Carey Price vs. the World

Written by Steve Farnham, AllHabs.net

MONTREAL, QC. — With most NHL teams now having a little over twenty games left to play before the season’s end, I wanted to take this opportunity to see how Carey Price is currently stacking up against the rest of the goaltenders in the league so far this season. With the Montreal Canadiens currently ranked 26th in the league, it’s clear that the world is being asked of Carey Price, and in a way, you could say that those looking for the Canadiens to tank the season can blame Price for the Canadiens not wanting to fall all the way down.

Carey Price has always appeared to me as a big kid. He’s matured very much over the last couple of seasons but at heart, he’s a big kid. He likes to have fun and we saw a great demonstration of that at the NHL All Star Game where it seems fans couldn’t get enough of the “Mic’d up Carey Price”. He’s funny, pleasant and his easy-going attitude can really grow on you, but I digress.

The point is that when a team is having a difficult season, a losing season, it’s often difficult to maintain a positive attitude, a great focus, and most of all, simply enjoy the game. It seems that Carey Price has found a way to do just that.

What exactly is Carey Price doing in order to continue having fun in what seems like a situation that is anything but?  

I don’t have the answer to this question. It could be that he’s just genuinely happy in his life right now, and happiness is unique to everyone. To me, besides that, it appears that he’s really found a way to keep his focus and concentration on the task at hand. He seems to have found a way to eliminate all the distractions which can often be the doom of a player. He’s not worrying about the standings; he’s not worrying about his contract; he’s not worrying about his number of wins; he’s just playing each minute and each second of ice time he’s given as best as he can.

Let’s look at the numbers.

The first thing that comes to mind after looking at these stats is that I have to get myself an NHL TV package that covers the Central division. Hot damn, Jimmy Howard, Brian Elliot, Jaroslav Halak and Pekka Rinne all in the same division must make for some great division games.

What stands out even more is that Jonathan Quick has a 0.934 save percentage (SV%.) This almost makes no sense, if you consider that the Los Angeles Kings are third in the Pacific Division, ninth in the Western Conference, and sit 16th overall in the league. How do you explain this? Simple, the Kings can’t score goals. The Kings are the worst team in the NHL at scoring, with only 124 goals scored this season. That’s 36 less goals than the Canadiens to put it into perspective.

Goaltenders like Jimmy Howard and Tim Thomas on their end get more offensive support from their teams, both ranking amongst the top in the league in goals scored.

In the case of goaltenders like Henrik Lundqvist, Brian Elliott, Jaroslav Halak and Pekka Rinne, their teams provide what I would consider is a good balance between offense and defense. They don’t necessarily have the best offenses in the league, but they make up for it with good defense.

So how does Carey Price compare to these goalies, who rank at the top of these categories? 

I don’t think the situations are at all comparable. In the case of Carey Price, he’s had to deal with so much this season in different shapes and forms:

• The return of Andrei Markov that never happened.
• The growing pains of sophomore defenseman P.K. Subban.
• The growing pains of rookie defensemen Alexei Emelin and Rafael Diaz.
• The questionable defensive abilities of Chris Campoli and Tomas Kaberle.
• Injuries to just about everyone in the lineup.

So we can all stand here and point out the obvious, and that being that Carey Price is only:

• 13th in Wins with 22.
• 15th in GAA with 2.38.
• 21st in Sv% with 0.916%.

Sure, it doesn’t look that great black on white just looking at the ranks. But the reality is that Carey Price’s 2.38 GAA is better than Pekka Rinne’s 2.40 GAA, and if I recall, he’s tied for most wins in the NHL, and a 0.916 SV% last time I heard was very respectable.

If it wasn’t for Carey Price, the Canadiens wouldn’t be six points out of eighth place as we speak. They would be dead last in the Eastern Conference, where many would want them to be. Unfortunately though, if you are someone who wishes that, luck is not in your favour because Carey Price is good. He’s damn good.