By Steve Farnham, Associate Editor, All Habs Hockey Magazine
MONTREAL, QC. – For many, there was a lot of anticipation leading up to this season with how Carey Price was going to respond after you know, last year’s disappointing end of season and the comments made to reporters about how he’d become a hobbit bunkered up in his apartment refusing to go out. (And you know what happens when Carey Price can’t go to the grocery store…) Although I believe much of it was blown out of proportion, it caused many to question Price’s ability to deal with the pressure of being the number one goaltender in Montreal, and some went as far as saying that Marc Bergevin should consider trading him.
The madness.
Let’s take a step back and revisit some of the more popular weaknesses Carey Price was reproached of having last season:
- “He’s too deep in his net.”
- “He down on his knees too early and too much.”
- “He’s too robotic in his movements.”
- “He has a weak five-hole.”
He’s too deep in his net:
It’s often said that confident goalies stand on the edge of their crease while goalies who lack this confidence will stand deeper in their net. Although in some cases this tends to be true, there are other cases where it’s purely a question of strategy although not widely adopted. It can be argued that a goalie who works deeper in his net will have an additional fraction of a second to react to a shot and that this added fraction of a second could be the difference between a save and a goal. Also, in the case of a pass, the goalie who stands deeper in his net will have less distance to travel in order to get from point A to point B, thus having an advantage over the goalie who would have been more challenging of the puck carrier.
The obvious disadvantage of working deep in the net is that on a straight shot, you’re simply giving the shooter more net to shoot at while the goalie who plays farther out of his net will cut down shooting angles thus gaining an advantage.
He down on his knees too early and too much:
Carey Price was often questioned last season about the fact he appeared to be going down more often than he used to and more quickly, often in situations where there was not even the threat a shot coming at the net.
Price had responded that this was a strategy he had been working on with Pierre Groulx and that by staying lower to the ice, it allowed him to see the puck trajectory more effectively. Although this is possibly true, it created a perception that Price had become weak in the upper part of the net, even though statistics often demonstrated this was not necessarily the case.
| Carey Price | |
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Height: 6-3 Weight: 209 Shoots: Left Born: Aug 16, 1987 – Anahim Lake, British Columbia Draft: 2005 – 1st round (5th overall) by the Montreal Canadiens |
He’s too robotic in his movements:
I’ve always believed that this criticism is a result of Carey Price’s incredible technique. Price has a butterfly that is picture-perfect, and his ability to push across his crease laterally into the butterfly is one I’ve rarely seen in a goalie before. Throughout his young career, Price has often had this robotic look to him, which comes from a technique that works on the strategy that if you cover your angles properly, the puck will simply bounce off of you and you don’t have to go chasing after it.
The negative side to this approach is that although you’ll stop the puck most of the time in theory, you might look really awful on those occasions where you don’t.
He has a weak five-hole:
This one I almost want to dismiss automatically because I’ve seen no credible evidence to suggest Price has a weak five-hole. He went through a small stretch during the end of season clusterfuck where a few goals went in through his pads, but it seems all goalies are labeled with this title when going through a similar period.
There are only so many places where a player can score (high glove, low glove, high stick, low stick, five-hole and under the arms) so some are bound to go in through the pads. If anyone can show me some credible data to support the premise that Price has a weak five-hole, i’ll revisit my position.
Montreal Canadiens’ general manager, Marc Bergevin appeared to feel that the status quo wasn’t an option so he went out and signed goaltender coach, Stephane Waite resulting in some added interest in how Price would perform this season. Waite, I remind you had 30 years of experience as a goaltending coach before being hired by the Habs in the offseason, including the last 10 years with the Chicago Blackhawks where he won two Stanley Cups with goaltenders Antti Niemi and Corey Crawford.
“I like goalies that are technically very sound, like Carey, but I also like it when a goalie knows how to get away from that technique and work off instinct when he needs to. Too many goalies in the league right now are too concerned with technique. It’s a matter of balance and being in control – not too aggressive, but not too passive either.” – Stephane Waite
Only four games into the season, it feels like we can see a difference.
Aggressive and challenging shooters:
Carey Price appears to be more aggressive this season, so far anyways. Often, he stands on the outside of the blue paint instead of within it like we often saw last season. I no longer see the Price who would stay back in the blue paint looking beside and through the screens, but one who stands on the edge of his crease shoving opposing players out of his line of sight.
He challenges shooters and when he does, his big body is so imposing to opposing shooters that it leaves them with very little net to shoot at, even with the smaller goalie equipment.
Staying up on his skates:
Price had mentioned in a previous interview that he had worked with Waite prior to the start of the season on staying up longer to challenge opposing shooters. The idea, as Price had said, was that by staying up for the first shot, it would allow him to be in a better position to react to rebounds. This is not rocket science, but basically goaltending 101.
In any case, this is exactly what we’ve seen from Price so far this season and by being able to stay up longer, he’s been able to better respond to some of his rebounds. Even in cases where he’s had to go down for the first shot, he appears to be more alert thus allowing him to better respond to rebounds and put himself in a position to make the second and sometimes third saves.
More lively and less machine-like:
We haven’t seen the robotic Carey Price too much so far this season. What we’ve instead seen is an athletic Carey Price who in quite a few situations has desperately thrown himself across his crease to make incredible saves, especially against the Vancouver Canucks this past Saturday.
Instead of moving across his crease towards the far post like he would in the past, he’s instead lunging himself towards opposing players and cutting down angles in a way I’ve rarely seen him do before. He still has all the great technique behind him, but appears to be using it more athletically than he has before in the pros.
Five-Hole to be continued:
If there’s anything I’ve noticed so far this season about Price’s five-hole, it’s that he can be a little stick-lazy at times, let me explain. When moving laterally across your crease, a goaltender has no choice but to expose the five-hole as the pads open up to create extension. That’s why it’s important for the goaltender to bring his stick back in front of him and protect this overexposed five-hole area and this i’ve noticed Price seems to forget to do at times. This was especially noticeable in the first game of the season, on James van Riemsdyk’s goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Time will tell if there’s truly a weakness in this area but I’m always reassured by a joke my dad once told me when I was younger:
“Did you hear the news? Patrick Roy jumped in front of the metro (subway) this morning! Don’t worry though; it went right through his legs.”
When speaking of Price’s strong play to start off this season, can we automatically attribute it to Stephane Waite’s arrival? I like to think that the correct answer is one that includes both yes and no.
It’s crazy to believe that Carey Price absolutely needed a new goalie coach this year, and that he’d have a goals against average soaring above seven had Pierre Groulx still been around. At the same time, I don’t think it’s crazy to believe that a change in goalie coach might have been exactly what the doctor ordered for Carey Price, and that although it wasn’t necessarily needed, it might sure have help.
I also can’t help to mention that we are still very early into this season, and that we are a long ways away of calming the sceptics went it comes to Carey Price.
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