Carey Price recently confided in Maxim Lapierre and Guillaume Latendresse during a lavish interview with the La Poche Bleue podcast. Here are four things we learned about the Montreal Canadiens goalie.
• Also read: PK Subban always present for supporters
• Also read: ‘It got me binge drinking’: Carey Price opens up about his relationship with alcohol
Scared
Behind his marble facade, Carey Price is an anxious man. And if one might think that the pressures of the Montreal market and the dramatization that the local media are sometimes guilty of are at the root of this fear, it isn’t. Rather, it was his shyness and large gatherings that made him nervous, and to socialize he took to drinking. And despite the excesses, his episodes keep repeating themselves, despite his desire to quit.
“I started drinking for fun and as my career has progressed I’ve found that I’m very good at it. [pour boire], even though I was good at it,” Price said. So I got to the point where it wasn’t fun anymore. I had to stop. I asked for help. This is the most difficult phase; recognize that you have a problem and need help. But there’s nothing wrong with that.
A difficult interview
Before being drafted into the National Hockey League (NHL), young hopefuls must prove their talent on the ice, but also pass interviews with the teams. The process allows recruiters to see what kind of person they are dealing with. Price said he hit 13 or 14 teams, and his interview with the Habs was the toughest. At the time, Bob Gainey was the general manager and Trevor Timmins was still the recruiting director.
“They asked tough questions, I think they wanted to see how I would react to the media. When the Canadians called me up, I thought back to that interview and wondered if it went well or not…”
An important gold medal
It’s a well-known fact that goaltenders who win gold at the World Junior Hockey Championships rarely make great careers afterwards. Carey Price represents one of the rare anomalies at this level, while he may have a ticket into the Hall of Fame if he announces his retirement. In 2007 he won gold at the World Juniors.
“It was definitely a stepping stone for me,” Price said. It helped me accelerate my development and become a player in the National Hockey League (NHL).
Disappointed with the departure of PK
When the Canadians traded Jaroslav Halak to make way for Price in 2010, PK Subban became a regular. The two men quickly developed a bond, which they demonstrated with their famous “triple low five” that eventually brought Michel Therrien into oblivion.
When Subban was traded to Shea Weber, Price felt a pang in his heart.
“It was easy to talk to PK. When he was with the team, everything was always entertaining. I always liked the energy he brought to the dressing room. He was always very positive, always happy to be in the arena. That’s one thing I missed when he left.”