What makes Montreal a special place to play hockey could not have been better exemplified by the utter contrast at the start.
As early as 4:30 p.m. Friday, 2 1/2 hours before game time, a crowd was gathered around the Bell Centre players garage, because he was playing on this night. The person who has been the face of the Montreal Canadiens for as long as he has played for the Montreal Canadiens. And that gathering was special, because the Canadiens are in garbage time of the season, but Carey Price playing his first game since losing in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final nine months earlier was something worth celebrating.
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And people celebrated.
When the starting goalies were announced on the scoreboard and Price’s name had dashes where his season statistics should have been, people roared. When he came out for warmup, people roared. And when he led the Canadiens onto the ice to start the game, Price was met by a standing ovation.
There was a buzz in the Bell Centre that had not been felt in months, ever since that Stanley Cup Final, a sense of occasion that only Price could provide because of what he has meant to this organization for so long. It was a sellout crowd, only the fourth of this difficult season — on many levels — for the Canadiens. And Price was the only reason that was the case.
It had been a long time since warmup gave fans reason to cheer. It had been a long time since the team taking the ice for a game gave fans reason to stand up and applaud. This is what Carey Price means here.
But shortly after that emotional opening to this momentous occasion, as the starting lineups for the Canadiens and the Islanders took their place on the blue line for the national anthems and the crowd was going wild, the Canadiens acknowledged the death of New York Islanders legend Mike Bossy, a proud Montreal native who held great significance among those in attendance because of what he represented.
The Canadiens presented a video tribute, then asked this sellout crowd that was amped up at a level we haven’t seen in months to pause for a moment of silence to honour Bossy’s life.
And the crowd fell completely silent. Not a peep.
The contrast between the welcome the crowd had for Price and the silence they observed to honour Bossy is what makes Montreal a special place to play. The common thread is respect, for the game, for greatness.
Back when this night still seemed abstract, when it remained a painful unknown, Angela Price posted on Instagram how much she wanted moments like this back, moments when her children can see their dad on the ice at the Bell Centre, the little interactions between a pane of plexiglass that mean so much to their children.
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“I so badly want these moments back,” Angela Price wrote. “I want to see the excitement on the girls faces when they see dada skate by and wave, I want to have the silly fights with the kids about who gets to sleep with the puck dada tossed to them in warm ups, I want Lincoln and Carey to have these moments….just so badly want everything in all aspects back to normal.”
Just before Price left the ice after warmup, he had one of those interactions. It was his son Lincoln’s first game.
🥺🥺🥺
Papa Carey.#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/S7BF8pWD8l
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) April 15, 2022
“It definitely kept me loose. It kind of kept things in perspective,” Price said after the Canadiens’ 3-0 loss. “That was Lincoln’s first hockey game tonight, so that was a lot of fun. I think he was a little put off by the mask and the equipment. He’s still a little boy. It was very heartwarming to see my family there.”
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If you find yourself questioning why Carey Price put in so much effort, excruciating effort, to come back at the end of a lost season for his team, just watch his interaction with his infant son, watch the excitement of his young daughters — his middle child, Millie, began jumping up and down excitedly as Price left the ice in warmup simply because of his little visit — and you will quickly understand.
“It was easier to keep things in perspective having them there tonight,” Price said.
But it’s not just that.
It is Price’s own identity, his idea of his own identity, that he reclaimed on this night.
“The buzz of the crowd, making a save, hearing the chants,” Price said. “All of that you miss.”
The buzz of the crowd had been largely absent since Price had last played. It has been a treacherous season for the Canadiens on many levels, and much of it can be attributed to Price’s absence as he dealt with issues of personal growth and physical challenges. That is Price’s identity, the backbone of this franchise, its best player, the one who has lifted this team to heights it would not have reached were it not for his presence. There have been ups and downs, there has been division on Price for just about as long as he has played in Montreal, but his importance to the franchise has been indisputable his entire career.
As Price goes, the Canadiens go, and it has been that way for as long as he has played in Montreal. The Canadiens’ relative lack of success over that time has been unfairly pinned on him, but that comes with being a franchise player. Price has been acutely aware of that reality his entire career. He carries that burden as a reality of his job. Which is why moments of validation like the one he experienced Friday night carry more weight for him.
“It was heartwarming,” Price said of his reception. “It made me feel really … really … I guess wanted. It was definitely emotional, but I was able to stifle that and stay focused, because I wanted to play well tonight.”
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For Price to feel wanted, for him to need that feeling after everything he has done for the Canadiens, tells you everything you need to know about the complicated relationship between him and the historic franchise he has led for his entire career.
“I think he’s been the heart and soul for this organization for a long time,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “He came here as a young kid, highly touted, and he’s delivered.”
It is impossible to avoid the greater implications of this one game, this return to action for Price, in the context of what is happening with the Canadiens and how it collides with Price’s own sense of ambition and career validation. He desperately wants to win a Stanley Cup and came as close as he’s ever come last summer. But the reality is the Canadiens are unlikely to come that close for some time. He returns to a team that is near the bottom of the league standings, and although his own absence can explain some of it, it can’t explain all of it.
But still, it has to make Price wonder how different things would have been for the Canadiens had he been around.
“You don’t feel really like a part of the process,” Price said of how he felt while recovering from his injury. “Any athlete will tell you that you really miss being a part of that. It’s not easy not being part of the solution.”
For so long, Price has been not only part of the solution but also the entire solution. He has carried highly flawed teams and made them competitive almost single-handedly. Can he still do that? It is difficult to say, and will be difficult no matter what happens over the final seven games of the season.
But it is also difficult to evaluate this season because Price was not there. A team should never overly rely on its goaltender to make it competitive, but a goaltender remains an important part of the team. And in the case of Price, it is that much more important.
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“The thing that stood out about Carey for me — Hall of Fame goaltender, no question — is that presence,” said Islanders coach Barry Trotz, who was on the coaching staff for Team Canada at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. “When he’s in the net, you feel like you can win all the time, and you feel like you have an advantage. That’s my short experience with Team Canada and Carey in net, and I think around the league, that’s how he’s viewed, is that when’s he’s in the net he’s a difference-maker, he can be the difference-maker night in and night out, and he has great presence, and he’s got numbers and the career to back that up.”
That presence is what makes Price’s value so difficult to quantify, particularly at this late stage of his career. That calming influence, that sense of an advantage.
“There’s just a presence when you have a guy like that in the dressing room,” St. Louis said. “I know that his calmness, his preparation, his work ethic. Sometimes Carey doesn’t need to speak to lead. And I feel that.”
It is that feeling Price gives his teammates that makes him so valuable. Because even though St. Louis is not in the room with his players all that often, he has a good grasp of what Price means to this organization, to this city, to this fan base.
He represents comfort. Security. Validity.
“He’s our best player,” Nick Suzuki said, “so just to have him back keeps everyone calm.”
So many will wonder about Price’s future with the Canadiens, the clear conflict between their progression and his window. But for now, that is irrelevant.
What should matter to the Canadiens for now is that Price is back, and that any doubts he had about feeling wanted have been eradicated.
(Photo of Carey Price and
