Goaltender of the Future

With Slovakia's tight win based on Jaroslav Halak's tight goaltending versus Russia, the goaltending debate for the Habs is picking up so much steam its beginning to scald. The problem is most armchair observers seem to be using logic reminiscent of a certain San Jose Sharks pro scout.

The Montreal Canadiens are currently in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of Tampa Bay (who have two games in hand) and two ahead of the New York Rangers who hold one game in hand. We may just make the playoffs this year, and if we do, we'd likely want the strong goalie we had for much of the season to try and keep us in against Washington, New Jersey, or whoever we get seeded against.
Reality however, states we'll likely make a first round exit unless we perform a miraculous upset. Our team has been too up and down to really be consistent - our longest winning streak all season is only three games. In that case we need to be focused as much on the future of the franchise, and which goaltender we hold on to. No matter what Pierre Gauthier thinks, both of our goalies are RFA at the end of the season and we really can't afford to have them both alongside a resigned Thomas Plekanec.

And this is why we need to resign Carey Price and trade Jaroslav Halak.
I'm sure right now there's coffee hitting your monitor not unlike a Jason Blake wrist shot to the chest of a goaltender on those words, but hear me out. Price has had certain flashes of brilliance this year, and is statistically better in save% than Olympian Marc-Andre Fleury, Ottawa savior Brian Elliot, LA starter Jonathan Quick, and most other hyped up underachievers (I'm looking at you, both Philedelphia goaltenders, all three goaltenders to suit up for the Maple Leafs this season, Nicklas Backstrom, and both Nashville goalies). Admitted Halak's .923 is nicer than Price's .911 but it's not like Price is making a huge gap of less saves - especially as he's generally been put in following a Halak loss, suggesting the team wasn't bringing much effort anyway (further proven by Price's GAA being higher than goaltenders with worse save percentages, though still a reasonable though not outstanding 2.81).
So Price can compete, he just isn't playing as well as Halak right now. But here's where the future comes in.

Halak is a positionally sound goalie, will be 25 at the end of the season, has calm emotions and fast reflexes. His weaknesses are controlling the puck, and his size ( 5'11 is short for a goaltender). While reflexes don't degrade quickly, it's unlikely they will ever improve noticeably, and as he's already positionally sound there's not a whole lot of upward motion. Halak can practice with the puck but he's never going to get four inches taller.

Price, 22, is excellent with the puck (can you name four goaltenders better than him with the puck?), 6'3, and has just as sharp reflexes. His biggest issues are a weak glove hand (that is nonetheless greatly overplayed), some positional awareness issues, and having some difficulty dealing with the emotional stress of working in the Montreal environment. In short he's immature. Funny thing is, in the league, there aren't a whole lot of mature 22 year old goaltenders - let alone 22 year old goaltenders to begin with. He calms down and works on his positioning, and he's got a clear advantage on Jaroslav, who has effectively reached his ceiling. Is it really a gamble to say that Price will be a different player at 24 than he is at 22?

Can we risk giving up that potential to try to hold on to our eighth place seed this season?
Can we risk not getting any return for our current hot goaltender?

Things that have happened since the last Dec 23 Road Win for the Habs

Here's a slice of things that have happened, or how the world looked the last time the Habs had a road win on Dec 23.
It's been a little while since we last won a road game on the 23rd of December. Our last WIN on this date was at home to Pittsburg... in 1995.
I'll stick to the big ones, mostly related to hockey.

- The internet became widespread because of...

- Every powered computer ever developed was manufactured.

- The television gained widespread acceptance, switched to colour, and changed resolutions half a dozen times. It's moved from vaccuum-tube'd implementation with a cathode ray tube display to liquid crystal displays, plasma output screens, and OLED LCDs.

- As an addenum to that, the NHL went from being primarily radio-driven to being televised, with the addition of white ice

- The Montreal Canadiens won 20 more Stanley Cups, while the Leafs won 7.

- The NHL Expanded from 6 to 30 teams.

- Every major Rock, rap, and rnb star's career has occurred since that game.

- It occured during the first season that a player scored 50 goals in 50 games. That very player along with Elmer Lach lead the Habs to a win that night against the Bruins.

- Every retired number in the Bell Centre except Howie Morenz was retired after that game.

- Both Bob Gainey and Jaques Martin were not born when the game took place.

- Since that game only two playersi n the NHL have been goaltenders named captain of their team, Bill Durnan two years later, and Roberto Luongo 63 years later.

- Some players had not yet returned from the Second World War.

- Newfoundland became a Canadian province, Nunavut a Canadian Territory.

- Toronto overtook Montreal as the most populous Canadian city.

- Rosa Parks had not refused to stand, Martin Luther King had not had a dream, Malcolm X had not yet caused controversy, and the civil rights movement had not yet happened.

- The Berlin Wall had not yet fallen.. actually the Berlin Wall had not yet been built.

- Russia was run by Stalin, Spain by Franco, and Cuba by Ramón Grau (also known as "someone not named Castro")

- In the amount of time that has gone by, Hal Gill could complete four full laps around the rink.


1945 was a long, long time ago.