Price gives self-evaluation following another ugly loss

Is there something wrong with him?

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 6 years ago
Price gives self-evaluation following another ugly loss
KeyStone Press

The Montreal Canadiens are on somewhat of a rollercoaster ride throughout the first month of action this season - and while there is a lot of blame to pass around, it's about time that we admit where most of the blame lies as of late.

And that's on Carey Price's shoulders.

Touted as the best goalie in the world, some media pundits are comparing his current play to that of a minor leaguer's - and they're not entirely off-base.

Price claims that he doesn't look at his stat sheet, but we do - and it's ugly. With a 3.77 goals against average and 0.877 save percentage, ranking him 42nd and 45th respectively in those two categories in the NHL. 

In other words, basically every team has at least one better goalie than Price, and in some cases, even the backup is playing a superior game.

Evidently - there's more blame to pass around, the defensemen are playing a very sloppy game. But that was anticipated going into the season, despite Marc Bergevin stating that the blue line is better than last year's (fake news). 

The big concern is Price's play. It's not unfamiliar to Habs fans, as he went through a similar stretch part way through last season, but most speculated it was the result of fatigue. He had missed the bulk of the prior season, trained hard through the summer, started for Canada in the World Cup of Hockey, and played the majority of the games throughout the first half of the season.

We understood how that could catch up to him. But fresh out of the gate, he isn't performing.

In response to last night's match, Price gave a few comments about his play and mindset right now.

"It wasn't an ideal start, it's tough to come back in this league I guess. Would've been better to get off to a better start, for sure. It's definitely a battle, but I know how to get through it, so I'm not concerned."

When asked if he feels he's playing the right way technically, he responded smugly. "What do you think? Doesn't look like it right now, does it."

He was also pretty blunt about if his positioning was bad for the first two goals against the Wild. "Yeah."

As mentioned, this is the second slump in the same calendar year for the star goalie. His mindset is to "Just stick with it. Just try and find a way to get through it. Try and stay positive and stick with the process that makes you successful. That's all you can do, so I try to keep going."

Most of these comments were made a bit tongue in cheek. His words were relatively optimistic, but his tone told a different story. Price is not the type to sound off to the media, but you can bet he's uttering some choice words behind closed doors.

What do you think is wrong with Carey?

Source: NHL.com