Canadiens' Carey Price unsettled by reality playing career is likely over

BROSSARD, Que. — This isn’t the sunset Carey Price has always dreamed of riding off into. It’s more like a storm this cowboy is navigating as he waits and hopes for the sun to poke through more ominous clouds ahead.

Barring what he termed "a miracle" occurring, the only thing Price will be wearing on his head over his remaining years under contract with the Montreal Canadiens is that big-brimmed hat we saw him in on opening night of the 2022-23 season. Without divine intervention, his goalie mask will remain bagged.

That’s a reality Price is clearly struggling to come to terms with no matter how at peace he seems.

You couldn’t tell by the way Price was talking on Monday — serenely throughout his first meet-the-media session since late last spring — but his content spoke volumes about how he actually feels.

"It’s frustrating, no question," Price said. "You go from being in the Stanley Cup Final to be sitting here today, it’s a pretty short amount of time. It’s not a position I envisioned myself being in not too long ago. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster for myself."

And it’s been a chronically painful one.

With a knee injury that degenerated and plagued his recent playing days, one that continues to nag him every time he goes up and down a staircase, Price’s possibility of donning his equipment again at this level is fainter than the bottom line of an almost-recovered COVID-19 patient’s positive test. The possibility is so dim, it’s not even front of mind.

"My first goal is to get healthy," the 35-year-old said. "Once I do that, I can start considering being able to train at a professional level. Right now, I cannot train at a professional level. So, once I get to that, then I’ll consider (playing). But until then, this is my goal — it’s just to get healthy.”

It’s been years since Price has been healthy, and there are no guarantees he ever will be again.

If basic comfort continues to prove elusive, only then will Price seriously contemplate going through with the recommended surgical intervention he qualified as "intrusive" and "worrisome."

But, as Price explained, "taking a plug of cartilage and bone from a lower area in your knee and placing it in the cartilage-damaged area" just to continue chasing his unfulfilled dream of winning the Cup is not on the table. He said the osteochondral-autograft-transfer-system-procedure has a 50 per cent success rate and that he’s not even considering going through it to once again use his knee as a virtual springboard for at least 40 games and twice as many practices per season.

So Price has no choice but to wait for a miracle — and perhaps an even greater one than the one he once upon a time conjured by diving across his crease to get his blocker on an Alexander Ovechkin one-timer labelled for the top corner of his net.

With no plans to retire — and he shouldn’t be making any with $31.5 million of his $84-million contract still owed to him — all Price can do is hope the physical rehabilitation that’s been failing for the past year and a half finally begins to work.

"It hasn’t been successful thus far," Price said. "That’s been the real frustrating part. I’ve talked to several people who have had this type of injury and it’s taken over a year for them to start feeling normal. So, I’m still holding out hope. There’s a possibility of maybe another injection, but we’ll have to see. I’ll just have to continue trying to solve the problem."

If he can’t, the dark clouds will remain overhead.

Price is trying to keep them from crushing his spirit.

"I’m just trying to focus on all the positives of life and, right now, my kids are really giving me that avenue," he said of Liv, Millie and Lincoln. "My wife has been very supportive, and my family, and I’m a very lucky individual. And I’m trying to keep all of those things in perspective."

But Price also made it clear that’s easier said than done.

He said he misses being around his teammates, and it’s obvious he misses the game he sacrificed so much of himself to play over the years.

Price came to play under the bright lights of the Bell Centre from the dark woods of Anahim Lake, B.C. as a teenager. He’s since spent nearly half his life building his identity as the winningest goaltender in Canadiens history.

Processing the idea that this chapter has likely come to a close is proving very difficult.

"It’s still something that you digest," Price said, "and I don’t think I fully have done that yet, to be honest."

Nor has he thought about his legacy, other than hoping to be "recognized as just a hard worker and a good guy," he said.

Those who played with Price in Montreal hope he’s recognized for much more — for his ever-calming presence, for his nightly heroics, for his Hart and Vezina Trophies and the Ted Lindsay Award, and for his performances which fueled long playoff runs and brought the Canadiens so close to capturing the Cup.

Current alternate captain Brendan Gallagher, who’s been Price’s teammate for a decade, believes the goaltender should receive the ultimate recognition of having his No. 31 hung alongside the 14 other numbers in the Bell Centre rafters.

"To me, there’s no doubt when you talk about the impact that he’s had, you talk about the success that he’s had," Gallagher said. "When you came to the game, people came to watch Carey Price play. That’s not something usual. People want to see goals, people want to see excitement, but he was flashy and exciting and, at the same time, calm and poised. He’s done everything to deserve it. Obviously, it would’ve been nice to have won a Stanley Cup and then there wouldn’t be an argument.

"He got us there. It’s hard to say, but it would be fair to say he’d have gotten us there another time if he hadn’t been hurt (in the 2014 Conference Final). He just did so much throughout his career. I think you look at the names and the jerseys up there, I understand all the Cups, but people came to see those players. Pricey was that guy people came to see."

It would be accurate to suggest many of them showed up at the Canadiens' home opener this season just to pay homage to Price.

He came out for what he hopes won’t be remembered as a curtain call and was cheered and left feeling, as he put it, "an overwhelming sense of gratitude."

The emotion — not just from the fans, but from Price — was palpable.

"It was nice to see him show that," said Gallagher. "He’s always had it in him, but he hasn’t been able to express to the fans that much because of who he was and his personality.

"It’s not really what he does, but I think it’s important for people to see how proud he was to be a Montreal Canadien, how much it meant to him. And for the fans to receive him like that, I think it meant a lot both ways.

"It was well deserved. He’s a guy that has meant so much to the city and this organization for so long, it just brings a smile to your face to see him received that way because he deserves everything he gets."

Price would give up a lot to get in a 713th game in this league, and to add more wins to the 361 he’s accumulated as a Canadien. He’d give everything he has to hoist that Cup he played through unfathomable pain to chase after all these years.

Except for one thing.

"Right now, I’m looking at my younger kids, and being able to play with them on a daily basis is the most important," he said.

Throughout the 22-minute, 31-second press conference Price echoed those thoughts.

Then, at the very end, Price said, "I just can’t believe how fast it’s gone by."

"I’m really envious of all these young players coming into the league right now," he continued. "The league’s better than it’s ever been. They’re just very lucky to be here, and I’m very envious of them."