Montreal Canadiens Step Up To Save Season Despite Price Injury

The Montreal Canadiens have saved their season despite the loss of Carey Price, arguably their best player.

Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price hasn’t played since Nov. 2 due to a lower-body injury. Yet without their star goalie, the Canadiens have won five of their last seven games. After only winning one of their first eight games of the season, Montreal now sits only four points out of a playoff position entering Saturday night.

Through the season’s first month Price only managed a 3-7-1 record with a 3.77 goals-against average, along with a save percentage of .877. Hardly anything close to resembling the type of numbers people would expect from the best goaltender in the world.

Along with Price’s struggles, the Canadiens’ offense got off to a brutal start. In Montreal’s first eight games, the club only managed to score 11 goals. Captain Max Pacioretty recorded only a single goal. Brendan Gallagher only had three points, while Shea Weber managed only two points.

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The team wasn’t producing offense and Price wasn’t able to stand on his head to steal games for the Canadiens. After losing seven straight games in October with the team incapable of scoring, it appeared as if the loss of Price could have been devastating. It was only two years ago when he was lost for the majority of the year and Montreal’s season quickly went down the drain.

However, it seemed just prior to Price’s injury, the Canadiens were beginning to find their stride offensively. It has continued throughout the goaltender’s injury. In Montreal’s previous nine games Gallagher has 11 points, while Pacioretty and Weber have nine points each.

Prior to Price’s injury, the Canadiens appeared to be playing a style that didn’t showcase enough urgency and relied way too heavily on their goaltender to win games. With Price out of action, Montreal’s skaters have stepped up significantly, offering much more aggressiveness while competing like their season depended on it. Almost as if the Canadiens were attempting to remind the rest of the league they are more than just a goaltender.

It’s unclear if Montreal will be able to keep up their recent offensive outburst throughout the entire length of Price’s injury. One thing that is clear, by stepping up in Price’s absence the Canadiens have managed to save their season. By being only three points out of a playoff position, despite losing seven of the team’s first eight games, Montreal could find themselves in a playoff spot as soon as another solid week of play.

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With roughly five more months to go in the season, the Canadiens have put themselves right back into the thick of a playoff race. All with the majority of the heavy lifting coming without the club’s best player, who’ll no doubt return motivated to reverse his poor start to the year.

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