Carey Price feels like 'old self' in recovery from knee injury
Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price seems mostly recovered from a knee injury that kept him out for a majority of last season.
InGoal Magazine published video of the 2015 Hart Trophy winner doing drills and broke down his form and how he looked. Price also told the publication, “I feel like my old self on the ice.”
Here is the video of Price at the second annual Day With Price fundraiser to benefit the Eli Wilson Goaltending Sponsorship Fund.
Wrote InGoal about Price and how he looked:
Price spent the day with 16 goalies who bid for, or won the chance to spend a day training with him, leading a group that came from as far as California and Prince Edward Island through a dynamic warm-up, then strapping on his new Team Canada-colored CCM pads and gloves to help guide them through on-ice drills. That meant demonstrating each drill for his old goalie coach Eli Wilson, and as Price pushed and stopped and slid around his crease, bouncing in and out of his posts, fully extending without hesitation, he looked like the goaltender that won the Hart and Vezina Trophies with a .933 save percentage in 2014-15. Price started last season with a similarly dominant .934 save percentage while going 10-2-0 for the Canadiens, but as good as he looks and feels on the ice, the knee injury that ended that season after just 12 games is still in the back of his mind.
Price’s season ended when he sprained his MCL on Nov. 25 against the New York Rangers. Earlier in the offseason, Doug Armstrong – Team Canada GM for the World Cup of Hockey – said Price would be 100 percent for the tournament. It’s expected Price, who backstopped Canada to a 2014 Olympic gold medal, will start over Braden Holtby and Corey Crawford.
Last season, Price was 10-2-0 with a 2.06 goal-against average and .934 save percentage.
“I don’t want to say I feel anxious but I just want to get started. I feel like the build-up has been six months of waiting for that first game and I still haven’t gotten there. I’ve been working towards a goal I haven’t gotten to yet,” Price said.
The story points out that the 29-year-old Price is down to 218 pounds from 226 a year ago. This weight drop should help the wear and tear on his body.
“As my career progresses, as I get older, I’d like to start lightening up a little, maybe towards 215 or 212. It’s a lot of up and down in a season, so packing around an extra five pounds makes a difference,” Price said.
At the same event, the goaltender spoke with NHL.com about some of the criticism around the organization’s biggest move of the summer in dealing fan favorite P.K. Subban to the Nashville Predators for Shea Weber. Ultimately he sees a match with Weber and the Canadiens.
“I know what Shea is all about,” Price said. “He is a leader on and off the ice and he’s going to fit into our system perfectly. There’s not a team in the NHL that wouldn’t want Shea Weber.”
Even though the Canadiens made several more moves in the offseason, adding Andrew Shaw and Alexander Radulov, Price’s return to health may be the most important factor in making the playoffs. Over the last two seasons combined, Price has gone 54-18-6 so any progress in his recovery is probably the best marker for Habs success this year.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
