Carey Price as the potential to be the best in world as shown by his Hart/Vezina/Ted Linsay season.
Regardless of that season or the obscene salary he earns, I don’t think it is realist to expect a similar level of play from him night in night out.
We have seen enough of him to know that this will not be his standard.
With that being said, it is absurd in my opinion to think Carey Price is as bad as his 2017-2018 season.
That was much more of an outlier than the Hart season.
Those statistic re last 100 games don’t hold much weight to me for a couple of reasons.
They are more representative of the team than of Carey Price.
#1 That team in front of Price was garbage since December 2016, the beginning of that sample size.
That’s exactly when this team started it’s downfall.
They peaked October-November.
#2 It could be argued that Carey Price did not have the luxury to play with a real defenseman #1 since December 2016.
PK Subban was traded prior to the 2016-2017 season.
Incomes Shea Weber who started the season on fire making shortsighed people think Montreal may have won the trade. Weber scored half his goals of the season in October/November.
His play dipped in December like the rest of the team.
#3 Those stats are impacted big time by that ugly 2017-2018 season.
That season was pure sabotage by MB, the team had no hope or drive after losing Markov and Radulov for nothing while the competition reloaded.
As for the argument that Niemi, Lindgren or even Montoya are better than Price re their stats during the same sample size, b*tch please.
There is no way that if those backup goaltenders had played the same amount of games that #31 played during that sample size, that they end up with the same GAA or Save%.
Take Lindgren for example.
Came in and was just winning.
Until he wasn’t and came back to earth.
Plus those goalies would have had to face all the elite teams à la Washington/Tampa Bay, rivalry games à la Boston/Toronto...
Yeah, nope.
Stats staying as good, not happening.
Unfortunately, there is no way to prove that unless said games would have been played, thus allowing the delusion of some to think they are really better than Carey Price.
I mean, if someone tells you straight up that Anti Niemi is a better goaltender than Carey Price, it’s a big waste of your energy to answer anything at this point.
With that being said.
Carey Price needs to be better, 10M$ per season or not.
He also needs to have a better attitude.
Yes the whole team gave up last year, but if your goalie gives up, there is no remedy for that.
Plus he painted himself a nice little target on his back with that new contract.
Those derision cheers like last night will happen if he doesn’t play well.
He needs to take it on the chin and come back stronger.
It is extremely rare to see people defending Carey Price’s bad play or make excuses for him on this board.
Posters mostly defend him against unjustified over the top bashing, or against apple and ANANAS comparison re backup goaltender stats during December 2016-present sample size.
