While the Montreal Canadiens are no longer in a position of strength in the crease, the organization has had more than its fair share of fantastic goaltenders over the years. As NHL.com celebrates goalie week, The Hockey News looks back at some of the best goaltender to man the Habs’ net.
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Looking back at the Canadiens most recent history, it’s impossible not to start this feature week with Carey Price. The Anahim Lake, B.C. native was selected fifth overall by the Tricolore at the 2005 draft and spent his whole career wearing the Sainte-Flanelle.
Related: Carey Price and Shea Weber To Be Inducted Into The B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame
For 15 seasons, Price stood tall in front of the Canadiens’ net under the magnifying glass that is the Montreal market. A city in which it seems like everyone lives and breathes hockey. In September 2010, a few months after the Habs had decided to trade Jaroslav Halak after he guided them to the Eastern Conference Final, the netminder was booed in a preseason game and he handled things in the calm and collected way that defined him throughout his whole career, saying:
Relax, chill out. We’ve got lots of time. We’re not winning the Stanley Cup in the first exhibition game.
That was Price in a nutshell. Cool as a cucumber, like nothing ever got to him or rattled him. That’s how he was able to achieve such longevity in this market. He played 712 games of which he won 361, more than any other goaltender in a Habs uniform. Sure, he played more games than the goalies who rank behind him, but that gives him a win percentage of 51 percent. In comparison, Patrick Roy who played 551 games in Montreal won 289 games, for a 52 percent win percentage. Being this close to a goaltender who’s got his number in the rafters and at the Hockey Hall of Fame is quite an accomplishment, but still not his most impressive one.
Related: Canadiens: The Heartbreak of the 2010 Off-Season
Price also ranks fifth in Canadiens history in save percentage with .917, eighth in goals-against average with 2.51 and third overall with 49 shutouts. Beyond the statistics though, he has had one of the most incredible goaltending seasons ever in 2014-2015 when he claimed the Vezina, Hart, Jennings and Pearson trophies.
In that unbelievable season, he set a new record for wins with 44 while receiving the second most shots any Canadiens goaltender has ever faced in a season with 2147, just 13 short of Jacques Plante’s record of 2160. He set another record for the highest save percentage in a season with the Canadiens with .933 and set the seventh best GAA with 1.96 (the leader in that department is George Hainsworth, a shutout wizard who set the record in a season with 22, claiming a 0.92 GAA in the process).
Related: Montreal Canadiens’ Carey Price Won Gold for Canada
On the international scene he led Canada to gold more than once. At the World Junior Championships in 2007, the World Cup in 2016 and the Olympics in 2014. There will always be those who argue that most of Price’s records with the Canadiens are a product of his longevity in Montreal, but that longevity in itself is a fantastic accomplishment.
After leading the Canadiens to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, Price’s career was pretty much over. He only appeared in five games the following season, signing his only win of the campaign in the very last game of the year, when the Canadiens destroyed the Florida Panthers’ C-team (with Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Aaron Ekblad and Sergei Bobrovsky all being rested in readiness for the playoffs).
Related: Canadiens: Dryden Sees Price in the Rafters
Although it was the game in which Cole Caufield scored his first hat-trick, it will always be remembered as the night on which Price said his goodbyes to the game he loved. With time left on the clock, the netminder put his stick on top of his net started waving at his family in the stands and those who caught the gesture immediately began to wonder if that was how the Price era would end in Montreal.
In an interview about his future with Dave Stubbs on NHL.com, Price said of that game:
That whole day, I took everything in as if it were my last game, just really being aware of everything I did throughout the day. The routine, the noises, the scenes… I took mental note of everything that day that was going on.
He then added:
I prepared that day like I’d be playing my final game. I didn’t know for sure. At that time, I was still trying to weigh my options for having another surgery. I went through the whole day in the process of preparing like this was it.
In the end, it would end up being his last game. The talented goalkeeper had to call it quits because of a recurring knee injury. He could have underwent another surgery, but there would have been no guarantee that it would have fixed the issue. Unfortunately, Price had reached the point where the pain was impacting his quality of life. When he explained his decision, he mentioned he would like to be able to play with his kids as they grow up.
Many Habs fans blame the infamous Chris Kreider incident for the premature end of his career, but he refused to do so. Instead he blamed the normal wear and tear of a goaltender’s career which had caught up to him.
Even though he fell short of bringing the Stanley Cup to Montreal, Price will always remain one of the greatest goaltenders the Canadiens have had. Unfortunately for him, he spent most of his career backstopping an offensively challenged side that struggled to put goals on the board. As good as your goaltender is, if you can’t put the puck in the net, you won’t win.
Now that the Canadiens are finally building their team with offense being a priority, the goaltender is on LTIR and he’s missing all the fun. Thing is though, if he wasn’t on LTIR, it’s unlikely GM Kent Hughes could have made some of the moves that will eventually lead the Canadiens to be an offense-first team.
In any case, Price’s body of work is still impressive and one can hope the powers that be are willing to send him up to the rafters to take his rightful place next to other goaltending legends: Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden and Roy.
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