The Montreal Canadiens’ Carey Price in action against the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena on March 7, 2015 in Glendale, Ariz.Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Preparation
Carey Price is resolute about complimenting his position coach, Stéphane Waite, for bringing a relentless focus on the here and now to his pregame approach. The big goalie wasn't always the most concentrated practice player early in his career, but he certainly is now.
"I know I can barely score on him in practice," winger Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau joked.
Price sets no statistical goals for himself and never has any discussion with Waite over individual objectives, mostly because he's more interested in winning. Now. Not tomorrow, tonight. Thus, he is single-minded about every specific challenge and approaches it in isolation.
After setting a single-season club record for wins last week, he said, "It's been working all season long, the goal-setting looking forward. I don't want to start resting on a good season yet."
Technique
All NHL goaltenders have superior technical ability, but Price's is a cut above his peers'.
With the way he positions his 6-foot-3 frame to cut off angles, his ability to move fluidly about the goal crease and his skill in reading play and anticipating shots based on the angle of shooters' sticks (and their tendencies), Price approaches the Platonic ideal of goaltending fundamentals. So naturally he and Waite have set about improving them.
One of the key adjustments they made last season was to have Price crouch lower in order to see through the thicket of legs and bodies in front of him. The stance, which is physically exhausting to lesser humans, also emphasizes his superior athleticism.
"A lot of guys can get set, be in the right spot, make that first save, but he's in position for the second and third," Montreal backup goalie Dustin Tokarski said. "You watch clips throughout the year where he's making the second and third save look just as easy as the first, where other guys would be scrambling."
Temperament
A profile in ESPN Magazine once described playing goal for the Montreal Canadiens as the loneliest job in sports. Price is temperamentally suited to the task. Under almost all circumstances he remains as placid as a mountain lake in the Chilcotin wilderness where he grew up.
Top goalies are expert at managing their emotions and cutting off the negative feelings of giving up a goal.
When he was younger, some interpreted Price's mien as a lack of competitive fire. They were wrong. In Game 7 of last year's second-round playoff series against Boston, Price stood up during the second intermission to address his teammates.
"To say he's going to shut the door, I don't think there are too many goalies who are confident enough to make that call," winger Dale Weise said. "He doesn't say a lot, but when he does, guys take it seriously." It helps that he did indeed shut the door.
Consistency
Price only had three occasions this past season when he lost consecutive games (and he lost three in a row only once, in early December).
Throughout this season he has maintained a fantastically high standard of consistency in allowing two or fewer goals in 44 of his 65 starts (he has given up more than three goals on only 11 occasions, and four of them were in the first month of the season).
It's a level of performance that the Canadiens' goaltender has been able to approach regularly since the beginning of last season, although his gold-medal turn for Canada at the Sochi Olympics marks a noticeable upward tick in his results.
"He's at another level," Weise said.
Innovation
All professional netminders tinker with their gear and Price has long been a darling of the goalie geek set for his eye-catching, custom-made equipment.
He has also, with help from his pad sponsors and the Habs' ingenious equipment staff, become an innovator. According to Kevin Woodley, a goalie watcher who writes for In Goal magazine and NHL.com, Price has introduced a new knee-strap design that allows for freer movement, and he has also done away with the bootstrap (which binds pads to a goalie's skate), thus permitting greater ankle mobility.
Tokarski said he and Price don't spend inordinate amounts of time talking shop, but added, "I'm learning every day from him on the ice, off the ice, about equipment. In terms of what that is, I'm sure he'd appreciate it if I kept it a secret."