Carey Price will once again carry the Montreal Canadiens

By any goaltender’s standards, Carey Price did not have a particularly spectacular night on Saturday when the Montreal Canadiens hosted the Philadelphia Flyers for the second time this season. He allowed four goals and posted an .895 save percentage. Price is not just any goaltender, however, and over the course of the game he made more than one highlight-reel save and skated away with the win.

Through seven games played, Price’s numbers are spectacular: a 1.58 goals-against average and .952 save percentage, and that includes Saturday’s game.

There’s no such thing as a general consensus in the hockey community, but if there were, it would be that the Canadiens do not have much to hope for without Carey Price in the lineup. After all, a season-ending injury for Price last fall turned into the season ending for the Habs as well. Where the team had been firing on all cylinders and threatening to lead the league before his injury, it became a hopeless disaster after he was placed on long-term injured reserve. Montreal finished the season with 82 points, well below the league average of 91.

The team made some significant moves this offseason, most notably trading away young superstar defenseman P.K. Subban in favor of Shea Weber, an elite but aging player who is seen by some general managers and coaches as a far more reliable defenseman. The Canadiens brought in offensively gifted forward Alexander Radulov as well as center Andrew Shaw in the hopes that the team would score some much-needed goals and be tougher to play against than years before.

It’s still too early in the season to really tell how much those moves are paying off, but it looks like the biggest factor in this team’s success will once again be the health and play of Carey Price. The Canadiens are still giving up a distressing number of shots against and having trouble transitioning out of the defensive zone. As evidenced by their 10-0 loss in Columbus on Friday night, their in-game adjustments leave a lot to be desired. In fact, many fans were calling for coach Michel Therrien to replace backup goaltender Al Montoya with Price that night to stop the bleeding (he did not), but the team needs to come up with a better plan than “put Price in net and hope for the best.”

Not that anyone can blame the Canadiens. Price is widely regarded as the best goaltender in the world, with an Olympic gold medal, a Vezina Trophy, a Hart Trophy, a Ted Lindsay Award and countless other accolades to his name. Some would argue he is the best hockey player, period, but objectively comparing skaters to goaltenders is probably not a very productive discussion.

The question is often asked whether there is a team that Carey Price can’t save. A better question would be if he can manage to save the Montreal Canadiens from themselves. With him in the lineup, the Canadiens, mediocre as they are in all other respects, can still realistically dream of a Stanley Cup, but as we saw last year, without him they're doomed.