Price’s next real test will come in playoffs
Goalie awful in loss to Toronto
This is a family newspaper, so we can’t say what Carey Price was against the Leafs on Saturday night, except to note that it comes out of the back end of a horse and you don’t want to step in it.
Bad? Poor Red Light Racicot was bad. Price was gorm-awful, on national television against Toronto, in the run-up to the playoffs.
Four shots, one save, three goals and a quick hook from coach Michel Therrien. It doesn’t come much worse than that.
And don’t give me that horse patootie about how the team let their poor goaltender down. Not this time. This loss was on Price, pure and simple.
Worse, Price’s brutal performance put the Habs a step closer to a first-round battle with the Leafs, a team that gives the Canadiens all kinds of trouble for whatever reason.
Price put his teammates in a 3-0 hole and they couldn’t recover, not on a night when the unheralded James Reimer was saving 36 out of 37 shots at the other end for an organization that was still shopping for a goalie through the trade deadline.
Price will bounce back. We hope. This may turn out to be the best thing that could happen to him, a wake-up call on the eve of the playoffs.
Or not. If he doesn’t, he could end up watching some playoff games from the best seat in the house.
We’ve been down this road before, with another Slovakian goaltender. Fellow named Jaro Halak, who stepped up when Price’s game went south in the spring of 2010 and led the Canadiens to their only trip to the third round of the playoffs since 1993.
Right now, Peter Budaj, signed to a two-year extension this week by Marc Bergevin, is ready, willing and (as he has proved again and again) able to step in.
For those who say there’s no goalie controversy, that Price is the man and that’s it, get back to me when we’re three games into the playoffs.
If Price plays as he did against the Leafs on Saturday night, or in that 6-0 loss to the same team at the Bell Centre, Budaj will have to step up.
It shouldn’t come to this. But Price’s inconsistent play this season has left a lot of people wondering if the Canadiens’ playoff hopes don’t rest on a goalie who simply is not capable of leading the sort of runs we have seen from Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy, José Theodore and Halak. Fans in this town are still talking about Price as a Vézina candidate, when he ranks 17th in goals-against and 26th in save percentage.
Price and the Vézina aren’t in the same conversation, but he could salvage something from the playoffs. If nothing else, the postseason might settle the great debate once and for all, the argument that has gripped hockey fans in this city for most of Price’s career.
On one side, you have those who drank the Pierre Gau- thier/Bob Gainey Kool-Aid. For them, Price is Dryden, Roy and Jacques Plante all rolled into one. On the other side, you have those for whom Price can do no right. Even on the nights when he’s superb, they find endless fault with his game.
The truth is somewhere in the middle. Much as I doubted it at the time, I believe Gauthier made the right call when he elected to trade Halak and keep Price. Over the long haul, Halak is too small and fragile, Price too big and strong.
But the question remains: Does Price have the grit, the determination, the sheer will to win that separates a goaltender like Roy from all the capable netminders who do a decent job but lack the championship genes?
This is the year we may find out, because anything less than an appearance in the Eastern Conference final is going to be a crashing disappointment to fans whose expectations have been raised by a dazzling regular season.
The Canadiens have balanced scoring, an exceptionally mobile defence, useful role players, a capable coach — and, on paper at least, one of the better goaltenders in the game.
Even on paper, Price has not had a stellar season. After putting up a .250 save percentage in Toronto, he’s at .912 for the season with a 2.36 GAA and three shutouts.
My friend Arpon Basu came up with some good stats to break down Price’s season, including the fact that in his 14 “bad” starts, he’s 4-6-3 with a no-decision against Boston —– but his save percentage is under .900 through those 14 games, which simply isn’t good enough.
Basu also pointed out that Price had a strong playoff showing last time out against Boston: seven games played, a 2.11 GAA and a .934 save percentage. The Canadiens play well against the Bruins, but any meeting between the two will likely be in a later round.
Right now, there is every possibility the Canadiens will either finish first in the division and get the Rangers or Islanders in the first round, or finish second and begin with the Maple Leafs. They also end their season in Toronto, so it’s conceivable they could play the Leafs eight consecutive times.
Unless Price falters and Therrien makes another quick decision to go with Budaj, their fate will be in Price’s hands. Time for him to answer the question, once and for all: Is he the most overrated goalie in the NHL — or the least appreciated?
For Price, this postseason will be a watershed. He can step into the pantheon and prove the doubters wrong, or he can confirm the sour opinion of those who believe he’s had it all too easy, that he’s too laid back and easygoing to grab the puck in his teeth and lead this team to that elusive 25th Stanley Cup.
He doesn’t have to win a Cup this year to prove himself, but Price does have to be a whole lot better than he was Saturday night. If he isn’t, either Budaj comes to the rescue or the Canadiens are on the back nine by mid-May. No more debates, no more stat comparisons.
Price will be 26 in August. It’s time for him to bear down and win some games when it matters — or quit pretending to be an elite NHL goalie. Heroes: Adam Scott, Jackie Robinson, Tianlang Guan, Brendan Gallagher, Peter Budaj, Alex Galchenyuk, P.K. Subban, Alex Ovechkin, Mike Ribeiro, Brian Elliott, Craig Anderson, Corey Crawford, James Reimer, Fernando Alonso, Michel Therrien &&&& last but not least, Marc Bergevin. Zeros: Carey Price, Tiger Woods, Sebastien Vettel, the USGA, John Paramor, Mike Rice, Alex Rodriguez, Carlos Quentin, Ryan Braun, Steve Ott, English soccer fans, Pierre Gauthier, Claude Brochu, David Samson, Jeffrey Loria, &&&& last but not least, those Team Canada hockey jerseys in the colours of the disgraced Lance Armstrong and discredited Livestrong — the mother of all bad ideas.