The Canadiens won their 4th game in a row versus the Lightning last night largely in part to the strong play of Max Pacioretty and the Gomez line, but also because of most reliable player on the team - Carey Price.
Price was truly brilliant in making 43 saves on 45 shots and proved that for as high flying a system as Guy Boucher and his Lightning can play, no system can break a goaltender who is on his game.
And there is so much for the Canadiens to build on after this road trip.
As they return home to rest and recuperate in time for Tuesday's big tilt with the Boston Bruins, they can take comfort in the fact that they have done themselves a tremendous favor in building up their point cushion over the 7th seed Rangers and 8th seed Hurricanes. Not only that, but with their win over Tampa the Habs are now only 1 point back of the Capitals and only 2 back of the Lightning.
Swell as that may be, the truth of the matter is that without Carey Price none of this would be possible.
Price's 31 wins are tops in the NHL and all of the numbers below are rather impressive, and clearly illustrate that Carey has come a long way from his rough ride last season, but they also indicate that the Canadiens netminder is on the verge of being recognized as a much more important piece than he was ever really given credit for.
Top 5 Goaltenders: Games Played
- Price's workload has him on pace to play the most games in history for a Canadiens goaltender(Plante holds record with 70gp).
Top 5 Goaltenders: Shots Against
Top 5 Goaltenders: Saves
- Price's heavy workload has allowed for him to rank both 2nd in shots against but also in saves made - something which is directly reflected in his stellar GAA and save percentage.
Top 10 Goaltenders: Save Percentage
- Among goaltenders that have played 50 or more games, only Roberto Luongo has a better save percentage than Carey Price.
Top 10 Goaltenders: GAA
- As you can see, based on netminders who played the most hockey this season, Price has the 3rd lowest GAA total, better than everyone but Lundqvist and Luongo.
Price's 3,440:43 are the most minuted played by a goaltender this season and his total of 58 games played are the 11th most on the Habs.
But when it comes down to picking a Vezina winner, it always comes down to which netminder has truly been the most impressive, the most outstanding of them all...an argument that Price's name might just stand a chance to win.
For comparisons sake, it's tough to argue that Price has been better than Tim Thomas has been for the Bruins. Timmy's NHL best gaa and save percentage are hard to top, but it's not necessarily all that fair to label Thomas as the Vezina shoe-in when the Bruins are one of the most heavily stocked teams in all of the NHL, and, not to mention, that they have one of the premiere backups in the game in Tuuka Rask. The caveat to the comparison to Thomas and how important he is to the Bruins lies in the fact that his win total of 29 only accounts for 76% of Boston's wins, not quite the same as Price.
There are also comparisons to be made between Price and Luongo, Lundqvist and Howard as well, but the truth is that Carey has been more integral in helping his team earn the points they have, that it's hard to say any of those 3 have been better entirely better or more valuable than him.
Luongo has a better save percentage but has played in fewer games and has earned only 30 of the Canucks 41 wins.
Lundqvist has been his usual phenomenal self and is the only player to have posted more shutouts than Price while having nearly the same numbers in almost the same amount of games played, yet the fact remains that Marty Biron has been a big help to that team, although that has limited Henrik's effectiveness to earning only 76% of his teams wins.
Howard has been great for the Red Wings, but as is always the case with the well built Wings, he hasn't had to be the "be all, end all" for Detroit. Proof of that lies in the fact that although Jimmy is tied with Carey for the most wins in the NHL by a goaltender, he doesn't even crack the top 30 when it comes to gaa.
And the list, and comparisons, could go on and on but there really can only be one decisive winner and with the competition between the NHL's elite goaltenders seemingly head towards a photo finish, there is no reason to believe that Carey Price can't be the thoroughbred that hangs on to win it.
Eric and Steve focus on life after the trade deadline, exploring how important Carey Price and home ice advantage are for this Habs success as well as what they must do in the final month of regular season play...
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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