The Montreal Canadiens may be down a number one goaltender in Carey Price, as the net minder could be done for the rest of the playoffs after sustaining an injury against New York in Game 1 in the eastern conference finals and that could be the difference as both teams try and make it to the Stanley Cup finals in 2014. The Rangers attended the funeral for France St. Louis, the mother of Martin St. Louis on Sunday and that emotion may propel the team to the Stanley Cup.
The Rangers started off the series with an offensive barrage and Price was pulled in the game after allowing four goals on just 20 shots and at the time coach Michel Therrien said it was not because of an injury that he was taken out. Therrien put in backup Peter Budaj and the Rangers scored three more goals and now Price is out for the rest of the series, as Therrien announced that he sustained an injury in game 1 and now will be done for the rest of the conference finals and that is a big hit for the team, as Price is the best player on the team and won a gold medal with Canada in the Olympics.
Price was originally injured on a play with Chris Kreider coming hard at the net, as Kreider tried to pull up before barreling into Price and now he is out for the series. The Canadiens did not go so far to say that the play was dirty by Kreider, but they did say they felt he did not do enough to get out of the way. Kreider said after the game he was just trying to make a play and did not do anything intentional and now the Canadiens will have to deal with playing a backup for one of the best goalies in the game.
The Rangers of course have Henrik Lundqvist and he has been excellent in the playoffs and now this takes away the gold medal rematch, as Lundqvist and Price went head to head in the Olympics this year. The Rangers broke out with seven goals in game 1 to take the lead in the series and the first goal was scored by Martin St. Louis and that was emotional after his mother died last week and now the team is playing in Montreal, where he is from. The team and owner James Dolan attended the funeral for St. Louis' mother and now the team plays Game 2 on Monday night.
The matchup for Game 2 comes at the Bell Centre and starts up on NBC at 8 pm and streaming online before Game 3 picks up from Madison Square Garden and the Rangers are now going for a 2-0 series lead.
