Carey Price isn't popular in Montreal these days, but it's not all his fault.
Montreal goaltender Carey Price is right when he says nobody ever won the Stanley Cup in the opening pre-season game. That’s pretty much what he said when he told the Montreal fans to chill out after booing him following his poor performance in the team’s first exhibition game Wednesday.
One problem: Stanley Cups aren’t handed out in the pre-season, as Price suggests, but reputations are made then. And right now Price’s reputation around town is not very good. The Canadiens allowed their MVP from last season, goaltender Jaroslav Halak, to skip town and in doing so, handed Price the No. 1 job even though his play has been in decline the past two years.
It may be very difficult for Price to win fans back; the same fans who were behind him when he was named the American Hockey League’s playoff MVP in 2006-07 at 19-years-old, and when he went 24-12-3 in his first season in the NHL.
On one hand, Price is not wrong when he suggests Habs fans should take a pill. Chicago was 2-3-1 in the pre-season last year and won the Cup. The thing is, it would have been better if he hadn’t just allowed four goals on eight shots. Maybe if one of the other Montreal goalies had played and had a poor night and then Price came to his defence, he would have more credibility.
Left winger Mathieu Darche had an interesting perspective. He said if Price had recorded a shutout in that exhibition game, people would have said don’t read too much into it; it’s only pre-season.
Darche is right. People tend to put too much emphasis on a bad performance in pre-season.
That said, perhaps Price would be advised to concentrate on trying to find his game at this stage of the season.
Not that I would discourage him from speaking his mind, but he might want to pick his spots a little better.
OFFICIALLY UNDER CONSIDERATION
Will the day ever come when the NHL drops one of its on-ice officials?
It is being considered.
While the league and its officials continue in collective bargaining agreement talks in an effort to secure a new contract between the two groups before the 2010-11 season begins, there are some who believe the day is approaching when the league will go with two referees and just one linesman per game.
There has been no indication the league would use the elimination of one linesman as a bargaining tactic.
NHL hockey was traditionally officiated by one referee and two linesmen until the 2000-01 season when a second referee was added to the mix.
"Ten years ago if you talked about doing this it would be universally turned down," one source told sportsnet.ca. "But now, since the league took the centre red line out (in 2005-06) linesmen are doing less than they ever have. The NHL has tapes of at least eight games in which two referees and one linesman worked and those games were mistake free. Those games were officiated that way because of injury, illness or travel issues. One concern the NHL has is will players try to break the rules more knowing there are only three officials on the ice?"
Another source said fights would be broken up by the remaining linesman and the junior referee working games.
"If the NHL wants to create more space on the ice, this would be one way of making it happen," a source said. "It is already being done in other leagues. I don’t see it happening right away, but if the league decides it wants to save a few million dollars a year in officiating expenses, it could happen."
NICE ADDITION One of the better acquisitions in the off-season, though it probably went under the radar, was the St. Louis Blues adding Scott Mellanby as an assistant coach.
The Blues are a young outfit and Mellanby, who was a no-nonsense captain of the Florida Panthers and Atlanta Thrashers, is just the guy to point the players in the right direction.
Mellanby worked hard for everything he achieved in his 21-year NHL career scoring 364 goals and 840 points in 1,431 games, and you can bet he will not allow players to cut corners on his watch.
