Price puts critics in their place
NETMINDER SCORES BIG with well-timed rejoinder to Twitter enemy
The boors are plentiful on the Internet, either masking themselves with anonymity or spouting off until they’re ordered to do their homework.
Those in public life are torched more than most and professional athletes, by the very nature of work defined by win or loss that labels hero or goat, are obvious targets.
(Of course, if these Internet haters bumped into one of their victims in the street, they’d ask for an autograph or a camera-phone picture.)
So it wasn’t surprising when a few twits on Twitter went off last Thursday night on the Canadiens’ Carey Price, the goaltender surrendering four goals in his team’s 4-3 Bell Centre loss to the sad-sack New York Islanders.
But what was surprising was that Price responded to one ignoramus with a short, brilliant reply that, at last count, had been retweeted in one way or another more than 2,500 times.
This moron, unnamed here to deny him the publicity he craves, wasn’t overjoyed by a span of the goalie’s second-period performance.
So in a message addressed to Price, who evidently is on this guy’s fantasy hockey team, he tweeted: “hey u bum. u face 10 shots and give up 2 goals. stevie (expletive deleted) wonder could do a better job”
To which Price replied with this instant classic, about two hours after the original had appeared: “I’m still your moms favourite player”
Price has no shortage of critics online, not that he pays any attention to them beyond the comic relief they provide.
He has a great many more fans, support he appreciates but doesn’t let swell his head.
“You’re never as good as they say you are and never as bad as they say you are,” goes the old hockey axiom to which Price subscribes.
The media scrum had drifted away Saturday night, Price having reflected on his 18th career shutout that came in his team’s 3-0 win over the New York Rangers, when I said to him: “About that ‘mom’s favourite’ tweet …”
The goalie shuffled in front of his dressing room stall, arranging his equipment, and his grin spread.
“I’ve been saving that one for awhile,” he admitted, confessing that he just needed the ideal time to type it. “It came to me when I was laying in bed one night.”
Price didn’t claim proprietorship of the sentence. He credited a recent NFL Play 60 commercial, a spot promoting an hour of daily exercise, in which a confident, precocious kid in a playground chats with Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton.
The youngster quickly shifts from his hero-worship of Newton to saying he’ll make Panthers fans forget about the star as he replaces him, boldly telling the team’s QB he’ll “become your mom’s favourite player.”
Price filed the idea for future reference.
“I thought I could probably reverse that into somebody else,” he said Saturday, two days after having made his Toronto flamer that somebody.
“It’s not offensive,” Price added, which is more than can be said for the profane abuse directed at him. “It’s good-natured, good-hearted. It’s a quip that’s not going to offend anybody.
“It’s not meant to (offend). It was meant to make people laugh and I think that’s the best way you can respond.”
Price hears/reads attacks from all over, but he does sense a geographical common denominator among many of his critics.
“For some reason, there are lot in Toronto,” he said, shrugging. “A lot of Toronto fans get pretty nasty, but at the same time, it’s empty. It’s some guy on his iPhone or whatever, trying to get into my noggin.”
There was nothing on the Net to bother Price on Saturday, nor anything in his net.
He made 17 saves en route to his 18th NHL shutout; it equalled the fewest shots he’s faced in a goalless game, his other 17-stop effort also coming against the Rangers two seasons ago.
As usual, the 25-year-old made difficult saves look routine with his size, economy of movement, positioning and rock-solid confidence. Maybe that’s why he wasn’t voted one of three post-game stars by fans, goal-scorers Alex Galchenyuk, Lars Eller and Erik Cole selected first, second and third.
“The whole team deserved a star, not me,” Price said. “Our team was all over the puck, offensively and defensively. Our puck pressure was a lot better (than against the Islanders). That’s the reason we were able to shut them down in the third period.”
Price’s closest call wasn’t even a puck on the net, but a sort of trick shot by Derek Stepan 11 minutes into the game. The Rangers centre showed every sign of drilling a puck into the Canadiens corner from centre ice, but at the last second redirected and fired toward the goal. Reading Stepan’s body position, Price was anticipating the puck rimming the boards and had vacated the net to play it behind the net when surely his heart stopped, Steppan’s shot missing the yawning cage by an inch or two.
“I assumed (Stepan) was rimming it around (the boards),” Price said, admitting sheepishly he was nearly caught flat-skated, unlikely to fall for that stunt again.
At 10-3-1, he completed the night as the NHL’s winningest goalie, ranked eighth in goals-against average at 1.96, third in shutouts with two, and his .923 save percentage just .006 out of the top 10.
The shutout puck was in Price’s stall, another rubber paperweight or something for the trophy case.
“It was definitely a nonworking shutout,” he said, comparing it to games that require much more work. “Sometimes, you’re going to get a shutout where you really earn it.
“But other times, your team is going to get you one. Tonight was one of those. If there were shutouts that were a team stat, this would have been one.”
There was no ugly noise on the Internet coming Price’s way on this night. Just as well since he says he doesn’t (yet) have another snappy comeback ready for a future flamer.
Funny how a shutout shuts up the knobs of the Net.