GDT Game 2, Sens vs Habs, 7 PM

[Machine of Loving Grace]

I agree with all of these sentiments, I've been in this board for a couple of years, and I havent resorted to Price bashing. But the last month, he's deserved every bit of criticism. He's been awful.

His performance was crud but the whole teams performance was crud. It wouldn't be fair for me to blame it all on David Desharnais or another poster to blame it on Josh Gorges. And yeah, there were people here blaming it all on Price. That's all I'm really trying to say. Was Price playing poorly? Sure. Was game one an example where if you could say one player that didn't play to the team's level was Price? Absolutely. But there are just some points on conversation when it comes to the starting goaltender that just bothers me. Specifically the fact that he's blamed for team losses because the NHL stupidly considers wins/losses a goaltender statistic. It's almost ingrained in us. If we could see the win/loss record of forwards and defencemen, I bet we'd see some new (and also irrational) angles popping up.

07-08 he was a rookie. 08-09 the whole team fell apart. 09-10 was his worst season (despite still putting up median starter numbers in the season), 10-11 he was fantastic and 11-12 despite strong stats the team didn't make the playoffs. Why are we deciding it's time to call Price a winner or loser? Why is he not getting the fresh start that everyone else on the team has received? This is probably the bane of being a young goaltender and it's certainly not just Price (look at the pressure Ovechkin deals with) but I just find it ridiculous when Cucumber states that Price has run out of rope. As far as I'm concerned, when Therrien/Bergevin came in that cleaned the slate of the Gainey/Gauthier era. If Rene Bourque can get a new lease on his future with the Canadiens, why is Price out of rope?

Am I a huge fan of Price? Sure. But I thought it was silly when people were blaming 11-12 on Gomez and I think it's silly to blame the month on Price. If anything, every member of the team, Price included, rested on their laurels once they clinched the playoff spot and waited for Therrien/Bergevin to fix the Emelin hole. Once Tinordi stepped up the team stepped up. Price stepped up in the season but played poorly against Ottawa. Now he's playing well again. I don't see why he's out of rope.