Declaring your team's most important player is not a simple thing. It's not always the most valuable guy or the highest points producer. It is the player who makes your team go; the one you can't afford to lose, even if all he contributes can't be measured by fancy stats.
Most Important Player: Carey Price, Goaltender
Thought for a minute about going with Alexander Semin as the Montreal Canadiens' most important player, but, well, never mind.
For anyone who watched the Canadiens for, oh, about 10 seconds in the past couple of seasons, it’s hard to imagine one single player who means as much to their team as Price means to the Habs.
Guess that’s why Price ran away with every piece of hardware available to him at the NHL’s awards in June. He became the first netminder to win the Hart Trophy as league MVP since fellow Montreal Canadien Jose Theodore did so in 2002. Price was also the winner of the Ted Lindsay Award as the players’ MVP. And of course he won his first Vezina Trophy as top netminder after having a season for the ages, winning the goaltending Triple Crown as the league leader in wins, save percentage and goals against average. His nine shutouts were one off the league lead, and he also brought home the William M. Jennings Trophy for allowing the fewest goals -- an honor he shared with Chicago’s Corey Crawford.
Going back to Price’s sterling performance for Canada at the Sochi Olympic Games in 2014 when he allowed just three goals in total and pitched back-to-back shutouts in the semifinals and gold-medal game, there has been a kind of Zen-like calm about Price that has simply made everyone around him better. Perhaps it’s simply a coming of age for the 27-year-old who was drafted 5th overall by the Canadiens in 2005 but had to endure significant ups and downs before emerging as the team’s franchise netminder.
In 2014 after winning Olympic gold, Price helped the Canadiens to a surprise berth in the Eastern Conference finals and, had he not been injured in Game 1 against the New York Rangers, it’s possible the Habs would have been in the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1993 -- the last time a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup.
This past playoff year, Price was rock-like once again, turning in a .920 save percentage in 12 games as the Canadiens were eliminated in six games by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round. The loss revealed that the Canadiens were, in spite of Price’s presence, not quite there.
Will they be more ready this season? Possibly, but one thing seems almost certain: The presence of Price between the pipes means virtually anything is possible for the bleu, blanc et rouge.