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Carey Price and his beer goggles save Canada

Carey Price #31 of Team Canada celebrates in the locker room during Game Two of the World Cup of Hockey final series. (Andre Ringuette/Getty Images)
Carey Price #31 of Team Canada celebrates in the locker room during Game Two of the World Cup of Hockey final series. (Andre Ringuette/Getty Images)

TORONTO – Carey Price sat at the podium with plastic eye protectors strapped around his head, ones that kept the spray of Canadian champagne (i.e. bottles of Molson) from his eyes in his team’s championship locker room celebration.

“Team-issued,” said Price.

Canada had won the World Cup of Hockey in thrilling fashion, completing the tournament 6-0 and dispatching Team Europe in a two-game sweep in the final round.

But that’s the thing about beer goggles: They make it all look better that it actually is.

Outside of the last three minutes of the game, Canada was outplayed, out-hustled and outperformed by Team Europe. At best they looked disjointed, at worst they looked like a stubborn opponent was controlling them.

“They were playing a really stingy game, denying the middle, not letting us play with the speed that we wanted to play. It was working to their advantage,” said center Patrice Bergeron, whose power-play goal late in the third tied the game and sparked the Canadian rally that would win it.

So for 57 minutes, it was on Carey Price to ensure that Canada would be in position to potentially tie the game with his 32-save effort. Just like it was on Price to bail out Canada in their sloppy first game of the final, with an identical 32-save effort.

“They played tight, they played structured, and they played fast. They made it difficult, that’s for sure,” said Price.

Sidney Crosby was rightfully named the MVP of the tournament. But Price was their most valuable player in the two wins that clinched it.

“Pricer played a heck of a game, just like he did a few days ago,” said Jonathan Toews, who assisted in Brad Marchand’s short-handed game-winning goal with 44 seconds left. “Sometimes it comes down to goaltending. Their goaltender played a hell of a game, too, but Carey was there when we needed him.”

Team Europe coach Ralph Krueger echoed the sentiments.

“We took a lot of risks in this game, and Carey Price was, once again, just amazing. You have to say that Jaroslav Halak played a hell of a game, but at the end, [Price] made some outstanding saves,” he said.

There was perhaps none better than his save on Marian Hossa with 1:09 left in the game, the score tied 1-1 and Europe on the power play. “Pricey made a hell of a save It’s unbelievable, but he just does what he does,” said coach Mike Babcock.

It was a rocket off the stick of one of the NHL’s best snipers. Price snagged it, and the Canada fans in the stands when bonkers.

“Just a quick play,” said Price. “I just tried to make myself big [in the net] and squeezed it.”

Brad Marchand said it was a turning point, kicking Canada’s rally up a notch.

“You see the emotion in the whole arena when he made that save. I think everyone, especially after the goal, was unbelievable, very electric. And when he made that save, they kind of brought it to another level. And we feed off of that energy, there’s no question about that,” said Marchand, who scored the short-handed game winner 25 seconds later.

“You could tell the boys were confident, and you definitely want to help him out when he makes a save like that. You’ve got to play your part, too, and fortunately we were able to return the favor.”

GettyImages-611480980
GettyImages-611480980

For Price, the win added another championship to his collection: Olympic gold in Sochi 2014 and world junior gold in Sweden back in 2007. He had a 16-game winning streak with Canadian national teams, and has allowed 17 goals in that span.

“Everybody’s bought it up, yeah. I thought it might be over tonight, but we willed our way through it,” he said.

The World Cup of Hockey, of course, was Price’s return to the ice after suffering a medial collateral ligament injury (MCL sprain) to his right knee in Nov. 2015, which ended his season with the Montreal Canadiens.

He’s answered questions about that journey back many times during the tournament, about how physically he felt good but that the tournament helped him get back into the game mentally.

On Thursday night, when asked about it again, he said tersely: “I’ve already covered this many times.”

The World Cup is over. Carey Price and his team are its rightful owners. Now, the goalie is ready to get back to the challenge of leading the Canadiens back to the playoffs.

Well, after the celebration ends.

“I might wear them all night,” said Price of his beer goggles.


Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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