Carey Price’s journey to Hall of Fame paved by awe-inspiring greatness

MONTREAL — It was one of many defining moments in Carey Price’s career, though it came after a devastating loss rather than one of the many triumphs that ultimately landed him in the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday.

It was the spring of 2015, in Tampa Bay, where the Montreal Canadiens were attempting to avoid a 3-0 deficit in their second-round series versus the Lightning. Price allowed the game’s first goal to Alex Killorn 12 minutes into the first period but rebounded spectacularly before Brendan Gallagher tied things up midway through the third period.

Six more shots got through the Canadiens after Gallagher tied the game, but they didn’t get past Price. He was square and in control, singlehandedly keeping hope alive until the final second.

But that’s when Tyler Johnson dashed it, arriving on the doorstep of Price’s crease on a two-on-one and tapping home the game-winner with less than a second to go in regulation.

The Canadiens’ room felt like a morgue after that. Long faces and 1,000-yard stares dominated fruitless scrums.

The players were understandably dismayed by a very successful season on the verge of being flushed away so convincingly by a team they had swept in the previous playoffs. None more so than Price — a man of few words typically spoken in hushed tones.

He had even less to say than usual. His scrum might have lasted a minute, and it felt like a minute wasted.

But right after it ended, as Price was headed towards the showers, the Montreal Gazette’s Pat Hickey, in his inimitable style, blurted out, “Hey Carey, do you think you should have stopped that last one?”

We all tensed up, but Price turned back towards us and coolly responded, “I believe I should stop all of them.”

Price’s rise from relative obscurity in Anahim Lake, B.C. — population 2,000, if you include the fish — to star under the brightest spotlight of hockey-mad Montreal was built on that mentality. Coupled with his exceptional athleticism, it initially got him drafted fifth overall and eventually got him elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

In between, we were treated to awe-inspiring greatness.

It was in Leksand, Sweden, in 2007, with Canada seeking a third consecutive gold medal at the world junior championship and the United States threatening to end their run in the semifinal, that Price delivered his first dose of it.

“Back of my mind, I was panicking,” said Canada team member Karl Alzner when we rehashed the memory with him last summer, in anticipation of Price getting into the Hall on the first ballot. “I think we had won two in a row and, of course, you never want to lose to the U.S. So, I was nervous about the game, but I would say there were two things that were making me feel a lot better about it. One was knowing how good Jonathan Toews was in the shootout, and the other thing was seeing how calm Carey looked.”

Price had made 22 saves in regulation before coming up with 12 in the 10-minute overtime. And after both teams emerged tied from the first three rounds of the shootout, it got to sudden death.

Brian Little missed for Canada and left Price facing Patrick Kane to stave off elimination.

Kane came barreling in and threw two fakes before attempting to put the puck through Price’s pads, but the goaltender remained patient and clicked his heels together at the goal line to keep the game even.

Two Toews goals bookended one from Andrew Cogliano after the Americans got goals from Peter Mueller and Jack Johnson. Then Mueller had one last chance to keep the shootout going.

Canada beat Russia 4-2 in the final and Price was named tournament MVP after posting a .961 save percentage, a 1.14 goals-against average and two shutouts in six games.

He believed he should stop all the shots. He almost did.

“You could tell even in practice, where the shots were often harder to stop than in games because they were uninterrupted and undefended, that he would get really frustrated about the few that would squeak in, and that’s the mentality the greats have,” said Alzner. “If you were to ask the top scorers right now if they expect to score every game, they probably in their heads are thinking, ‘Yes.’ All the top shutdown defencemen think, ‘No one can get past me, not even McDavid.’

“Carey was always cool and calm, but he also always had that mentality of being able to stop everything. He was secretly one of the most competitive people there was. It was the case back then (at the 2007 world junior), and you look at his career and ask anybody who played in his era and they would say one of the scariest players to play against was Scary Carey.”

Those players considered Price the best player in the world in 2015, selecting him as the Ted Lindsay Award recipient shortly after the Canadiens ended up losing that series to Tampa in six games.

Price also captured the Hart, Vezina and Jennings Trophies that year, after he won 44 games, posted a .933 save percentage and a 1.96 goals-against average behind a Canadiens team that finished with the second-most points in the league but landed in the bottom third in goals for, power-play efficiency and shots on goal per game.

It was a lot of silverware added to Price’s mantle after he helped Canada earn gold at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. He got to play behind one of the greatest defences ever assembled, but he also stopped all but three of the 106 shots he faced to earn top goaltender honours in the tournament.

Price came up huge in a pressure-packed, 2-1 win over Latvia in the quarterfinals before delivering a 1-0 shutout against the U.S.A. in the semifinal and a 3-0 shutout against Sweden in the final.

Two years later, at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, Price put up a wall, going 5-0-0 and posting a .957 save percentage and 1.40 goals-against average. And that was after he missed all but 12 games of the 2015-16 NHL season with ligament damage in his knee.

Price returned to play 62 games the following year, but ultimately ended up on injury reserve far too frequently between 2017 and 2023, when it was finally determined — long after his last appearance in an NHL game — his knee could no longer withstand the rigours of NHL hockey.

Before coming to terms with that reality, Price faced another harsh one, checking himself into the NHL/NHLPA Players’ Assistance Program in the fall of 2021.

He later revealed he had been abusing alcohol and neglecting his mental health for years.

Price persevered, though, returning from the program and pushing through exhaustive rehab on his knee to play five of the final games of the 2022 season and capture the Bill Masterton Trophy.

The games Price played to close out the 2021 season were far more memorable.

That was when Price experienced some of the highest highs of his life, backstopping the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup Final before falling just three wins short of helping them beat the Lightning.

When asked what he thought was the difference in the five-game loss, Price said, “At the end of the day, I just don’t think I played well enough at the start of the series.” Just like when he was asked in 2015 about Johnson’s unstoppable shot, he shouldered blame that didn’t belong to him.

If not for Price, the Canadiens would’ve never found themselves in Tampa for the final to begin with.

“With the playoffs, he was obviously our MVP,” said Jake Evans via text message. “Such a calming presence back there. Made every save on the whole run look so easy and clearly frustrated/deflated opponents over the series with them knowing how hard it would be to score even one against him.”

The Toronto Maple Leafs got two against Price in a bid to eliminate the Canadiens in Game 6 of the first round.

But he made 13 saves in overtime before Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored to force Game 7.

Price then allowed only one goal in the clinching game in Toronto before allowing only six in a four-game sweep over the Winnipeg Jets in Round 2.

In Round 3, Price stopped 180 of 193 shots in a six-game win over the Vegas Golden Knights. And in Round 4, against the Lightning, the Canadiens were overmatched and overwhelmed in front of him.

Still, Price stopped 61 of the last 64 shots he faced in the series. But he came away feeling his best — and last — opportunity to win the Cup was lost because he didn’t come up with the saves he expected to make earlier.

“To come so close and not win, it’s pretty heart-wrenching,” Price said in a recent interview. “Results aside, the experience was something I’ll cherish forever.”

Price’s backup for the 2021 run, Jake Allen, told us that the experience of battling alongside Price was “a main highlight” of his career.

“He was a natural,” Allen texted. “He also had the combination of patience, mental clarity and confidence that is tough to teach or experience to understand.

“He was at a tier not many can reach, and that was noted through the league by his goalie peers and also (by) players. He was at a status not many can reach, and still has presence to this day.”

On this day, Price became the 44th goaltender elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

It’s an honour he earned by always believing he should stop every shot.