send me a link to that Leave Brittany Alone thing. Just trying to help the cause.

The Philadelphia Flyers did something last night, that I haven't seen done to Price ever before—they got in his face.

The bumped him, they tripped (or slew-footed, whatever you want to call it) him, they got under his skin, and they got Jaroslav Halak into a game—something that hasn't happened in the entire post season.

Now granted, Carey Price is twenty years old—obviously when he gets his face introduced to the ice a few times by a Flyers team hell-bent on winning, becoming frazzled is a natural reaction.

However, although some veteran goalies in the NHL have the ability to shake this kind of treatment off and keep standing on their head (Note: I'm NOT talking about Dominik Hasek), Price isn't there yet.

That's not to say that one day he won't be able to let this stuff slide, but as of right now? Getting under his skin is fairly easy.

As we've seen this season, the Flyers are a team who will identify a weakness through physicality, and then exploit it—through legal measures or not. With their treatment of Carey last night, they learned how he deals with the "crash the net" technique—and if last night's sample size is any indication, the Flyers smell blood. 

After the game though, following a two goal third period that cut the Flyers lead to 3-2, Guy Carbonneau and Saku Koivu got it precisely right: “He’s a kid, but more importantly he’s a teammate. We can’t keep letting things like this happen to a teammate. Sure he got pulled, but everyone is accountable.” (Ok I’m paraphrasing, but it’s the right attitude).

This may sound like something that just gets passed around from team to team, but I still think that the Montreal Canadiens have one of the most dedicated, loyal, and devoted captains in the game.

There’s only so much a team can do for their goalie though. Although they stood up for Price last night when the Flyers began to run him, some of the onus has to be placed upon Carey’s shoulders.

A rookie goaltender’s career is filled with a lot of different choices. Right now Price has a choice: He can either come back the next game and stand on his head while taking the abuse, showing that he may very well be one of the next great goaltenders, or he can follow in the footsteps he laid out last night and allow the Flyers to get under his skin.

One way or the other, he’ll have to find a way to win the game or else the walls may really start to cave in.