Carey Price is on the Hot Seat This Season

Ever since the Montreal Canadiens were eliminated last April in the playoffs I was convinced that their young starting goalie Carey Price would be traded. This 21 year-old who was drafted fifth overall in 2005 struggled mightily in the second half of his sophomore season and on April 22 while being strongly booed towards the conclusion of a 4-1 series ending loss to the Boston Bruins, had an emotional outburst directed towards the fans. For weeks on sports shows the clip was shown of Price, who is a former Canadian Major Junior Goalie of The Year, making an easy save and then waiving his blocker and glove hand in a mock salute towards the fans who were giving him the Bronx cheers. “We had two frustrated parties and maybe the choices weren’t the best, but you know, it’s going to happen,” said Price about that incident. “Sometimes I’m going to get it, sometimes a player shouldn’t give it back but sometimes it happens.”

 I remember watching this emerging star on television back in 2007 capturing MVP honors after backstopping Canada to a gold medal at the World Junior Hockey Tournament. After that I became intrigued and followed his progress with Tri-City in the Western Hockey League and in the American Hockey League where in 2006/07 with the Hamilton Bulldogs he won the Jack Butterfield Trophy (Calder Cup Playoff MVP). Last season Price had an impressive first half as he made the all -star team with a 16-4-5 record and a 2.30 GAA. The turning point for Price and for that matter the Canadiens came on December 30 when he suffered a serious ankle injury that had him scratched for eight games. A combination of coming back to early and a loss of confidence affected his game as Price only won seven of his final 31 starts. “It’s definitely been a learning experience so far in the NHL,” said Price who won 24 games in his rookie season and was chosen on the NHL All-Rookie Team. “I think I’ve learned a lot more lessons in my first two years than a lot of goalies would have learned anywhere else in six years.” Showing lots of determination Price is confident that his struggles from last year will only make him a better goaltender this year with Montreal. “I don’t think I’ve ever been put in a situation that I can’t handle,” he said. “I’ve never backed down from a challenge and this year I’m not going to start.” Price will have some big help this year in blue liners Hall Gill, Paul Mara and Jaroslav Spacek who are all strong in their own zone. Still what has impressed me the most with this Vancouver native is that he refuses to let the pressure of a hockey mad city such as Montreal get the better of him. Whereas I believed that Price might be better off somewhere else away from the pressure he talked about enjoying Montreal because of the pressure and because they care so much about winning. No matter how you look at it a lot of people will be keeping close tabs on Price and how he performs after slumping so miserably in the second half and last spring’s playoffs.