Every goalie lets in some soft goals. Price used to do it when his numbers were stellar. That's not a problem... unless you're doing it with regularity. And that is happening now.
In previous years Price did as well as any goalie could under the circumstances. Apart from Winnipeg, Montreal has had the worst D in the league for goaltenders in close. No goalie is going to put up great numbers behind that. Nobody. So yeah, he actually has played very well in the past two seasons. He got terrible teams as close to the playoffs as any player could.
This year though? Up until recently our D wasn't that bad, yet he still gave up unforced errors. That's no big deal as it's a slow start. But now our D sucks and he's still giving up some softies. That will kill us. It's hard enough making the playoffs when your D can't find it's ass with it's own two hands. But when your best player can't make up for it, then you're really in trouble. There's no excuse for the unforced errors. That needs to be corrected.
Honestly, I can't explain it. He makes really hard saves and makes a lot of them look easy. No idea why he'd all of a sudden give up so many soft goals now. A couple of games ago he got us a much needed win. Against TO, he played really well but lost. And tonight after a great game he gives up a tinkertoy shot for a goal? I mean wtf? Can't do that. Not with regularity.
The season is no longer young. It'd be one thing if he gave up a softie in a losing cause or in a win. But he gave it up at a key moment when the team is struggling. And he did it on the back end of two games where he played really well. Can't do that. He needs to fix this quickly.
It’s visible that either he’s just not into the game anymore, severely lacking focus, or is just not as good with age.
I’m always watching him closely, and he’s very often not in proper position and not set for the shot or a deke. He plays REALLY deep in his net now for some reason, and is also playing much smaller than in past years. It makes no sense, since he’s also slower and very visibly so. Not sure if his constant leg injuries has made him change his style to a less dynamic style.
he doesn’t battle to find the puck much anymore, he’s always looking down and through players instead of standing more upright and looking above and around like he did during his prime.
he’s also guessing on a lot of shots. Teams know to throw the puck at the net from far since Price has a lot of difficulty picking up pucks through players. That PP goal by the rookie was completely along the ice and didn’t get deflected at all, yet Price guessed it was going up in his pads (check his glove positioning hoping it hits him in the gut). He also guessed on Tkatchuk’s 2nd goal... he guessed there was going to be a pass, and didn’t manage to pick up a weak shot along the ice which just slid into the net at 5km/h.
he’s just off in every way this season.
