CANADIENS
Montreal

SHARKS
San Jose

Game Report

Carey Price picked up his ninth shutout and 40th win of the season against the Sharks.  Price is now only two wins away from the franchise record of 42 held by Jacques Plante (twice) and Ken Dryden.  It was Price’s 34th career shutout which ties him for fourth place with Bill Durnan on the Canadiens all-time list.

Price now is the leader in the NHL’s four top goaltending categories: 1.86 Goals Against Average, .938 Save Percentage, 40 wins and 9 shutouts.  With Price on his way to winning the Vezina and Hart trophies, we just may be witnessing the greatest regular season by any goaltender, certainly by one wearing the CH.

Before anyone becomes unhinged and starts referencing Cups and Conn Smythe awards, let me reiterate that we’re talking about a regular season performance.  Let’s also consider the Doug Harvey-led team that supported Jacques Plante and the power-house team that Ken Dryden played behind, Patrick Roy less so.  But even that aside, each of them lost focus as times, particularly the emotional Roy.  The same can’t be said about Price this season.

Price is doing more with less. Post-game, he is the player his teammates want to talk about, and more significantly, the player who the opposition talks about.

If the evaluation is taken beyond the beyond the bleu, blanc et rouge, the measuring stick becomes Dominik Hašek’s 1998-99 season. With nine games remaining, Price’s numbers stack up very well.

Carey Price is indeed the “thoroughbred” that Bob Gainey spoke about in 2009.  He is dominating the sport this season in a way few have done before.

The defensive pair of Andrei Markov and P.K. Subban did a fine job of limiting the offense of Joe Thornton and company but they still got scoring chances.  Jeff Petry and Alexei Emelin are rounding into an effective second-pairing on defense. Emelin had six hits.

Tomas Plekanec, Max Pacioretty, Lars Eller, Brendan Gallagher and Brandon Prust looked like they are ready for playoff-style hockey. Plekanec, Pacioretty and Gallagher picked up points while Eller and Prust are effective at grinding minutes in the offensive zone and wearing down opponents.

Plus / Minus

▲▲ Carey Price

▲     Tomas Plekanec, Brandon Prust, Alexei Emelin, Brendan Gallagher, Andrei Markov, P.K. Subban

▼     P.A. Parenteau, Devante Smith-Pelly, David Desharnais

1.  Carey Price  MTL
2.  Tomas Plekanec  MTL
3.  Brandon Prust  MTL

• “Once again, Carey was Carey; it’s as simple as that. He made key saves, particularly at the end, as everyone saw. Carey was Carey.”
• “I appreciated everyone’s effort. The guys worked really hard, they played with a lot of determination, so it was a good team win.”

Carey Price

• “I never really would have pictured myself in this situation, but you know what, I’ve been blessed immensely and I’ve been helped a lot to get where I’m at, and I’ve got a lot of people to thank.”
• “We have a very tight group in here. We really enjoy coming to the rink every day and putting in the work. We just seem to find ways to win.”

Tomas Plekanec

• “I don’t know what else we can say about [Carey Price]. Obviously he’s the best, and thanks to him, we are where we are. Hopefully we can help him out a little more down the stretch and keep having success.”

Alex Galchenyuk

• “I was on the bench and everyone just couldn’t believe [Price’s game-saving save.] We knew [Carey Price] was capable of that, but to see those kinds of saves over and over now is definitely something special. It’s just unbelievable the way he’s playing.”

Sharks forward Logan Couture

• “[Carey Price] saved it with his knob. It kind of flipped up at the last second. I got it up over his pad, and somehow he got the knob of his stick over there and saved it.”

Sharks defenceman Marc- Edouard Vlasic

• “We played well. Like he’s done maybe 40 times this year, [Carey Price] saved the game; he was the difference.”

Sharks centre Joe Pavelski

• “It felt like we had more than enough chances, it felt like we had more than 29 shots. It was one of those nights where the 29 shots we had were ones that we can score on. That’s how it felt. I don’t know what it looked like, but [Carey Price] made some good saves.”

Sharks coach Todd McLellan

• “We competed hard against a first-place club and pushed them hard in their home building. But the moral victories don’t put points in the bank, and that’s what we need right now.”
• “That’s the way it goes. The pucks went off their skates and on our sticks. We weren’t lucky enough to put it in.”