The Carey Price Discussion Thread (part 2)

[MSLs absurd thighs]

For a bunch of guys who said they trusted their goalie to bounce back, they sure didn't do much to help him regain his confidence back yesterday. Unless they're so stupid (even more than I thought they are) that they don't know the reality of a place like the Bell Centre/Montreal, where Carey is the most scrutinized player in the league after a bad performance.

Some of the blame has to be directed towards Price. But even as a huge critic of the guy, I can't help but to feel sorry for the guy, who just played behind a sorry bunch yesterday.

Says a lot about some of the guys out there, who'd rather talk the talk than walk the walk. Specifically Gorges. After his comments about his great friend, I'd expect him to come out strong yesterday.

Oh well. Another time... or not...

 

[Tabarouette]

Just like I suggested Right call.

either
-a great call that will gives him a well needed rest
-a terrible call that will start another goalie debate and destroy his confidence


let's just hope for the best

 

[Gary320]

Budaj starting tomorrow

I like this.
I also think starting Price last night was the good thing to do (even if we lost)

First we have back to back games.

Second.. Say the team wins tomorrow. Team will gain some momentum and some confidence.

Thursday, you start Price. Price starts infront of a team with a bit more confidence than they did the night before.. so they'll likely (hopefully) play better infront of him.. Making his job, a bit easier and thus.. gaining some confidence back.

Atleast that's how I think it can play out.

 

[Whitesnake]

either
-a great call that will gives him a well needed rest
-a terrible call that will start another goalie debate and destroy his confidence


let's just hope for the best

There won't be a debate. While our team could surprise us...I don't see it. Hence another loss. And as good as people think Budaj is, he shouldn't be stopping 52 shots on 53.

Having said all of that...there is NO way that Price feels better at home than away. So I would have given him tonight's game, and come back with Budaj tomorrow.

The real debate is if Therrien goes with Budaj for BOTH games.....That would be something else.

 

[pine*]

If the team plays like it did vs Philly, Price will get in the game soon enough - and that's not a knock against Budaj.

 

[Strik_IX]

There won't be a debate. While our team could surprise us...I don't see it. Hence another loss. And as good as people think Budaj is, he shouldn't be stopping 52 shots on 53.

Having said all of that...there is NO way that Price feels better at home than away. So I would have given him tonight's game, and come back with Budaj tomorrow.

The real debate is if Therrien goes with Budaj for BOTH games.....That would be something else.

I don't think he will. If we look at how he's handled his goalies it's clear that Price is the go to guy even when Budaj has a 7-1-1 record. I'm glad that's the way it is, no controversy, no BS.

 

[OldCraig71]

Let me first start off by saying that I am fan of the Habs and not the names on the back. I want our team to do well and I realize that we have been a suprise this year and no one, even us expected great results so quickly.

Well, here we are, a playoff spot clinched and battling our first adversity of the season. I wonder if the bubble has burst or it's just a little struggle that will go away and we will be better for it.

I have a question for you all. If we go into the playoffs and Price can't get it together and Budaj comes in and saves us and we win our first round matchup, what do you do then? Do you put Price back in or do you let him sit as a backup?

 

[Tabarouette]

There won't be a debate. While our team could surprise us...I don't see it. Hence another loss. And as good as people think Budaj is, he shouldn't be stopping 52 shots on 53.

Having said all of that...there is NO way that Price feels better at home than away. So I would have given him tonight's game, and come back with Budaj tomorrow.

The real debate is if Therrien goes with Budaj for BOTH games.....That would be something else.

what if Budaj plays a great game tomorrow and Price plays a terrible game on thursday? I can guarantee you that the Journal de Montréal cover on friday will be "Budaj ou Price?" and sadly, I have already seen a couple of people who firmly believe that Budaj will be the #1 during the playoffs...

the dumb goalie debate won't start here on this board because most people here know a little something about hockey but when it comes to the population in general, they'll complain about anything l'antichambre tells them to and they'll even boo someone out of this town if everyone else does it (see the Brisebois thing)

 

[hototogisu]

Let me first start off by saying that I am fan of the Habs and not the names on the back. I want our team to do well and I realize that we have been a suprise this year and no one, even us expected great results so quickly.

Well, here we are, a playoff spot clinched and battling our first adversity of the season. I wonder if the bubble has burst or it's just a little struggle that will go away and we will be better for it.

I have a question for you all. If we go into the playoffs and Price can't get it together and Budaj comes in and saves us and we win our first round matchup, what do you do then? Do you put him back in or do you let him sit as a backup?

Playoffs are all about the hot hand, have to go with Budaj in that case.

 

[sandysan]

Can't avoid everyone in first round. You cannot be serious about starting at home vs Isles vs possibly dropping to 5th and starting against Leafs at ACC.

That is what these two losses might mean, if we play .400 from now on and Leafs win 4 of 6.

The Isles have zero PO experience, and no toughness. They would be a much better 1st round opponent than Laffs. I'd be surprised if it took 6 games to beat them.

We cant beat the isles in the regular season, and it looks like we cant beat the leafs either.

Yes its nice to imagine which team would give us the best chance, but a lot of that is out of our hands. What we can control is giving our goalies the time and the support to work out of the funk he is in. In the playoffs we are going to play good teams, focus on the things you can control and let the other stuff fall where they may. I suspect you are the type of fan who would advocate losing the last game of the season to get a better " matchup" which is precisely what we dont need. We win when we play good "MTL style" hockey, if we try to beat other teams based on their strengths, we are gonna get killed.

Compared to the isles, we have a little more PO experience ( the leafs have less) and we scrape the bottom of the barrel in terms of toughness, especially if White is done this season.

right now righting the ship is objective #1. Mabey price can't turn it around, but we should exhaust EVERY option finding out. We are not likely going to catch pittsburg and I suspected that boston would likely catch us so we are looking at the 4/5 seeding that likely means toronto.

 

[OldCraig71]

Playoffs are all about the hot hand, have to go with Budaj in that case.

So if you do that, then are you telling Price you have lost confidence in him or are you expecting him to tow the company line and do what's best for the team.

I can see where the team really needs it to be him and not Budaj. We cannnot keep shielding him from the pressure of success/failure. I would love to see him play like Patrick did in 86 and 93 and carry the team on his back but I wonder if he is that dialed in.

 

[hototogisu]

So if you do that, then are you telling Price you have lost confidence in him or are you expecting him to tow the company line and do what's best for the team.

I can see where the team really needs it to be him and not Budaj. We cannnot keep shielding him from the pressure of success/failure. I would love to see him play like Patrick did in 86 and 93 and carry the team on his back but I wonder if he is that dialed in.

It's one of those things where you make the decision and worry about the fall-out after. I'm all for giving Price every chance to figure things out now, while we're playing out a string of essentially meaningless games, but the playoffs are another story. If the situation you described plays out...you have to go with Budaj and see where he takes you.

Then you take the entire off-season to think long and hard about Price

 

[habtastic]

Chill the **** out guys, relax...

This was an awesome post. We've all seen it before, but such a great reminder to everyone who thinks he's been an average goalie since the Halak days. "Has the boo birds eating out of his trapper."

I'm not worried about Carey at all. I have other worries with Emelin out and the offense frustrated, but Carey knows what he has to do and this time he has the fans behind him. That KO punch is coming.

Also, I love Budaj, but I agree with the mentality that Price has to work through this to get to the form that we need for the playoffs. It's how the team was designed and yeah, it was the Toronto game that he was bad in. The whole TEAM needs a wakeup call and to work it out.

 

[OldCraig71]

It's one of those things where you make the decision and worry about the fall-out after. I'm all for giving Price every chance to figure things out now, while we're playing out a string of essentially meaningless games, but the playoffs are another story. If the situation you described plays out...you have to go with Budaj and see where he takes you.

Then you take the entire off-season to think long and hard about Price

I hope it's just a laugh and he is the reason that we do well and not the opposite.

 

[Kenny Powders]

Elaborate?

Last I heard he called Price the Tony Romo of the NHL..

 

[habtastic]

Why? You don't like the truth?

Want to put your head in the sand and pretend Carey Price is indeed Jesus and hasn't been playing like crap?

It's so easy to remember 2-3 games when everything unraveled. Price cost us 1 game. The others, it was the entire team including him to varying extents.

I wish you could re-watch our entire season this year, not just the 3 games you remember. Watch each save, each key moment when Price has bailed us out. You are the one burying your head in the sand because for all the great play he has shown (if I look at my texts during games to my best friends who I text throughout, it is fulllll of posts alluding to Carey being terrific), you want to remember the gross minority to make your point.

A bad goal or a bad game looks disproportionately worse than a terrific and steady season.

Carey has been playing below his potential to be dominant lately, and he has to fix that (by playing games), but he has played "like crap" not more than 3 times and, again, people like you fail to look at a play an see what the D did. A goalie takes some things into account when preparing for a save. He expects the guy on the far side to be covered. He expects to be able to push across at the right time, which means no cluster****s in the crease. He expects to not have his d men defelect the puck in constantly. You say he's playing badly...it's the wrong Dx.

 

[Agnostic]

"goaltender controversy" are words used by people that live off the creation of soap opera. Not long ago those words did not exist in a hockey context, and a coach was complety free to act on his hunches, instincts and private information.

 

[habtastic]

I fully admit when he's being bad.

That post was just full of a bunch of self-serving drivel that made absolutely zero sense and had even less relevance.

Price is in a slump. I know the position. I know the situation. When you're on, you get a piece of the puck and it goes wide. When you're off, you get a piece of the puck and it finds a way to go in.

Price needs to work with the sports psychologist right now because there is a tendency to get into negative self-talk and even a sense of learned helplessness in this situation. Especially with Philly. I'm ready to have a bounce back game, boom, shot off a guy's face and into my own net. The next shot goes through a crowd and finds its way through my wickets. I make some break-away saves, feeling the groove, then boom, my defense is gone and I'm getting beat on plays that are hard to stop. Any confidence that could have came from those big saves are now gone and we're back in the negative self-talk phase, movements get sluggish, technique becomes flawed, you're deeper in your net, you're not tracking the puck into your body.

It's now the time for the team to help him out. We've got to adopt a defensive system for the next few games to insulate Price, give him stoppable pucks, don't give up odd man rushes, tic-tac-toe plays, one-timers.. just let him see the puck and make some routine saves. Get out of the first period without surrendering a goal and it all goes away.

Right on the money.

Remember the 3rd goal? Gorges failing miserably? What do the haters think about that scenario where the puck was sent into the crease where TWO Habs (including Pleky) didn't pick up Vorachek who sent it top corner. This was after we tied the game off of Price's terrific series of saves. (IIRC it was either 2-2 to then go down 2-3 or 1-2 to go down 1-3...pretty sure it was a go ahead goal that pissed me right off after we tied it on the PP).

 

[habtastic]

Can't wait to see Carey steal the cup for us come playoffs and the big post season talk will be comparing '93 Roy and 2013 Price

Too optimistic??

2015 or 2016 Price, but yeah. That's when he'll have the right team in front of him to get the job done. Just think how good LA's D was last year and Quick STILL had to be their MVP!

 

[vik352]

I think it's a terrible call to start Budaj vs Penguins. We're playing the best team in the conference...I want our best goalie out there even if he's been strugling lately that's only two games in a season. Budaj as a #2 should get the easier games (Tampa Bay at home) not play against the best in the league. If we want to go far in the playoffs Price has to play in every competitive game. Do people really think we have a better chance to win with Budaj vs pitts than with Price

 

[habtastic]

For a bunch of guys who said they trusted their goalie to bounce back, they sure didn't do much to help him regain his confidence back yesterday. Unless they're so stupid (even more than I thought they are) that they don't know the reality of a place like the Bell Centre/Montreal, where Carey is the most scrutinized player in the league after a bad performance.

Some of the blame has to be directed towards Price. But even as a huge critic of the guy, I can't help but to feel sorry for the guy, who just played behind a sorry bunch yesterday.

Says a lot about some of the guys out there, who'd rather talk the talk than walk the walk. Specifically Gorges. After his comments about his great friend, I'd expect him to come out strong yesterday.

Oh well. Another time... or not...

Everyone should listen to this in full, from our best player:




As for Budaj starting, well, I'm not gonna go ******* since he has played well and maybe Carey needs a game to psychologically adjust to the whirlwind (again, Marc Denis...just be aware of your surroundings dude, but just A game.) I hope Boods wins it for us, but more so that the D and the fwds get it together. That is our current problem.

 

[Hullois]

Everyone should listen to this in full, from our best player:




As for Budaj starting, well, I'm not gonna go ******* since he has played well and maybe Carey needs a game to psychologically adjust to the whirlwind (again, Marc Denis...just be aware of your surroundings dude, but just A game.) I hope Boods wins it for us, but more so that the D and the fwds get it together. That is our current problem.

Price doesn't speak French and Denis has a job to do. If Price has two ****** games in a row and you are a former goalie... obviously you'll talk about it. I'd say if that affected Price he shoud man up.

 

[Saint Patrick]

Price is our man, that is all.

 

[MSLs absurd thighs]

Everyone should listen to this in full, from our best player:




As for Budaj starting, well, I'm not gonna go ******* since he has played well and maybe Carey needs a game to psychologically adjust to the whirlwind (again, Marc Denis...just be aware of your surroundings dude, but just A game.) I hope Boods wins it for us, but more so that the D and the fwds get it together. That is our current problem.

What's the point of this video?

 

[habtastic]

Price doesn't speak French and Denis has a job to do. If Price has two ****** games in a row and you are a former goalie... obviously you'll talk about it. I'd say if that affected Price he shoud man up.

You make it sound sooooo easy with the weight of the world on your shoulder. You would be crying buckets of tears if you were in that position and as much as he's a pro athelete, he is human and frustrated and for a goalie, that is not where you want to be.

As for MD doing "his job". He can easily do his job without Carey hearing this after being pulled:

"unintelligible sounds......Carey Price......unintelligible sounds" *Cameras all pulling in for close ups on him*

Just saying, could have answered the question without saying Carey Price. I would rather his "job" include not screw up the mind of the only goalie we have and will have who can take us to where we want to go.

Again, did you listen to what Gally said re: Price???