Price Update

For anyone who's inetersted, they're giving away these cool glasses to anyone who gets their comment published on hockeybuzz.com.

They make the goalie you are watching look the spitting image of Patrick Roy.


In his blog entitled: Habs add Insult to Injury in Toronto...Is Carey Price the Best?, a blogger all hopped up on a win over the 14th place Leafs wrote this:

Overtime and a shootout were enough to prove that Carey Price was more than just the MVP in this one. The Leafs were coming off an embarrassing loss against Phoenix. You know they wanted to rebound, shut the media up, and do it against the one team they usually have success against. But Carey Price was also coming off a loss, and you saw him play last night...does he seem like the type of guy who loses straight games? Let me ask you this: When the game was on the line, with Jason Blake taking that last shot, did you even have a shred of doubt Carey would save it? He made 42 saves look as easy as the ones he made in the shootout. All this talk about Patrick Roy is hard to deal with, but the facts remain that they are similar in more ways than they can imagine.

It's not in the attitude, the mannerisms, or even the style. It's the confidence of not even having to put up the best numbers to be the best. Carey Price through nine games this year has a modest 2.71 gaa, and a .916 SA. He has no shutouts. Yet even you Leaf fans must admit you haven't seen anything quite like him since St. Patrick was playing against you in Maple Leaf Gardens. No disrespect to Brodeur, or Kiprusoff, or Luongo, but Price has something about him that makes you feel like he's just not beatable. I'm not trying to blow this out of proportion nine games into his NHL career, but if you think I'm this confident about him, imagine how his teammates feel. Imagine how his opposition feels. Imagine how Cristobal Huet feels, as he is the leading vote-getter among goalies up for All-star honors in the East, yet he knows this kid is better than he'll ever be. I'll leave the conversation on this final note: Patrick Roy's best season in the NHL was his second to last, where he put up a 1.94 gaa, and a .925 SA. The numbers never really mattered with Patrick, what mattered was he always made you feel like you would win, and that's how Carey Price makes you feel.

(Sorry I had to put the whole quote in, as I kept trying to cut but couldn't believe what I was reading)

Can I put this bit again:

It's the confidence of not even having to put up the best numbers to be the best.

Well, how could I argue with that? Good thing Carey was confident Kovalev and Kostitsyn would both score in the shootout when he let in that late goal. I guess he was just having a bit of fun with us all.


I don't want to be too much of a downer. I like Carey Price. I like that he is on our team and not another team. I like that he appears to be confident. I like that he is a whole lot more down to earth than some of the people watching him. I like how he dismisses talk of being the next Patrick Roy without argument. I even like his mask.

But aren't some of us getting just a little carried away (see exhibit A, above)?

If I have to ignore the stats as I've been told, then can't I at least judge whether Price gives the team some unworldly advantage to win. Let's see:

Game 1: Won by a single goal, played very well
Game 2: Lost to the league's best, played well
Game 3: Won in a shootout, played extremely well in the shootout, not as well in the game
Game 4: Lost in a shootout
Game 5: Won a tight game, played very well
Game 6: Won in OT
Game 7: Won, but let in 4 goals. The team gets credit for this win with 7 goals I think
Game 8: Lost in regulation, let in some abnormal goals
Game 9: Won in a shootout

For someone who sounds like they should have their hall of fame waiting period waived, these 9 games don't seem to match the story. In Patrick Roy's time, when we had the arcane tradition of tie games, Carey would be looking at a 4-2-3 record (11 points from 9 games).

So, I'm not going to get too carried away just yet. I will not call for Cristobal Huet to be traded. I am going to sit back, relish the 2 points and look forward to watching Price develop into a reliable NHL goalie.

I won't be able to say I told you so down the road, but I really only care about one thing in hockey: the Habs winning... (the Cup).