Price, Canadiens playing with confidence entering NHL100 Classic

OTTAWA -- Carey Price has started nine consecutive games, but he won't overstate the significance of that even if it is monumentally significant for the Montreal Canadiens.
"Just progressively getting better, that's the idea," Price said while sporting a black cowboy hat, a black overcoat and his goalie skates in preparation for a family skate at Lansdowne Park. "Just trying to find some consistency and keep moving forward with that."

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The only way the Canadiens were going to find consistency this season was if Price did. It appears he has.
Price will make his 10th consecutive start since returning from a lower-body injury when the Canadiens play the Ottawa Senators outdoors in the 2017 Scotiabank NHL100 Classic on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, CBC, TVA Sports, NHL.TV). He is 6-2-1 with a 2.14 goals-against average and .933 save percentage in his nine starts since Nov. 25.
"It's definitely nice to get some playing time to try to get on a roll," Price said.
The Canadiens were in danger of rolling too far in the wrong direction when Price was put on injured reserve Nov. 3.
Saying Price wasn't himself, that he wasn't right, might have been the understatement of the season at that point. He was 3-7-1 with a 3.77 GAA and .877 save percentage in 11 starts.
"That's not the kind of goalie he is," Montreal coach Claude Julien said.

The Canadiens weren't helping him out, hanging him out to dry because of egregious turnovers or missed defensive assignments.
They were last in the Atlantic Division with nine points through 13 games. They were in the bottom five in goals per game (2.54), goals against per game (3.92), power play (13.46 percent) and penalty kill (76.08 percent).
"We were not supporting him," captain Max Pacioretty said. "I think we added another level of frustration that we were leaving our best player out to dry and he's taking a lot of heat for it."
There's no disputing that, and that's why a close second in the race for understatement of the season might have been saying the Canadiens were again showing they can't win without Price at his best.
The point is they will not win without Price at his best, not then and not now.
"It's because of that confidence that he gives you, gives everybody," Montreal defenseman Karl Alzner said.
It's not an overstatement, in fact, to suggest there may be no other player in the NHL who means more to his team than Price, and that's why he won the Hart Trophy three seasons ago and why the Canadiens missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs two seasons ago, when a knee injury kept Price out for the final 59 games.
The Canadiens are 100-47-13 with Price since the start of the 2014-15 season. They are 49-53-16 without him.
"He's one of the best players in the world, and he gives us confidence to go out there and know he's going to make that big save and we're going to be able to go the other way and score a goal and ultimately give ourselves a chance to win a game," Pacioretty said. "Not many teams are fortunate to have that caliber of a player back there, but when he's back there and you see that confidence and compete level, you can see it in his eyes right away.
"He's a real competitor, and when he makes that big save, it's almost like a switch goes off on our bench and it's like, 'OK, now let's go out there, go the other way and put one in.'"

The Canadiens didn't have that version of Price until he returned to play against the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 25, ironically two years to the day of when he played his last game of the 2015-16 season.
"We started feeling it as soon as he got back," Alzner said. "You could just tell. He seemed different."
Montreal immediately went on a five-game winning streak, with Price allowing six goals on 156 shots (.962 save percentage). The Canadiens scored first in four of the five games. They scored 24 goals, including 16 in back-to-back wins against the Detroit Red Wings on Nov. 30 and Dec. 2.
"You could tell he had that swagger, that good swagger that you like to see," Alzner said.
Montreal lost its next three games (0-2-1), with Price slowing down a bit and allowing 11 goals on 81 shots, including four on 14 before he was pulled in the second period of a 6-2 loss against the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 9.
He got right back at it Thursday, when he made 31 saves in a 2-1 overtime win against the New Jersey Devils.
"He's kept us in games that we had no business being in," Alzner said. "It's about knowing that 99 percent of the time he's going to give you a chance to win, and then the rest of it is up to you. He's been phenomenal. It's a luxury."
The Canadiens are fourth in the Atlantic Division and five points out of a wild-card position in the Eastern Conference. They feel they can win every night now, indoors or outdoors.
There is one reason why.
"He's back," Julien said. "He's back to being Carey again."