‘I got to find ways to stop the puck’: Price
Goalie admits mounting losses are ‘definitely frustrating’
There was an all-world goaltender at work at the Bell Centre Thursday night, but it wasn’t Carey Price.
Jonathan Quick made 40 saves for the shutout as the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Canadiens 4-0, and it was left to captain Max Pacioretty to explain why this game was different from the other games in which the Canadiens have failed to find the back of the net.
“I don’t know how some people count chances, but I think we had some great chances out there,” Pacioretty said after the Canadiens outshot the Kings 40-28. “I have to look at the tape and see how we can beat a goalie like that. He’s playing all-world right now but when that’s the case, you have to make it difficult on him, you have to get in his kitchen. (Brendan Gallagher and Andrew Shaw) did that a couple of times.”
While Quick was running his record to 6-1-1 with a 1.88 goalsagainst average and a .944 save percentage, it was another frustrating night for Price, who now has a 2-6-1 record with a 3.60 GAA and a save percentage of .886. “We played good,” Price said. “I thought we played well ... we just didn’t win. It’s definitely frustrating, but I thought again we played well. So take it for what that’s worth.”
There were mock cheers when he made a couple of routine saves in the third period, but Price took them in stride.
“I don’t have anything to say about it,” he said. “It’s been done before and it will be done again. For me, I just got to focus on my job. I just got to find ways to stop the puck and keep our guys in it until we bury the puck. It just seems that I’m not doing that right now. So I just got to find a way to do it.”
The mocking cheers might have been louder if the fans hadn’t started streaming out of the building midway though the third period.
“It’s their money, they can do with it what they want,” Price said of the exodus.
Pacioretty said it was unfair to put the burden of the Canadiens’ 2-7-1 record on Price.
“We’re all going through this, this isn’t one guy,” he said. “This is the defencemen, the forwards, everybody. We’re all part of this. We left him stranded. If your job is to score goals you want to score goals. If your job is to be physical, you want to play physical. To say that you feel bad for one guy, we don’t feel bad for anyone.”
Some of the stats illustrated Pacioretty’s point. He had eight shots and two others blocked. Shea Weber, the team’s top defenceman, was minus-4.
This game turned on two goals 11 seconds apart late in the first period. At the time, the Canadiens were outshooting the Kings 16-6.
“You have to stick with it,” coach Claude Julien said. “There were two quick goals. There was a deflection on the first and they scored the second because we couldn’t get the puck out. We had the Grade A chances, but we’re struggling. We have to minimize the mistakes. A lot of our games have been like, but we’re not going out and not competing.
“We are competitive and we work hard,” added Julien. “We just have to keep doing that until our luck changes.”
We’re all going through this, this isn’t one guy. This is the defencemen, the forwards, everybody. We’re all part of this.