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Carey Price: the 'WTF' thread


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The great Carey Price, for whom I have massive respect, finishes the season with a GAA of over 3 and - more alarmingly - a save % of .900. At no point in the season did he offer better than average goaltending, and often came shockingly close to being just plain bad. 

 

What gives? Does anyone have any thoughts as to an explanation? 

 

The debate naturally turns to the (unlikely) scenario of trading him before that megadolon of a contract kicks in. Might as well hash that out too...

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No doubt, part of the issue is a very bad team he played for. Price definitely isn’t as bad as those numbers suggest.

 

But that’s only half the problem. On top of playing for a bad team, this year Price rarely, if ever, carried the team on his back and won the game himself. As you said, he was often plain bad, and it is alarming.

 

I often got this feeling that Price was tired, and he did have chronic fatigue to start the season, but that lethargy never really seemed to go. He seems uninspired, he seemed to care a little less somehow.

 

So what I think he needs, is a reset. Something to change up the monotony of being Montreal’s biggest star and playing for a team that frankly doesn’t stand a chance. 

 

What he needs is a shake up. New faces from both management and and injection into the roster, just something to bring back his pizzazz. 

 

Dahlin would go a very very long way to bring back some of that excitement - and divert some of that ever present pressure. We have about a 1/10 chance of landing him, so unlikely, but still highly possible.

Far more unlikely would be signing Tavares, but that’s another move that I think would give Price that shot he needs. 

 

But montreal will be better next year, and so will Price. A healthy Weber should go a long way, and so will a rebound from Patch.

 

Our youth, despite poor results in the standing, showed some really nice progress in the end of the season. Scherbak, Lehkonen, Hudon, De La Rose and Galchenyuk have all showed reason to think they’ll have better seasons next season. Juulsen and Mete should progress further as well, and we should have a more mobile defence because of it. And If we can land a top three pick, that player could crack the roster and give us some much better scoring depth/talent.

 

Carey Price is alarming, but if he can get a reset he needs, and our youth can pull through, the Habs could contend for a wildcard spot next season easily.

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I have long suspected that Carey Price is fragile between the ears, and he's going to have to work on his mind over the summer to get back to being a guy that's even close to being worth his ridiculous new contract.  Was the team in front of him bad?  Most certainly, but he was downright terrible on many occasions; you cannot blame his sad numbers on the defense in front of him entirely.  I don't know if he just 'quit' because he saw how bad the team was and decided to not give his all every night, or if he was distracted by other factors outside of the team, but he was clearly not 100% committed mentally to playing to the best of his ability most nights.  That has to change.  Book the sports psychologist for multiple sessions every week until training camp and get it solved, or it's going to be another dismal season next year, and talks of his contract being the biggest albatross in the NHL will abound.

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Why is everyone putting the blame on Price. He cant carry a AHL team on his back playing against NHL teams. This D was so bad this year it was unreal. Everyone knew it would be to that's the thing. The person that holds the most blame is Bergevin, then its the team captain Pacioretty. Ever since he was given the "C" this team has been going down hill. This Dcore had so many defensive break downs and couldn't clear anyone out from the front of the net it was just laughable to see. It could be just me , but I don't understand what you wanted Price to do with the team he had in front of him. Not even Roy at his best would of done anything special with this team. So if you want to blame someone in my mind there's 2 people Bergevin and Pacioretty.

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I don't "blame" Price any more than I blame Pacioretty.

 

Only one man is to blame for this disaster - this happy chimpanzee right here:

 

Image result for marc bergevin

 

That said, Price's performance was crap pretty much from pole to pole. And I'm kinda with DON on this...sure, he had a horrible team in front of him, but we've seen many goalies over the years put in strong individual performances despite being trapped on junk teams. Jose Theodore comes to mind. There is no way a #1 G should have a save per centage of .900. I don't care if you're stuck with Karl Alzner or not.

 

My pet theory, for which I have no evidence at all, is that Price quickly realized how bad the team was and mentally checked out. He saw a team with two top-4 D-men and no legitimate top-6 centremen and went, huh. This is a lost cause, isn't it? I'm not saying this was intentional on his part. But if you don't believe the team can win, it's probably pretty hard to stay motivated, at least if you're 31 years old and are at a stage of your career where you're more interested in winning a Cup than in single-handedly playing Superman and dragging a POS squad into the playoffs so it can lose in five games in the first round. He's got a young kid at home, that's probably where he put most of his focus. Just sheer speculation on my part.

 

 

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1 hour ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

I don't "blame" Price any more than I blame Pacioretty.

 

Only one man is to blame for this disaster - this happy chimpanzee right here:

 

Image result for marc bergevin

 

That said, Price's performance was crap pretty much from pole to pole. And I'm kinda with DON on this...sure, he had a horrible team in front of him, but we've seen many goalies over the years put in strong individual performances despite being trapped on junk teams. Jose Theodore comes to mind. There is no way a #1 G should have a save per centage of .900. I don't care if you're stuck with Karl Alzner or not.

 

My pet theory, for which I have no evidence at all, is that Price quickly realized how bad the team was and mentally checked out. He saw a team with two top-4 D-men and no legitimate top-6 centremen and went, huh. This is a lost cause, isn't it? I'm not saying this was intentional on his part. But if you don't believe the team can win, it's probably pretty hard to stay motivated, at least if you're 31 years old and are at a stage of your career where you're more interested in winning a Cup than in single-handedly playing Superman and dragging a POS squad into the playoffs so it can lose in five games in the first round. He's got a young kid at home, that's probably where he put most of his focus. Just sheer speculation on my part.

 

 

100% agree.  I hope that price gets fed up and requests a trade.  I don’t see this team doing anything with this core and I think price is our best chip to improv the core - as a trade chip.  But MB is not the guy I’d want to be making that trade.  He’d probably trade price for Jason Spezza.

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1 hour ago, hab29RETIRED said:

.  He’d probably trade price for Jason Spezza.

 

Spezza is sufficiently over the hill to attract Bergevin, but he doesn't bring enough LEADERSHIP

 

Watch for that Lucic-for-Price trade any day now ;)

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Price's contract is one of the worst in the league if he's not playing at an elite level.  It's probably not wise to have that much money tied up in the goaltender position anyways.  

 

I've heard some off-ice rumours that may account for Price's performance - completely unsutstantiated, of course: his wife wanting out of Montreal following an extra-marital affair, oblique mentions of sexual harassment.  

 

 

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On 4/8/2018 at 8:46 PM, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

Spezza is sufficiently over the hill to attract Bergevin, but he doesn't bring enough LEADERSHIP

 

Watch for that Lucic-for-Price trade any day now ;)

 

You're better than that Cucumber. As a long time reader I am disappointed 

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Price  will never win a cup here in Montreal  as long as management has the attitude that as long as Price is super human we don't need to give him any support because he can win us games by himself.

And fans need to stop thinking that as long as we have Price we don't need anyone else. HE NEEDS HELP, HE CAN'T DO IT ALL ALONE.  Everyone needs to weak up other wise we're just wasting Price's good years.

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6 minutes ago, Metallica said:

Price  will never win a cup here in Montreal  as long as management has the attitude that as long as Price is super human we don't need to give him any support because he can win us games by himself.

And fans need to stop thinking that as long as we have Price we don't need anyone else. HE NEEDS HELP, HE CAN'T DO IT ALL ALONE.  Everyone needs to weak up other wise we're just wasting Price's good years.

You maybe into to something ... maybe MB is right the teams failure is a result of its attitude - namely his attitude.

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Listen to Waite interview;

said he and Price have spent last two days meeting and video.

said Price was 100% healthy, issues were mental (approach to game not loony).

said both he and Price got complacent and Waite is looking forward to sept to get back to the same basics they worked on when he was 1st hired.

 

https://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/waite-work-on-next-season-has-already-begun-1.1052987

 

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55 minutes ago, Metallica said:

Price  will never win a cup here in Montreal  as long as management has the attitude that as long as Price is super human we don't need to give him any support because he can win us games by himself.

And fans need to stop thinking that as long as we have Price we don't need anyone else. HE NEEDS HELP, HE CAN'T DO IT ALL ALONE.  Everyone needs to weak up other wise we're just wasting Price's good years.

I don’t think anyone feels as though Price can win us a cup on his own. The proof has been in his playoff performances. If anything, people bring up more often that the Price effect can be negated by other goalies playing over their heads in a span of 7 games.

 

The benefit of having a goalie of Price’s caliber is that the team should be able to be competitive in any given year. There’s a difference between that reality and saying that he doesn’t need any support. He certainly needs all the support he can get, and he even needs a solid backup behind him.  I also think that although we’ve lacked in offense for years on end, it was always rather easy for fans to point out that our success was only due to Price in past years. I think this season demonstrated that over the years, we’ve had some alright teams in front of him from time to time.

 

I don’t defend management in general but I think it’s even more fair to say that Price played much below standard this year when compared to saying that management has expectations that are too high of him. Bergevin made some bad decisions last summer in my opinion, but it wasn’t because he thought Price could carry any team. 

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1 hour ago, Metallica said:

Price  will never win a cup here in Montreal  as long as management has the attitude that as long as Price is super human we don't need to give him any support because he can win us games by himself.

And fans need to stop thinking that as long as we have Price we don't need anyone else. HE NEEDS HELP, HE CAN'T DO IT ALL ALONE.  Everyone needs to weak up other wise we're just wasting Price's good years.

 

Who are the fans who are thinking this?

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Since 2012-13, 15 teams have played 30 games or more in the playoffs. 

 

Montreal is 12th in goals for, 5th in goals against. 13th in powerplay, 15th in penalty kill. However goals for per games played they are 11th and goals against per games played they are 14th.

 

I think it's safe to say that Price hasn't been a difference maker in the playoffs, but also the club in the Bergevin era has never really been good enough either. Price isn't to blame. He's just part of the blame. This has been a failed project from top to bottom. 

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You put Price on 

 

Edmonton 

Chicago 

Pittsburgh 

Leafs

Caps

Nashville 

Tampa 

St.Louis 

L.A

 

He's winning a cup why?, because Price can be Price. He does have to worry about being perfect in every game. He can just go out and play his game.

 

But on Montreal he has to worry about being perfect in every game. If he lets in 2 or 3 goals Montreal loses. 

 

Get him some help so he can just play his game, and not have to worry about the fact that he can't give up more then 2 or 3 goals.

 

Do you think Quick, Holtby ,Vasilevskiy,  or Rinne would be as good in Montreal.....not with this team.

 

Look at Brodeur when Nj had a good team playing in front of him he was great. But once they went young and started to rebuild Brobeur wasn't as good.  

 

All I am saying is we need to let Price be Price so he can be great. In order to do that he needs help. Price was great on team Canada because he just had to be Price.

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2 hours ago, Machine of Loving Grace said:

Since 2012-13, 15 teams have played 30 games or more in the playoffs. 

 

Montreal is 12th in goals for, 5th in goals against. 13th in powerplay, 15th in penalty kill. However goals for per games played they are 11th and goals against per games played they are 14th.

 

I think it's safe to say that Price hasn't been a difference maker in the playoffs, but also the club in the Bergevin era has never really been good enough either. Price isn't to blame. He's just part of the blame. This has been a failed project from top to bottom. 

Do your stats show the following 

 

Deflections  / tip In's 

Missed assignments 

Players left in front of the net

Stupid penalties 

Turn over

Unable to clear the puck out of the zone

 

Because last time I checked those things lead to bad goals that aren't always on the goaltender.

 

Stats dont always tell the true story 

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11 minutes ago, Metallica said:

Do your stats show the following 

 

Deflections  / tip In's 

Missed assignments 

Players left in front of the net

Stupid penalties 

Turn over

Unable to clear the puck out of the zone

 

Because last time I checked those things lead to bad goals that aren't always on the goaltender.

 

Stats dont always tell the true story 

 

Nope they don't.

 

But even Roy had less excuses than that for his playoff performances against Boston. 

 

We don't know how Price would look if the team was properly built with a good coach. We don't know how far the team would get if they could actually score goals in the playoffs. I'm a big Carey Price supporter and feel he should be near the bottom of the list for team issues, but for a guy that has been the starter here since 2008, it's pretty obvious his best performances don't come in the spring. 

 

There's a reason you're listing periphery and not great Carey Price playoff performances. 

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8 hours ago, Machine of Loving Grace said:

 

Nope they don't.

 

But even Roy had less excuses than that for his playoff performances against Boston. 

 

We don't know how Price would look if the team was properly built with a good coach. We don't know how far the team would get if they could actually score goals in the playoffs. I'm a big Carey Price supporter and feel he should be near the bottom of the list for team issues, but for a guy that has been the starter here since 2008, it's pretty obvious his best performances don't come in the spring. 

 

There's a reason you're listing periphery and not great Carey Price playoff performances. 

What do you mean???? Sure we do look at Team Canada and how he played. That’s how Price will look on a team that’s properly built and coached.

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