Jarolsav Halak vs. Carey Price: Montreal Canadiens Still Have Questions

The Montreal Canadiens went into to this year's playoffs with little to no hope of knocking off their first round opponent, the Washington Capitals.

In fact, many prognosticators picked the Caps to do away with the Habs in as little a four games, very few were picking the Habs to win the series. Somehow, in the face of adversity, the Habs have fought back from a three games to one deficit to win game five by a final score of 2-1 and, in the process, making a series of it.

Outside of a few key injuries to forward Mike Cammalleri and defenseman Andrei Markov this season the Canadiens success or lack-thereof has hinged on the success of their masked men, goaltenders Carey Price and Jaroslav Halak.

In game one of the series Halak played what many feel was his best game of the season, turning away 45 of 47 shots for a .957 save percentage and emerging with a tantalizing 3-2 overtime victory.

Game two saw Halak (and his teammates) struggle, as the 24-year-old Slovakian gave up three third period goals on 13 shots and the eventual game winner in overtime, losing by a score of 6-5. Halak emerged having stopped 31 of 37 shots for a .838 save percentage—a far cry from his game one performance.

The next game was a disaster for Halak, giving up three goals on just 13 shots (.769 save percentage), which led to his being pulled at 8:33 of the second period in favor of the oft-criticized goaltender, Carey Price.

Price did a decent job the rest of the way stopping 21 of 23 shots, but nobody was confusing the youngster with the likes of Patrick Roy or Ken Dryden—fact is, Price looked a bit shaky, which is to be expected when you come into a game cold off the bench.

Saddled with the agonizing decision as to which goaltender would start game four of the series Canadiens head coach Jacques Martin elected to snub Halak (who had been his go-to goalie down the stretch) in favor of Price.

The move was a necessary evil, but there were many fans that questioned the logic, electing to blame Halak’s shortcoming’s on the teams overall effort rather than Halak himself.

The truth of the matter is Halak was not as bad as his stats were making him out to be. That said, a team's psyche can be very fragile, and Martin felt the team played a more confident/defensively responsible game in front of Price, thus giving his team the best chance to win game four.

Price had a good first period in game four, battling to turn away eight of nine shots, emerging with a 1-1 tie. The second period was more of the same for Price, making 20 of 21 saves in the period—some of which were key saves to keep his team in the game.

Then, at the midway point of the third period, the wheels fell off for Price as he gave up three goals in just over six minutes of play, sealing the victory for the Capitals and Price’s fate in the process.

The Canadiens would lose game four by a final score of 6-3, in what many feel was a good old fashioned butt-kicking courtesy of the high-flying Capitals. The Canadiens lost the game, Price lost his chance at leading his team to playoff success, simple as that.

Re-enter Jaroslav Halak.

On the strength of a early 2-0 first period lead Halak was able to ride the lead to a game five win, re-igniting the Habs fans’ love affair with the Slovakian goalkeeper, stopping 37 of 38 Capitals shots, en route to a 2-1 victory, subsequently getting the Habs back into the series.

Halak would emerge as the games first star—he was “money” all night, making some highlight reel saves and looking both sharp and confident throughout the game.

Long-term it would seem the Canadiens would be better off casting the 22-year-old Price aside in favor of Halak as their No. 1 goalie—the trouble is, both goalies are very streaky (which is often the case with young goalies) and neither one has established himself as a true No. 1 goalie. Not yet anyways.

Halak took on the brunt of the load for the Canadiens during the regular season posting a decent 26-13-5 record in 45 starts. His .924 save percentage was fourth best in the league, while his 2.40 goals against average ranked ninth overall—some pretty impressive numbers to say the least.

Comparatively, Price amassed a record of 13-20-5 in 41 starts. His .912 save percentage ranked him 20th overall, while his 2.77 goals against average was a sub-par 31st overall.

Clearly, Halak had/is having the better overall year, but nobody is confusing him with a “money” goaltender, at least not yet.

A game six win against the Capitals would knot the series at three games apiece. If Halak was able to pull off said victory (combined with his impressive regular season numbers) you have got to think he will go into the offseason with the best chance of emerging as the Canadiens No. 1 goalie.

The reality is both Halak and Price have holes in their games, both need to work on their mental sharpness, and both would benefit from an increased workload. Fortunately for the Canadiens, both Price (22) and Halak (24) are young enough that they still have plenty of time to develop into solid No. 1 goaltenders—what uniform they are wearing when this happens is still anyone’s guess.

With neither goaltender stealing the series and with little in the way of a consistent effort form either goaltender, win or lose game six, there will still be plenty of questions in regards to the Habs' goaltending situation throughout the summer.

The fact is, the Habs are no further ahead then they were prior to the playoffs then they are now. Nope, the Habs are still the Hab-nots when it comes to goaltending...hopefully they make the right decision this summer.


For more NHL news and notes check out my website at
www.theslapshot.com

***Also, check out Louis Pisano (fellow BR writer) and I, Mark “The Hard Hitter Ritter) NEXT SATURDAY NIGHT, MAY 31ST at 6:00 PM through 7:00 PM EST as we throw down our hockey podcast “GET THE PUCK OUT” at www.morencysports.com

If you are wondering if this is the same Gabe Morency that was a fixture in the Montreal sports scene for years and was a member of “THE SCORE”—yes, it’s that MORENCY!—it’s his website!

We’ll be throwing out our pick’s for Next Saturday's games, talking about the playoffs and venting all the rage we have built up!!! Bring your comments, questions and insight. Give us a call (toll free) at 1-866-964-5710—let’s talk some puck!

Until next time,

Peace!