Thanks to Huet and Price, the Habs are hot to trot.
Every team in the National Hockey League has passed the 10-game mark and it's no surprise that the best of the six Canadian entries is Ottawa.
At 9-1 through their first 10, the Stanley Cup finalists of a season ago are building on what they accomplished last season and have a start reminiscent of the 10-0 run the Buffalo Sabres ripped off last fall en route to winning the Presidents' Trophy as the best team in the regular season (an honor equivalent to winning the World League of American Football championship, but still an accomplishment of sorts).
No surprise there, the Senators are that good, but what are we to make of the Montreal Canadiens?
The Habs are a surprising second in the Northeast Division (to Ottawa) and through Monday night were 6-2-2 and tied for third overall in the Eastern Conference and tied for fifth overall with the likes of Philadelphia and Colorado.
Isn't that where Vancouver or maybe Calgary was supposed to be?
To be sure, both the Flames and the Canucks have had their problems, especially in regards keeping the puck out of their respective nets, but the Habs have out-pointed every Canadian entity except the Senators and even have some games in hand in comparison to some teams ahead of them in the standings.
How is this happening you ask? Well, in a word, goaltending.
Tack on another it would be defence and after that add things like timely scoring, smart positional play, a potent power-play attack (often the best in the league so far) and consistently strong lines.
But we keep coming back to goaltending and the Canadiens have what virtually all teams want: A solid number one and a young, inexpensive No.2 who wins AND keeps the pressure on No.1 to give his best every night out.
Want proof?
Well, starter Cristobal Huet is 4-1 with a 2.24 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage and while he doesn't have the best numbers in any one category, his save percentage is in the top ten and the goals-against is good enough for a team that is getting balanced scoring and has a superb power play despite the absence of Sheldon Souray at the point.
What makes it work better than imagined, however, is that when the rookie Carey Price gets into a game there is no falloff. Price has made only three starts, but in two of them he's beaten the Pittsburgh Penguins, a confidence booster for any netminder these days. He also has a goals-against under three (2.93) and a save percentage of .893. Those numbers aren't going to scare Pascal Leclaire and the suddenly relevant Columbus Blue Jackets, but considering Price has only played against the Penguins and the Senators those numbers aren't bad. And he wins.
Price has shown talents for making the big save when his team needs it most. In the second win over the Penguins, Price stopped eight shootout shooters, including Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Mark Recchi. He did it with a combination of superb agility and an ability to make himself look even larger than his 6-3, 226-pound frame would suggest. That's something veteran goalies do, not kids just out of junior.
"I try and make myself look as big as possible," Price said after the win. "I wanted them to go for the little spots I left for them."
I haven't heard that kind of cool thinking from a kid since a young man by the name of Martin Bordeur broke into the league some 15 years ago.
Price made similar big saves in his NHL debut against the Pens, including stopping Crosby twice when the game was on the line.
That's what difference makers do. It's also what's not happening with most of the other Canadian teams.
Roberto Luongo has played well out in Vancouver, but the Canucks are so used to that now that they seem to have adopted a Let Roberto Do It approach and it's killing them. They don't score and they certainly don't hit and so the margin on most nights gets reduced to nothing but the big save. Sometime Luongo makes it, sometimes he doesn't and with no help from up from or from the special teams, the wins aren't coming.
It's worse in Calgary where Miikka Kiprusoff is off to another of his slow starts. Edmonton has many more problems than goaltending as do the Toronto Maple Leafs.
So why is it working in Montreal? Well, aside from what we've already mentioned, there is no goalie controversy in Montreal. Unlike the Andrew Raycroft-Vesa Toskala debate, Huet is the clear No.1 and Price is playing the role of emerging star, but one who knows his place.
That compliments the chemistry in the room. There is no split in the ranks. The players know Huet and feel he can carry them to where they want to go and they also know that Price is young and needs their support. It works for the team, but it also works for the goalies.
"It has to be like that," Huet told the Montreal Gazette recently. "The coach is going to use the best goalie, the guy who's playing the best during the games and that pushes me, for sure, to be better and get the job done."
Price sees it pretty much the same way.
He maintains that Huet has been a mentor for him. Why that's an often-overused word, the two do seem to compete more in a friendly manner. When Price got his first win, Huet was one of the first to greet him at the gate and the two left the ice together arms around one another's shoulder. He makes no claims of wanting to be the starter or to get the majority of the work. He knows his role is to learn and compete and in doing that he also pushes Huet.
It may not always be that way, not if Price keeps pushing and Huet, like he did last season, falters a bit when the pressure mounts down the stretch, but for now, the Canadiens and their goalies are working in harmony and that's made them the surprise of the Canadian-based teams so far.
