Price’s knee. It’s all on Carey Price’s knee.
Players would have scored more but Price’s knee was injured. GM Marc Bergevin would have acquired better forwards but he had faith in Price’s knee. Coach Michel Therrien would have called a time out to rest his best players with four minutes left down by one instead of sending out his fourth line but Price’s knee told him not to.
At Monday's post mortem Price's knee was never seen but it was everywhere.
The Habs announced only one change - that consultant Craig Ramsey is leaving. Other than that, rien, nothing, nada, zilch, zip, zero. Status quo for not only all the Habs coaches, but also the entire coaching staff of the Saint John’s IceCaps. There’s a ton of blame to go around but Price’s knee took all the shots.
The AHL team hasn’t made the playoffs in four years. Fans there would love to see some wins, but Bergevin says that Sylvain Lefebvre is doing a strong job because the development of players is important, not wins. We saw a lot of the IceCaps players this year in Montreal and they are developing just fine. Look at Carr, Andrighetto, Hudon, Scherback, McCarron, Dietz. They’re developing quite well actually. They’re not winning much in either league but they are developing.
At the NHL level, the power play is abysmal for three years straight, but carry on.
No firings for the underlings of Therrien either. You know, they're the guys who are supposed to help the head coach ask for an offside video review, but on one crucial night they didn’t and indeed a goal was offside and the Habs did lose? Yeah, those guys. Safe.
The same guys who didn’t whisper in Therrien’s ear when an opposing player crashed into the crease and didn’t tell him to try for a video review and the Habs ended up losing another game too.
Twitter was screaming over the offside call and the goalie interference call that went against the Habs then.
Maybe the coaches both at ice level and the eyes upstairs should follow astute Habs fans on Twitter. Couldn't hurt. Would probably help.
The margin between a win and a loss is small and it all adds up. Galchenyuk often with 13 minutes of ice time early in the season compared to 18 minutes for Desharnais matters.
Desharnais with 33 straight games of no points on the power play yet used as the first-unit centre for 33 games of power play matters.
All the little things add up to losses instead of wins, but don’t worry, with Price’s knee healthy, they say, this will all turn around.
And you know what... it actually probably will, if Price can play 60 games.
It is easy to see a scenario next season where the Habs improve their middle-of-the-pack scoring with maybe a lottery win, or a UFA signing, or Lehkonen is ready, or perhaps Carr or Andrighetto or Hudon can step into a second line role effectively.
It is easy to see a scenario next season where most of the injuries that ravaged the team starting in February don’t happen again next year.
It is easy to see a scenario next season where the panic that Brendan Gallagher said set in doesn’t happen again because a lot of these young men learned from hard lessons this season.
And it’s easy to see a scenario where Carey Price is healthy and he plays another .935 MVP season and he makes everyone look good.
The difference between a .935 and .900 save percentage is a goal per game. In a league where the final score is 2.8 to 2.4 on average, you bet, one goal per game of better goaltending can change a lot.
Price is an unbelievable talent, but hockey is not an individual sport. Price needs 19 other players to help him to go all the way to a title. Price needs more than his health to do this. He needs others to be accountable too. He can't be the only one accountable.
Geoff Molson wrote a letter to the fans Monday describing this season as ‘a bump in the road.’
It was the worst collapse in the history of the franchise. From the best team in the league December 1 to the worst team in the league the next four months is not just a 'bump in the road.'
Now we have a foxhole and a pothole. Molson also said no stone would be left unturned. Fans are waiting. The stones are gathering moss.
For now though, all is peaceful. Everyone can enjoy an extended summer of relaxation at the Foxhole Golf and Country Club. Address: 31 Chemin de Pas D’Excuses.
Next season, all of the accountability rests on the wounded knee of Carey Price. Three years he couldn't last without injury: playoffs vs Ottawa, Kreider's crash, and TWICE this season. Four times in all.
God forbid Price doesn’t stay healthy next year or that broken knee is going to break the Habs.
