How much does Carey Price mean to the Montreal Canadiens?
Saturday night made a case for Price being the all everything to the Habs.
Price made 36 saves in a 3-0 win over the hapless Buffalo Sabres.
It was Price’s first game since early November and he missed 10 games with a lower body injury; coming back against Buffalo was the perfect elixir.
“I felt prepared more than anything,” Price said. “I spent a lot of time thinking about today, and I’m just glad it all turned out well.”
Jeff Petry, Alex Galchenyuk and Paul Byron struck for the goals as the Habs snapped a five-game skid; they went 4-4-2 without Price in the net.
Buffalo’s closest goal was an Evander Kane effort with under a minute left in regulation. But the goal was waved off after video review.
“I think they made the right call, but it was definitely a good feeling on the bench because he deserved that,” Brendan Gallagher said. “He battled for us, and you didn’t see too many second chances because he was controlling the rebounds well.”
For Price, it was 40th career NHL shutout.
“I thought we played well,” Price said. “We were obviously playing a team that was tired and we took advantage of our chances.”
The Sabres were unable to build off their win the night before and showed as much intensity as they have all season, meaning very little.
“We didn’t work hard enough and bear down enough to beat [Carey Price]. … They capitalized on their few chances they had. I thought we were all over them, especially in the second and third period,” Kane said.
[WATCH: All Sabres vs. Canadiens highlights]
Robin Lehner made 23 saves in taking the loss as the Sabres dropped to 6-14-4; they have lost eight of their last nine games.
“I thought the last two games has been some of our best hockey,” Sabres head coach Phil Housley said. “Tonight, we didn’t get rewarded. I know the bottom line is winning. We ran into a hot goaltender who came back, made some terrific saves, and if there’s one thing, we could have tried to get to him earlier, but I can’t fault the effort. You can say what you want to say, but if we continue to play this way moving forward, we’re going to get a lot more wins.”
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