Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens are ready to face the Tampa Bay Lightning in home opener
There is no one who is more ready to face the Tampa Bay Lightning than Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price. And where better to do it than on home ice?
Price and his Habs teammates will host the Lightning in their home opener on Wednesday evening. The Habs currently have two games under their belt, and are coming off of a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh
Penguins on Saturday, October 9. Before that, they played their season opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto. The Canadiens battled hard against the Leafs, but the ultimately wound up on the wrong end of a 3-2 loss.
The fact that Price now has his work cut out for him is no understatement. After the shocking trade of fellow goaltender Jaroslav Halak to the St. Louis Blues during the offseason, Price once again became
the heir apparent to the Habs’ goaltending throne.
He got his first chances to impress both the coaching staff and the Canadiens’ fickle fan base during the team’s pre-season games. Some applauded his efforts, while others booed him to no end. This prompted
the 23-year-old netminder to issue a message to the bleu-blanc-rouge faithful, telling them literally to “chill out.”
After a practice with the team on Tuesday, Price stated that he was ready to play in the Habs’ home opener, as he had played in many other home openers during his hockey career.
“That's over,” said Price of the team’s exhibition run. “I’ve played a lot of home openers in my life, and this is just another one. We've done all we can to prepare for the game, and we can’t think about
anything else.”
Price put on quite a show in the game against Pittsburgh, making several key saves against the sniper-laden team. His stellar play earned him an admirer in teammate Josh Gorges.
“He stole that game for us,” the defenceman said. “He made four or five big saves that kept the score what it was and gave us a chance to win. He was spectacular, and that’s the way he needs to be for
us to be successful.”
The home opener will be the first one of rookie defenceman P.K. Subban’s National Hockey League career. The 21-year-old Toronto native, who impressed during last year’s playoffs, is ready to prove that
he deserves to be a member of this team.
“It’s going to be exciting,” Subban said. "To make it to this point is pretty exciting. It’s the first home opener in my (NHL) career. It should be fun. I’ll have my family here. And it’ll be fun playing
against Guy and Dan and Marty. But we’d like to get the two points here.”
Guy, Dan and Marty are references to newly-installed Lightning coach Guy Boucher and his assistants, Daniel Lacroix and Martin Raymond. They had coached Subban and many of the Habs’ other prospects while
they were with the Hamilton Bulldogs, Montreal’s American Hockey League affiliate. All three were hired by the Lightning during the summer to serve as their new coaching staff this season.
Subban has proved his worth while Roman Hamrlik and Andrei Markov, two of the team’s top defencemen, were sidelined with injuries. Hamrlik is slated to return to action in Wednesday night’s home opener,
while Markov might return to the Habs’ blue line in a week or so. The team has missed Markov on the power play, as they have gone 0-6 during his absence. Despite that, the Canadiens have gone 11-for-11 on the penalty kill.
With the stage at the Bell Centre set, the Canadiens are hoping to skate off with a victory in front of their adoring fans. And if Price carries his play from his last game, they might just get it.
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