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MONTREAL — It is amazing how long a shadow can persist.
In the Montreal Canadiens' dressing room yesterday afternoon — really, a Potemkin dressing room, as is the norm these days, a false-front media set with slogans on the wall and pictures of the ancient greats where the players are summoned individually for interviews (they actually hang out and change their clothes elsewhere) — Carey Price was unavailable.
Unusual, since he hasn't been kept behind closed doors before during these playoffs, but also no real surprise, since he's just 20, a rookie goaltender playing in the sport's greatest pressure cooker and, on Thursday night, he stank.
The Canadiens had a chance to close out their first-round NHL playoff series against the Boston Bruins with a win at home.
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With the score 1-1 entering the third period, Price made a terrible blunder, dropping a puck in front of his net that he should have frozen. After that, the wheels came off.
The game finished 5-1, which means that tonight in Boston, the burden of expectations shifts dramatically, and that all Habs-loving eyes will be on the kid between the pipes.
"He knows he made a mistake and was a little soft after that," head coach Guy Carbonneau said yesterday, being gentle. "I didn't need to say anything to him [afterwards]. Sometimes the best way is not to say a thing."
It's not really all about Price, of course. The loss was in many ways a team effort. But the contemporary Canadiens, because of their glorious past, are often forced into old narratives.
In this case, there's that one about the rookie goaltender stepping into the breach and leading his team all the way to an unexpected Stanley Cup triumph.
An older generation immediately harks back to Ken Dryden, who had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup without having played enough regular-season games to be eligible for rookie of the year.
But when it comes to Price, the shadow hanging over his faux locker right now is that of another guy, whose name is plastered all over the place here, who never really left the building. They're taking the kid's temperature by the hour because that's the way it used to be with Patrick Roy.
Suffice it to say that they are very different cats.
Roy was the genius prima donna, his emotions ran hot, he was the centre of his own universe and he loved the spotlight of the biggest games. Jacques Demers was one coach who admitted to having a separate set of Roy rules, putting the lie to the great sports truism that on successful teams everybody is an equal.
And, of course, there was the flamboyant manner of Roy's exit from Montreal, the operatic final act with Mario Tremblay and Ronald Corey. (Thank God he's matured, and calmed down, and become more measured in his responses since then.)
"How are you feeling today, Patrick?" was a question that could provoke all sorts of responses, especially after a particularly good, or bad, night.
So now, on the morning after, the question on everyone's lips is, "How are you feeling today, Carey?"
Too much of that too soon, the Habs' brain trust has decided (judging from yesterday's isolation) might not be the best thing for him. But the truth is other than a moment at midseason when Price's confidence seemed truly shaken, he was on the verge of tears and he was sent out for a little Hamilton holiday to regain his bearings, what you get from him is pretty much always the same.
He's soft-spoken, on an even keel. He is deliberate, laconic and a little bit distant, and on the best and worst of days, he's that guy.
"Obviously, he was a little bit upset after the game [Thursday] night," said Ryan O'Byrne, who played with Price last year in Hamilton and won an AHL championship. "I think he was a little bit down on himself. But to see him in the dressing room today, he's back to his old self, happy go lucky and cracking jokes."
Not Dryden, the college boy who was initially considered a bit of an oddball by his teammates. Not Roy, around whom everyone tread lightly. Not the others who were cast in the role, often unfairly, and failed in the end to measure up — Jose Theodore most prominent among them.
This is a new story, not an old one. And the central character is still to be fleshed out.
