Thursday, May 8, 2008

Carey Price

Carey Price has been getting some flak recently for his subpar performance in the playoffs against Philadelphia. Maybe Montreal should have kept a veteran goalie around, and maybe not. However, if people are making excuses that Martin Brodeur is tired, then what about Carey Price?

In the last 2 years, at the age of 19 and 20, Carey Price has gone through a major junior regular season, the world junior championships, major junior playoffs, the end of the AHL regular season, the AHL playoffs, NHL rookie camp, NHL training camp, NHL regular season with stints in the AHL, and the NHL playoffs. He played 82 games last year and 65 games this year, for a total of 147 games in all competitions over the last two seasons.

Price has been playing hockey basically non-stop for 18 months straight, most of it spent under the glare of the spotlight (world juniors, AHL playoffs, starting goalie in Montreal, NHL playoffs). Is it peculiar that at some point he gets burnt out or hits a rough patch? The battle against physical and mental exhaustion is why it is so tough for teams to make repeated deep playoff runs, and I think that was a major reason for Price's declining level of play. We'll see next season if he continues to improve and fulfill his promise as a franchise goalie; I expect that after a summer off Price will be just fine.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i was excited to see this post since i know how you trashed brodeur for not being tired during the playoffs but instead just kept on with your tireless argument that hes just not that good. its ok that carey price has played all those games and still finished strong in the regular season but had a subpar playoffs, but theres no excuse for brodeur? it just goes to show that this site is based on opinion and a dislike for brodeur and only based on facts that you wish to present to try to prove an argument that can be answered by brodeurs cups, mvps and vezinas. thanks!

Anonymous said...

there is also the fact that price is 20, brodeur is 35. if you compare price's postseason to brodeur's first postseason, marty is once againt better.

a witness said...

The whole tired thing is overblown. Carey Price can be blamed some. And he may have had some fatigue...but odds are...he had off moments because he just did.

How is it that any defenseman/forward can play 82 games and still produce in the playoffs? I mean if fatigue is the factor - these guys get hit and checked and exert way more physical energy than any goalie.

I'm willing to concede SOME that a goalie can get distracted by playing so much...but odds are these goalies hit a rut because they just are not as consistent as everyone thinks (BRODEUR - Carey is so new only Montreal fans have overrated him at this point) .

Works a lot like a batter in baseball...hot streaks and cold streaks. They start guessing everything RIGHT they get hot...then those guesses backfire and they get cold. That is what makes a guy like Tony Gwinn so amazing (to name one - of course Ted Williams would have been an easy name to throw out as well).

Anonymous said...

this just proves your bias. evaluating price under the same standards you do brodeur, he is nothing more than a product of the system his team plays. price's numbers are almost identical to those of huet, and halak's are actually way better. on top of this, your really going to tell me a 20 year old man is tired, yet a 35 year old isnt? come on man, either use the facts all the time or dont use them at all, but please stop with the cherry picking bs. is fatigue really the reason price couldnt make a glove save? the other thing you never really touch on, is out of roy, brodeur, and price, brodeur is the only one whos never had to worry about losing the starting job.