Carey Price a Shadow of Goaltending Phenom Patrick Roy

With 2008 coming to a close, the Habs are quietly putting their early season inconsistency in the rear view mirror and playing the way the pundits predicted. The club's return to form can be traced back to a 6-1 loss in mid-November in Boston.

That embarrassing loss was easily Carey Price's worst loss between the pipes for the Habs. Since the loss (aside from a 59-second span where he surrendered three goals versus the Atlanta Thrashers at the Bell Centre in early December) Price has been the team's best player. 

Price's numbers since the Boston debacle read like a goalie bound for the All-Star Game. He has lost just once in regulation in his last 14 starts (the Habs are 9-1-4 in those games, giving Montreal 22 out of a possible 28 points).

Price has shut the door on the opposition in those 14 games giving up more than two goals just once in regulation over his current run. Compare that to his first 11 games of the season when he allowed three-plus goals five times and twice was scorched for six goals.

The consistent play of the Habs' 21-year-old netminder has the team poised to overhaul the New York Rangers for the second best record in the Eastern Conference. As we prepare to ring in 2009, Montreal are just one point back of the Rangers with three games in hand. That leaves the Bruins standing in the way of the Canadiens winning back-to-back Eastern Conference regular season titles for the first time since in 1988-89. 

Ironically the Habs were being led by another young goaltending phenom on those teams. The comparisons between the two Habs teams separated by 20-years are intriguing.The Canadiens of 1987-88 owned the best record in the Eastern Conference as did the Habs of 2007-08. Both teams struggled against weaker opposition in the opening round of the playoffs.

Patrick Roy's team needed six games to subdue the Hartford Whalers a team that finished 26 points back of Montreal in the regular season. Twenty years later Carey Price and the Habs took seven games to knock off the the eighth-seeded Bruins. Both Habs teams followed the first-round squeakers with five-game exits, again to weaker opposition.

The Habs of 1987-88 obviously learned from their mistakes. The club followed up the previous season's playoff disappointment with another Eastern Conference regular season title and then a stirring playoff run (Montreal would lose in the final in six games to the Calgary Flames).

Twenty years after Montreal reached the cup final with No. 33 behind the pipes, the Habs hope that No. 31 can help close the deal. Price's play gives the Canadiens hope that they can enjoy a magical ride and capture that elusive 25th Stanley Cup.