Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Habs coach Therrien: ‘We need Carey Price to be our leader’

Montreal Canadiens v Florida Panthers

SUNRISE, FL - FEBRUARY 14: Goaltender Carey Price #31 of the Montreal Canadiens warms up prior to the game against the Florida Panthers at the BB&T Center on February 14, 2013 in Sunrise, Florida. (Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)

Getty Images

The way Michel Therrien sees it, the success of the Montreal Canadiens comes down to one thing.

His goalie.

That’s what the Habs head coach suggested prior to Tuesday’s game against the Devils -- saying as Price goes, so does his team.

“We need Carey Price to be our leader,” Therrien told NHL.com. “We need Carey to be our best player, and players will feed from him.

“That’s the most important thing.”

Therrien’s words will likely raise some eyebrows, beacuse Price has been anything but Montreal’s best player lately. His month of April has been especially poor, posting a 3-6-1 record with a 3.75 GAA and .872 save percentage.

Those numbers were the byproduct of two bad losses to Philly (5-3 on Apr. 3, 7-3 on Apr. 15) and a pair of 5-1 losses to Toronto and Washington.

What’s more, Price has been yanked in two of Montreal’s last five games -- though to his credit, he hasn’t lost the faith of his teammates.

That’s not to say he hasn’t lost the faith of some fans.

Price was booed/jeered during Saturday’s loss to Washington, which drew the ire of defenseman Josh Gorges.

“I’ve never understood [booing] in your home building,” Gorges told the Montreal Gazette. “The guy’s been standing up for us. He’s been outstanding for us for years. And this isn’t on him, are you kidding me? This is on all of us.

“I take offence to [the heckling] because he’s a good friend of mine, he’s a teammate and I know his character and his pride.

“He’s out there battling every night to be his best and we let him down.”