There is something fascinating in the minds of top athletes. When Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement, he said he felt “physical and mental fatigue” like he had never felt before. That didn’t stop him from leading the New York Rangers in his final season with 62 points, even though he missed 12 games!
Updated yesterday at 7:52 p.m.
Martin St-Louis himself hung up his skates after a very respectable season of 52 points in 74 games. How did he go about assessing the relevance of continuing his career or quitting?
“Are you ready to work to meet your own expectations? That’s why it gets tough as you get older. You have to work hard, otherwise you will find yourself behind the others,” he explained after practice on Monday.
Which brings us to Carey Price. Not to compare his career to those of the two legends above, but because the process is similar.
Price and Samuel Montembeault worked on their half of the ice with Éric Raymond, goalkeeper coach. The exercise is quite simple; Raymond shoots on one side or the other, the goalkeeper makes the save by giving himself a push towards the puck. The fluidity of Price’s movements was a spectacle in itself. “The smoothest goaltender in the league”, launched a colleague on the catwalk.
For a guy who’s only played one game since last July, Carey Price still didn’t look too bad.
“We weren’t sure if Carey was going to come back to play this season,” recalled Nick Suzuki. Even I didn’t know until last week. But as soon as he gets in front of the net, he certainly plays at an acceptable level! »
In speaking of an “acceptable level”, Suzuki used the expression used by Price himself. The keeper used those words after his first game of the season on Friday and did so again in front of the microphones on Monday. Price was asked how many years he thought he had in the body. And it appears that like St-Louis and Gretzky, he has his own scales, which differ from those that one can imagine from the outside.
“I want to end my career playing at an acceptable level. I don’t know how long. But at the end of the day, I want to retire having played well, and not having been a burden. »
A rare phenomenon
The problem is there. Price is coming to an age where a lot of goalies are becoming just that, a burden.
He will be 35 next summer. Being in your mid-thirties comes with some challenges. Price mentions, for example, a desire to lighten the load that his knees have to bear. From 216 lbs, he would like to go to 210 lbs, and knowing his seriousness, we guess he is more determined than ordinary mortals who express such a wish between two crèmes de menthe on the evening of the 31st.
Price has no choice but to take jealous care of his body, because goaltenders 35 and older aren’t running around the streets. This season, only three have played the majority of their team’s games: Jonathan Quick in Los Angeles, Cam Talbot in Minnesota and Marc-André Fleury in Chicago (since traded to Minnesota).
Luckily, Talbot and Fleury will be in town this Tuesday, with the visit of the Wild to the Bell Centre.
“Flower is like the Energizer Bunny, he never stops,” Price said. He’s a real pro and he’s got the body type to keep him going. »
Fleury also won the Vézina trophy just last year, at age 36. He is not a burden, even if he did not offer his best hockey in the playoffs against the Canadiens.
Conversely, Price’s performance has dwindled year on year, a fact his 2021 magic streaks have overshadowed. From .918 in 2018-19, his efficiency rose to .909 the following season, then to .901 last year.
A bitter taste
Price therefore arrives at a period in his career where he essentially has to fight against time. Years of kneeling in butterfly style and receiving visits from Chris Kreider and Kyle Palmieri have mortgaged him. A new operation last summer recalled him, followed by a long rehabilitation, interrupted by a process to solve consumption problems.
Desire, on the other hand, seems to be intact. We see a smiling and chatting Price as we have rarely seen in recent years in front of the cameras. What he appreciates the most since his return to the game?
“A good meal and a pre-match nap,” he replies, smirking. The preparation routine, sitting at your locker, spending time with the guys, the little pre-game nervousness. These are feelings that most athletes enjoy and miss in retirement. »
It is without forgetting this eternal quest for a Stanley Cup, a quest that he went to three victories to succeed last summer.
“A team that reaches this point can take years to recover, unless you have the chance to go back there immediately,” he says. I haven’t had this chance for 14 years, we’ve come so close, and then we find ourselves so far away… I’m still digesting it. It feels like a lost opportunity. »
There are six games left in the season, and if Price is feeling good, we understand that he will play the majority of them. These six duels will be all the more important since Price has hinted that his presence at the World Championship in May was “unlikely”.
His conclusions from these six games will be crucial for the future of the Canadiens. Martin St-Louis is also seeing the ascendancy exercised by number 31 within the group.
“It’s his presence, his calm, how he behaves, described the interim head coach. He’s a leader in his own way and it rubs off on the guys. I liked our game against the Islanders [de New York]. Did Carey have an impact on that? I think so. »
In short
A word from Crosby
Very innocent question to Carey Price: did you receive messages of encouragement on your return to the game? “Pleky contacted me, he told me it was good to see me back on the ice, I thanked him and I called him by a name we called each other (laughs). And Sid also contacted me. I was not surprised, but I was happy to receive these messages. For the uninitiated, “Pleky” is Tomas Plekanec, and “Sid” is Sidney Crosby. It’s not Ellen DeGeneres taking a selfie with Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and Bradley Cooper, but she’s a nice bunch of friends nonetheless.
“A work in progress”
Due to his long absence, Price hadn’t worked much with Éric Raymond, the goaltending coach hired last summer. He therefore learns to discover his new ally. His impressions of his approach? ” Things are going well. I had a great relationship with Steph [Stéphane Waite] over the years. Everything was natural at the end, we just knew what we were going to do on a daily basis. A relationship is built over time and I didn’t really have the chance to work with Éric for long. There is like a guardian language that we must learn in our communication. It is a work in progress. Recall that Raymond was a long-time collaborator of Dominique Ducharme, in the QMJHL.
A rare drive for Suzuki
Jeff Petry was the lone absentee from practice among the healthy players. The veteran defender was given a day of treatment. On the other hand, Nick Suzuki was there, he who has often had the right to these days of treatment in recent weeks. “I didn’t want to miss any games and at this point in the season, I don’t feel like I need to train that often,” explained the young center. Suzuki still hasn’t missed a single game since joining the NHL, earning him an iron man streak of 203 straight games. Listening to St-Louis, Suzuki’s streak does not seem threatened. “If it’s November and he has to miss practice, maybe you give him a break so he doesn’t drag this out all year. But at the end of the season, you see if the player can take it, ”he explained.
What future for Byron?
Paul Byron was also in training, having missed Saturday’s game mainly because he was “bad”. St. Louis paid tribute to its brave winger, who missed the first half of the season due to hip surgery. “You feel bad for him, because there’s never a game where he doesn’t work, where he doesn’t skate fast,” St-Louis said. I don’t know what his plans are for next year, I don’t know how he feels waking up in the morning. But when he plays, even if he feels 60%, he gives 110%. If he can manage his injuries, I don’t think he’s about to lose his speed. He will have it for a long time. »