It was a drinking problem that prompted Carey Price to join the NHL and Players Association assistance program last season.
Posted at 8:43 a.m.
The goalkeeper made this revelation to colleague Arpon Basu, of The Athletic.
Price says the loss in the Stanley Cup Finals in the summer of 2021 and the knee surgery he subsequently underwent helped to undermine his morale.
“I knew I was coming to 18e hole, he imagined. I was not happy, I was not a good father. I drank a lot. I reached the point where I realized that I no longer had fun doing this. I was getting to the point where I had to make a choice. »
Price, himself from the Ulkatcho Nation, recalled that “substance problems” are a scourge in “First Nations communities”. “Friends and members of my family died from it,” he adds.
That’s why he chose to make his approach to the NHL’s aid program public. The precise reason why he had asked for help had never been disclosed.
“I could have done the whole thing in private and no one would have known. Maybe I could have stopped on my own. But I wanted to show that it’s okay to ask for help. »
After his stay in a center, Price continued his rehabilitation, with mixed results. He still returned to action at the end of the 2021-2022 season, but only played five games. He continued his other fight in parallel.
“The first three months after I left the center, it was like something new, you’re feverish,” he tells Basu. But the next six months, it came back to me often, I thought about it a lot. I don’t want to say I was ready to give up, but I can understand why the success rate isn’t that high. Going through that, I was like “yes, I can understand why”. But I also have my children at home every day. And I thought, if it’s not for them, then… first of all, do it for yourself. But I watch my kids every day and being able to stop wasting mornings in my life and being able to wake up on Sunday mornings and cook pancakes for them is something very fulfilling for me.
“The last few months, especially the last two months, I’ve been attending weddings, team parties and things like that. I think once you get over your own social anxiety, that’s when you start to feel comfortable being yourself. Sometimes I feel socially awkward and feel like I’ve used [l’alcool] like a kind of crutch. Lately, I feel like I’m good being myself, not drinking, being comfortable, being present. »