Price not worried about statistics, only victories for Canadiens

MONTREAL -- Carey Price is not among the top 40 NHL goalies in save percentage or top 30 in goals-against average this season, facts that are not on the top 100 list of concerns of Montreal Canadiens goaltending coach Stephane Waite.

"I won't waste my time trying to justify stats every game or every season, whether they're good or bad," Waite said from Las Vegas on Friday, the day after Price recorded his 300th regular-season NHL victory for the Canadiens against the Arizona Coyotes. "That's why I encourage Carey to worry not about the stats, but about making the big save, just doing whatever it takes to stop the puck. That's it, that's all."
Price got win No. 301 on Saturday, making 23 saves in the Canadiens' 4-3 overtime victory against the Vegas Golden Knights. Price, who was making his sixth consecutive start, heads into the Canadiens' six-day Christmas break with a record of 15-10-4, a 2.84 goals-against average and .904 save percentage. He has one shutout, making 33 saves in a 3-0 win at the Boston Bruins on Oct. 27.
"Today's game is very offense-minded, so there will be a lot of scoring chances," Waite said. "The biggest thing for Carey right now is just stop the next shot, make the big save to help to win the game, no matter how many goals are scored against him. If you think about your stats today, you'll go crazy."
Price is within 13 wins of tying the late Jacques Plante for the Canadiens all-time lead, though Plante, in an era where there was no overtime or shootouts, had 107 ties. Price leads all Canadiens goalies with 588 games, 32 ahead of Plante; his 41 shutouts have him at No. 4, behind George Hainsworth (75), Plante (58) and Ken Dryden (46); and his 2.48 goals-against average ranks ninth.
"I'm very proud. It's been a long road to this point," Price said after making 36 saves in the milestone 2-1 victory against the Coyotes. "And it's not over yet, you know what I mean?"

The win on Saturday was Price's 156th victory with Waite, who arrived in Montreal on July 4, 2013 after 10 seasons as goaltending coach of the Chicago Blackhawks.
With Price, Waite has unwaveringly preached a next-save philosophy, his mantra since he began coaching minor hockey and major-junior goalies in his native Quebec more than three decades ago. It was his guiding principle with the Blackhawks from 2002-03 through 2012-13, winning Stanley Cup titles with goalies Antti Niemi in 2010 and Corey Crawford in 2013.
If expectations in those championship seasons were modest for Niemi and then Crawford, the bar had already been set at a lofty height for Price when Waite was hired by the Canadiens. So it remains in a city where, in Waite's view, Price has one of the two most difficult jobs in professional sport, the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys being the other.
Waite is Price's third goaltending coach in Montreal; Roland Melanson was with Price his first two NHL seasons (2007-09) and Pierre Groulx his next four (2009-13).

Price, selected by the Canadiens No. 5 in the 2005 NHL Draft, has had his ups and downs the past five seasons. He helped lead the Canadiens to the Eastern Conference Final in 2013-14 but suffered a season-ending injury in Game 1 against the New York Rangers.
His 2014-15 season was remarkable, becoming the first goalie to lead the league in wins (44), goals-against average (1.96) and save percentage (.933), since Ed Belfour did it with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1990-91. He won the Vezina Trophy, the Jennings Trophy (fewest goals scored against), the Ted Lindsay Award, given to the League's most outstanding player as voted on by his peers, and became the first goalie in the NHL to win the Hart Trophy, awarded to the League's MVP, since Jose Theodore won it for the Canadiens in 2002.
He signed an eight-year contract extension with the Canadiens on July 2, 2017, but, hampered by injury, went 16-26-7, with a 3.11 goals-against average, .900 save percentage and one shutout last season.

Now five years since their partnership began, Waite says the qualities that impressed him about the goalie from the beginning are very much intact today.
"Carey's approach is the same," Waite said. "He's very professional about game preparation, we haven't changed much since the big year (2015) that he won everything. But what has changed a lot is the game itself. It's hard to have the stats that he had three years ago. That will probably never happen again because of how much the game has changed.
"That's the biggest adjustment Carey has had to make - to know the most important thing is to make the big save at the right time. No matter what happens, or how many scoring chances you have against you, just make sure you focus on the right things. The biggest challenge the last couple years has been to not fix something that's not broken. He's the same guy he was three years ago, he just has to adjust to a new game, which is the same for every goalie in the League."
Waite speaks of a perfect storm for goalies: adapting to streamlined equipment while facing a new firewagon crop of young players who have never skated faster nor shot the puck harder.

"The quality of the shots is much better than it was just two or three years ago," Waite said. "The new kids coming into the League have great shots, they're unbelievable. Every time we face a new rookie, I talk to Carey and say, 'Holy (heck), what a shot this kid has. Wow!' Every player has a great shot and obviously the shooters have more time and space than they had just a few years ago because the game has become so fast."
Now in his 12th season, Price has felt the breeze of the revolving door of backup goalies in Montreal. Following Crisotbal Huet, Jaroslav Halak and Alex Auld, he's had stablemates in Peter Budaj, Dustin Tokarski, Mike Condon, Ben Scrivens, Charlie Lindgren, Al Montoya and, since last season, Niemi, whom Waite worked with in Chicago.
"Carey has been the same with all the backups I've seen here," Waite said. "One thing about him is that he has a lot of respect for his backup. Ask all those guys. He's worked very well with them, they always talk together in the room, and on the ice when it's just me and the two goalies."
Together, Waite and Price still watch plenty of video, the day after a game spending 80 percent of a session reviewing what worked, 20 percent on what needed adjustment.

"Carey knows what he has to do before games," Waite said. "I don't have to tell him we have a video session, he comes to my office. His game preparation is just good habits. He's very, very professional."
Which brought Waite back to statistics and the mug's game of comparison, Price's name often debated in conversation about his contemporaries and stacked up in Montreal against the likes of Plante, Patrick Roy, Dryden and other legends he's passed on various franchise rankings.
"It's impossible to compare goalies in the League today when you might be playing on an offensive team, or one that's young, or with veterans, or stresses defense," he said. "You can't compare Carey's stats with others in the League, or them with him. It's not fair because their systems aren't the same.
"And even more, you can't compare Carey's stats with those of Roy or Dryden or Plante. Hockey has changed since their day. It's not the same game."
Indeed, the NHL has changed dramatically since Price made his debut on Oct. 10, 2007, a 3-2 road win against the Pittsburgh Penguins. In goal for Pittsburgh that night was Marc-Andre Fleury, the same goalie Price again faced Saturday in Las Vegas.

Eleven years later, Waite and Price are working together, and both will take great pride in the next franchise record the goalie claims as his own -- 13 victories now separate him from Plante, who in 1959 revolutionized the use of the face mask on his way to Hall of Fame induction in 1978.
"Our relationship has improved every year," Waite said. "Sometimes I tell Carey that I think I know him better than he knows himself. I know when it's time to talk to him or give him room to do his thing. He's the guy you don't tell stuff that he you think he wants to hear, he wants to hear the real truth.
"Don't B.S. him, that doesn't work with him. And that's good because it doesn't work with me, either. We're not big talkers but when we talk, there's no B.S. I like, no, I love working with this guy."