Which goaltender can lead the Montreal Canadiens to their 25th Stanley cup?The question has been up in the air for most of this season. In the 2006-2007 season, Huet got hurt and they had to call up Halak with 25 games left.He played great for Montreal. He got Montreal into 8th place with 1 game to go and it was against Toronto (who was 1 point back of Montreal). Huet was returning from injury. So Carbonneau put him in goal it was a big mistake. As Montreal lost 6-5 and was eliminated. But Toronto didn't make it either due to the Islanders win over the Devils. The Devils lost on purpose so the Leafs would not make it.The Habs ended the season in 10th place with a record of 42-34-6.
The next year, in the 2007-2008 it looked like Carey Price(who was a rookie at the time) was the go to guy since he lead Montreal to 1st place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 47-25-10 .They won the first round in 7 games against Boston. Then they lost in round 2 against the Flyers in 5 games. In the 2008-2009 Montreal started off good with a 6-0-1 record but then slipped down to a record of 41-30-11 and finished in 8th place.Head coach Guy Carbonneau was fired. No one was having a good year. In the first round of the playoffs they lost to the 1st place Bruins in 4 games. In game 4, Carey Price was geered by Montreal fans so he raises his arms in the air just like what Patrick Roy did in his last game on Montreal.
"I made that particular gesture to remind people that booing doesn't always help," Price said on April 23. "We're out there trying our hardest, guys are playing hurt and we're doing everything we can and things weren't going our way and we started having people turn on us in our own rink. It's kind of hard to put up with." This season (2009-2010), the Canadiens have took a turn for the better with a new coach in Jacques Martin and a bunch of new players. But no captain. In this case a captain doesn't matter. The Habs were having a better year than last season by being in the top 6 in the east this whole year. But Habs GM Bob Gainey quit. So Pierre Gauthier took over.
So far this season Montreal has 82 points,37 wins 31 losses and 8 o.t/shootout losses and are tied for 6th in the East with the Bruins and the Flyers. So in my opinion it could go either way. But I think Halak is the go to guy and Price is a guy that you can rely on if Halak has a bad game. I think Montreal has a chance to win the cup if not this year in the next 3 years.
Written By Andrew Di Pardo
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