How Much Damage is Carey Prices Injury Causing Montreal Canadiens?
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Following a further two seasons with the Americans, where he won both the Del Wilson Trophy as the top goaltender in the Western Hockey League (WHL) and CHL Goaltender of the Year in his final season of major junior in 2007. Joining the Canadiens’ farm team, the Hamilton Bulldogs of the American Hockey League (AHL) just as the Calder Cup playoffs begun, Price led the Bulldogs to the Calder Cup championship, winning the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the tournament MVP. Price made the Canadiens roster for the 2007–08 season as the backup goaltender before ultimately becoming the starting goaltender later that season. In 2015, he was the winner of the Ted Lindsay, Jennings, Vezina and Hart trophies, becoming the first goaltender in NHL history to win all four individual awards in the same season.
The answer to that question will be dictated for the most part by the play of backup goalie Mike Condon. Shortly after Montreal announced the extent of Price’s injury, the team recalled rookie pro Zach Fucale from the AHL. That decision moves nominal No. 3 goalie Dustin Tokarski to the minors, where he’ll get a chance to get some playing time in.
Therrien’s comment about Fucale is suggestive; those aren’t the words of a coach who expects his team’s latest call-up to get a lot of playing time. For the moment, that leaves Condon as the club’s undisputed No. 1 goaltender.
This isn’t the first time this season that Condon has fallen into this role. Price missed the first three weeks of November, came back and played three games, and then was shelved again. During his absence, Condon played all but a single period, going 5-2-2 with a 0.904 save percentage during that span.
That save percentage is a little concerning, but it’s probably a bad idea to isolate just that nine-game run. On the year, Condon is 8-2-3 with a 0.916 save percentage.
Canadiens went into the playoffs against the seventh seeded Ottawa Senators. In Game 4, with the score tied 2–2 as the third period came to an end, Price suffered a groin injury and did not return for the overtime period and was replaced by Peter Budaj; the Senators would go onto score and win the game. Price’s injury sidelined him for the rest of the series and the Canadiens were eliminated in five games. Price ended the playoffs with a sub-par 3.26 GAA and an .894 save percentage.
The 2013–14 season saw Price return to form, recording 34 wins to go along with a career best 2.32 GAA and .927 save percentage, leading the Canadiens to their second 100-point season since 2007–08 season. The Canadiens entered the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference against the Tampa Bay Lightning, whom they swept in four games, marking Price’s first playoff series win since his rookie year. The Montreal Canadiens then faced the President’s Trophy-winning Boston Bruins in the second round for the fourth time of Price’s NHL career. In contrast to the previous two postseason meetings, the Canadiens upset the Bruins, ousting them in seven games. Following a 4–2 defeat in Game 5 at TD Garden, Price shut out the Bruins in Game 6 by a score of 4–0 before stopping 29 shots in a 3–1 victory in Game 7 to eliminate Boston and advance to the Conference Finals.
His and the Canadiens run, however, ended against the New York Rangers. In Game 1 at the Bell Centre, with the Rangers up 2–0 near the end of the second period, Rangers forward Chris Kreider crashed into Price. He would stay in net for the remainder of the period, allowing two more goals before the intermission. Price was then replaced by backup Peter Budaj in the third period as the Rangers scored three more goals to hammer the Canadiens 7–2 in Game 1.[24] Price was soon ruled out for the rest of the series with an unspecified lower-body injury, as the Canadiens fell in six games to the Rangers, the second year in-a-row Price had a premature ending to his playoffs due to injury.
Using our save percentage estimate and our expected shots-against totals, we get an expected gap of eight goals during the 18-game period that Montreal should be without Price. Using the numbers generated by Eric Tulsky, Carolina Hurricanes analyst and former Broad Street Hockey writer, (full analysis here; it’s really straight-forward and well worth reading) we know that on average a drop of three goals is equal to one point in the NHL standings. Without Price, we’d expect Montreal to lose three points over this 18-game span.
That’s a massive gap over a full season, but given Montreal’s sizable lead on the rest of its division and the relatively short period of time under consideration here, it’s not a major blow. The Canadiens are 10 points up on Ottawa as of this writing; even without Price they aren’t in much danger of losing that lead if Condon can provide even serviceable play in the interim.
By Jonathan Willis,
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Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick. In many areas, one sport (typically field hockey or ice hockey is generally referred to simply as hockey.
