Lafleurs Guy
Guuuuuuuy!
- Jul 20, 2007
- 77,134
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I’d say for a brief period you could argue he was the best player in the game. He just couldn’t stay healthy.At no point was Carey Price better than Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid.
People talk about his 2014-15 season and for good reason. But the 13-14 season was probably the best I’ve ever seen. He was superhuman that year especially after the Olympics. I think he was the best player in the world over a couple of years. And 2016 was looking like back to back Hart seasons and then of course he got hurt. At his best he was like Sandy Koufax - unhittable. Unfortunately terrible teams and injuries limited what he could do.
He will never be close to Crosby’s career. But that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t just as good over his short peak.
The was a series of polls on best player in the league year by year a little while ago and Price came out on top one season and pretty close in a few others. People forget how bad those teams were without him. Look at the 15-16 season. We were unbeatable until he got hurt - then we dropped to last place everywhere without him. Very few players have that kind of impact on a team.
For those who think he doesn’t belong because he didn’t win a cup, I disagree. I think it’s silly to punish a player because he was stuck with an idiot GM. He did absolutely everything but win a cup. And he holds several records for us. He’s well worthy of inclusion.
As is, he’s a HOFer and an all time great. But he could’ve challenged to be among the best players ever. He was that good. Unfortunately that will always be a ‘coulda been’ question. As is, though he was still incredible and I think worthy of jersey retirement. Nobody else should wear 31 again. Just wouldn’t be right.