Lots is being made about the effect Carey Price G has on the Montreal Canadiens. And really it is not a terrible argument. Before Price went out long term with some weird injury, the Habs were sitting on top as the best team in the league. Mike Condon G is not Carey Price G and now the team is battling to remain in the playoff hunt.
I've always said a bad goalie will kill a team. However, the impact of a great goalie is often even unseen versus a standard tight goalie. Think Corey Crawford G in Chicago vs Henrik Lundqvist G in New York. If that trade was made 8 years ago, would we now be looking at multiple cups in New York instead of Chicago!? Or would Chicago now be on an epic cup run?! It is unlikely the successes and troubles of either team would change much at all, if any.
Is Mike Condon G bad? I don't know. And, truly, if Price returns and Montreal becomes unbeatable again, I will have to change my tune (unless other changes have taken place). In my opinion, Montreal came into the season playing exactly their best. Max Pacioretty LW and Tomas Plekanec C were doing their thing and P.K. Subban D and Andrei Markov D were doing their thing. And the rest of the team was playing solid. Guys like Brendan Gallagher RW and Lars Eller C were keeping in the system and the depth players weren't giving up much.
Add to this, the fact that few teams were gelling in those early weeks of the season and this Montreal team were able to pull off quite a run of dominance.
This isn't the case of late. Those top four are still producing. And Gallagher, even though out with an injury for a bit, has contributed as much as he should. But pretty much that is it for this team. Everyone else has dropped off. And it really started to show just before Price went down the first time.
I look forward to Price's return. If the Habs are sparked into multi-game win streaks and make a renewed charge to the top, my view of team hockey might change. However, when he comes back and Montreal continues to struggle, just as they are with Condon, well...I will have to continue saying Goalies are Overrated.
Side-note: Much of Montreal's worst loss streaks were also without Brendan Gallagher. Since his return it seems Montreal has been a slightly better team and Condon doesn't seem to be the goat as much. he team scored more than two goals only 4 times in the 17 games Gallagher missed going 5 - 11 - 1. Since his return at the beginning of 2016, they are 2 - 2 - 0 and have scored 3 goals or more twice.
As a side note, check out the 12 game win streak Florida has put together. The goalies there have vastly different paths to this team and have vastly different histories of performance, yet both are putting up the same numbers and winning. Roberto Luongo G gets most of the starts, but when Al Montoya G goes in the results are the same. What are the odds that these two just happen to be hot at the same time?! As I said, just another reason I have to say Goalies are Overrated.
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