Montreal Canadiens: Carey Price Steamed After Being Pulled
Montreal Canadiens Head Coach Michel Therrien pulled Goaltender Carey Price after allowing four goals. However, Price didn’t seem pleased with Therrien’s decision.
Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price is arguably the best player in the NHL and is in the early running for league MVP. However, the Canadiens came out flat against the San Jose Sharks, and the Sharks scored early and often. Michel Therrien then decided to pull his star goalie after he allowed four goals on 18 shots.
When Price skated over to the bench he didn’t appear to support Therrien’s decision. Price gave a long stare down to the Habs bench and his focus seems totally on Therrien. Price is normally known as one of the most calm players, but he wasn’t afraid to show his emotions tonight.
Carey Price stares down the Habs bench after getting pulled against San Jose pic.twitter.com/rhlVSH7GWS
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) December 17, 2016
Not Price’s Fault
Clearly, the Canadiens loss was not because of Carey Price’s poor play. The Canadiens came out flat and took many horrible penalties that put the Habs at a disadvantage. The Habs seemed to be uninterested and lacked speed for most of the game.
Obviously, when the team comes out and plays that bad, it’s hard to put the blame on one player. Price’s reaction wasn’t nearly as bad as former Goaltender Patrick Roy‘s reaction to when he was pulled. Roy allowed nine goals on 26 shots and told the club he would never play for the Canadiens again.
Therrien Deserves Some Blame
Some of the blame could be placed on Head Coach Michel Therrien for allowing Price to hang in there so long. The Habs were clearly not playing well after the first, and Therrien could have taken out Price after the first period. This could have sparked the Habs going into the second period and would have avoided the whole situation.
Therrien also made some questionable moves before the game by taking Markov off the top Power Play unit. Then during the game Captain Max Pacioretty spent a long time just sitting on the bench and it seemed Pacioretty was getting discipline. This is a very questionable move to bench your top scorer when trailing four nothing and shouldn’t have happened.
Final Thoughts
Price staring down the coaching staff will probably just be thrown under the carpet, but it’s obvious Price was angry. Price showed his fiery competitiveness, or he could have been stressed over some of the strange moves that Therrien made. The Canadiens shouldn’t be waiting until the last 10 minutes of the game to start playing.
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