Montreal Gazette

Numbers this year don’t justify teammates’ confidence in Price

Goaltender hasn’t looked anything like himself since returning from concussion

- PAT HICKEY phickey@postmedia.com twitter.com/zababes1

What, me worry?

Canadiens coach Claude Julien borrowed a page out of the Alfred E. Neuman playbook Saturday night when he said he wasn’t worried about goaltender Carey Price, who is struggling through the worst season of his NHL career.

“’There’s a goaltender on the other side, (Braden) Holtby, who’s having the same kind of year that Pricey is and he’s a pretty good goaltender,” Julien said after Price finished on the short end of a 6-4 count against the Washington Capitals on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.

“It happens, but the one thing I can tell you is that we know how good he is and how good he will be,” Julien said. “I’m not worried about him bouncing back. It wasn’t his best night tonight. Knowing Carey he probably mentioned it but, at the same time, a lot of our season has gone that way. Our team wasn’t great tonight in front of him. We just talked about how many slot chances we’ve been giving up. This is where I know what I’m going to get out of Carey and I’m more confident than worried.”

After missing 14 games with a concussion, Price has given up 11 goals in two starts and a look at the numbers doesn’t offer much reason for confidence. Price has given up four or more goals in 17 of his 44 starts. His goals-against average has ballooned to 3.10 and his save percentage has dipped to .901.

“Just focus on the next shot,” Price said when asked how he’s trying to stay positive. “Obviously, giving up six goals isn’t much fun. Just try and focus on the process and focus on the next shot.”

When asked about coming back from his injury, he said: “You want to play your best and when you don’t it’s frustratin­g. But you have to shake it off.” Price had a scare when he took a Lars Eller shot off his mask and it bent the cage.

“It’s probably the best spot to get hit is in the cage (because) it absorbs the most energy.”

Brendan Gallagher talked about the benefits of playing in front of Price, but it sounded like he was talking about a Price we haven’t seen a lot of this year.

“When you’re playing in front of Pricey it makes our job easier,” Gallagher said. “If anything, you just go out there and all you have to think of is doing your job because you know he’s back there bailing you out. He did that … he made big saves tonight. I know of lot of goals went by him, but he made big saves. We just gave up too many scoring chances. It’s on us to cut down.”

“One thing we’ve gotten pretty much all year is strong goaltendin­g performanc­es,” Gallagher said. “Regardless of who’s been in there — Pricey’s been out a lot, but he’s Carey Price. And (Antti) Niemi … Nemo’s played awesome hockey since we picked him up. And even Charlie (Lindgren), when he came up here gave us some really good performanc­es. So the goaltendin­g’s been there. I think the disappoint­ing thing is the quality chances that we give up throughout the game."

Gallagher said the Canadiens were determined to have a good start after playing in Buffalo on Friday night and they thought they had a 2-0 lead before a coach’s challenge wiped out what would have been his 28th goal of the season because Jonathan Drouin was offside. Gallagher got his 28th late in the third period.

“That was big because we had the momentum and losing that goal took it away,” said Charles Hudon, who scored twice to bring his season total to 10.

 ?? THE CANADIAN PRESS/GRAHAM HUGHES ?? Carey Price had a rough night in net for the Canadiens Saturday against T.J. Oshie and the Capitals.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/GRAHAM HUGHES Carey Price had a rough night in net for the Canadiens Saturday against T.J. Oshie and the Capitals.

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