Since the start of the Carey Price era, the Montreal Canadiens have always gone where their starting goaltender has led them. We’ve seen in recent seasons what happens to the Canadiens when Price goes down with an injury, and the results aren’t pretty.
Carey Price is one game away from having the worst October of his career
Price’s October struggles are extremely uncharacteristic for the Montreal Canadiens netminder.
Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
Yet, the Canadiens have started the 2017-18 season with a 3-7-1 record despite the health of Price being a non-issue. Instead, offensive struggles have taken the lead as Montreal has trod water through the first month of the season. Alex Galchenyuk is still playing on the team’s fourth line and newcomer Jonathan Drouin leads the Canadiens with eight points, as no Montreal player has hit double digits in their first 11 games.
A few of the Canadiens’ recent outings have had better offensive production from the team, as they tallied five goals in two of their last three games. It’s going to take a lot more to move the needle from their NHL-worst 1.98 GF/60 at 5-on-5, but it’s been a good start to finish out the first month.
Also needing a good closeout to October? Price himself. While the Canadiens’ offensive struggles have dominated headlines — and for good reason — Price is one bad game away from having the worst October of his career.
Carey Price’s career October statistics
Year | Games played | Save percentage | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-08 | 4 | .906 | 2-1-1 |
| 2008-09 | 7 | .937 | 5-1-1 |
| 2009-10 | 8 | .889 | 2-5-0 |
| 2010-11 | 10 | .912 | 6-3-1 |
| 2011-12 | 10 | .900 | 4-4-2 |
| 2013-14 | 11 | .939 | 6-5-0 |
| 2014-15 | 9 | .920 | 7-1-1 |
| 2015-16 | 9 | .936 | 7-2-0 |
| 2016-17 | 5 | .954 | 5-0-0 |
| 2017-18 | 10 | .883 | 3-6-1 |
Price has only finished the month of October with a save percentage below .900 once in his 11-year NHL career. In 2009-10, Price started the season strong by allowing four goals in his opening two games of the year, but he then went on a 0-6-0 streak to end one of the more miserable months of his career.
In recent seasons, Price has been almost the gold standard of NHL netminding. Over the last five years, no one has put up a full-season save percentage better than Price’s .933 year in 2013-14 when he won the Hart and Vezina trophies. Discounting this year, Price is a career .920 save percentage netminder in 509 games played. That makes him one of the NHL’s best in league history, as he trails just Tuukka Rask, Dominik Hasek, Cory Schneider, and Braden Holtby in career save percentage, according to Hockey Reference.
Goaltenders of every shape, size, and caliber struggle in their careers at one point or another, but Price is just one game away from turning this funk into his worst start in 11 seasons.
And Price knows it, too. He told the Montreal Gazette last week that he has “got to find ways to stop the puck” after receiving mock cheers from the home Montreal crowd in a 4-0 loss to the Kings.
“I don’t have anything to say about it,” he said. “It’s been done before and it will be done again. For me, I just got to focus on my job. I just got to find ways to stop the puck and keep our guys in it until we bury the puck. It just seems that I’m not doing that right now. So I just got to find a way to do it.”
Considering Price’s pedigree and résumé, the netminder will likely find his way out of this downward slide eventually. Much like the Canadiens offense, things are sure to rebound given a bit of time and re-tooling, as Price is too talented of a goaltender to continue on this pace.
That boost, however, may be needed sooner rather than later. The Canadiens sit dead last in the Eastern Conference with seven points on the season, and any more significant time spent being mediocre may cost them come playoff time. Now more than ever, Price’s stability will be needed in net for the Canadiens to emerge from a middling October a little less worse for wear.
See More:
