Todd: New Canadien Chris Kreider was wrongfully convicted by Habs fans for Carey Price hit
I was wrong — and so were you.
I know because I sacrificed a pleasant Sunday morning to YouTube and the maddening commentary of Pierre McGuire, dissecting the Zapruder film, watching Chris Kreider collide with Carey Price until it was engraved on my retina.
Ladies and gentlemen, Kreider did not deliberately crash into Carey Price. Might as well blame the goalpost that caught Price’s heel and caused the knee to hyperextend.
All you have to do is take a serious look at what really happened at the Bell Centre on May 17, 2014. It’s as simple as one … two … three.
One: Kreider wins the race for the puck at the red line and breaks up the wing.
Two: Kreider makes a brilliant move at the blue line, poking the puck past Montreal defenceman Alexei Emein and breaking to the centre between Emelin and winger Dale Weise.
Three: As Kreider barrels toward Carey Price, intent on scoring, he fights to control a bouncing, rolling puck. As he is about to get off a shot, Emelin makes a desperation lunge and catches Kreider on the shin with a one-handed slash that bends Emelin’s stick. Kreider, still travelling full speed, falls onto his back at close quarters to Price and his momentum carries him into the goalie.
If anything, the play is a distillation of everything we love about hockey. Speed, power, determination, agility on skates. “Play fast” is the current cliché and it could hardly have been faster.
It all happened in the span of three seconds, red line to crease. From the point where Kreider loses his balance until his skate catches Price under his knee and knocks him down, there is no time at all. Yet the court of public opinion decided long ago that in a micro-instant, Kreider made a conscious decision to try to injure the goalie.
As my francophone colleagues would say, boulechite.
I was there when it happened, but from my vantage point high up in the press box at the opposite end of the rink, I probably had the worst view in the house. I watched the replays, but over time, memory erodes.
My recollection (perhaps affected by the general hatred for Kreider) extended the play. In my mind, his fall happened much farther back and he slid for 15 feet or more, giving him ample time to avoid hitting the goalie.
That is simply not true. In fact, Kreider was doing what players are taught to do: drive the net. Had it been Max Pacioretty injuring Henrik Lundqvist on an identical play, Pacioretty would have been exonerated by the Montreal fans and media within minutes.
It would never have happened, of course, because Pacioretty was allergic to the sharp elbows around the net. Montreal fans spent a decade wishing their erstwhile captain would play like Kreider, but Pacioretty left the heavy going to Brendan Gallagher while he did his sniping from outside.
Does it matter?
Contrary to popular opinion, fans, columnists and talking heads don’t get a vote on moves that are made by the management duo of Jeff Gorton (who knows Kreider well from their six seasons together in New York) and Kent Hughes.
In truth, if they had not pounced on a deal that made it possible to add a player of Kreider’s calibre, they would have been failing at their jobs. Their task is to build the best possible hockey team for this season, not to cater to fans still boo-hooing over what happened to Price on a bang-bang hockey play a dozen years ago.
Not only did they sign Kreider, 35, to a one-year, US$2.15-million contract (with more than $3M in possible bonuses), they got him without giving up so much as a fifth-round draft pick.
Editor’s Picks
They’re trying to win the Stanley Cup, after all. In the deep, tough Atlantic Division, where several of the contenders have upgraded during the offseason, they can’t afford the luxury of outdated emotion.
In any case, what you think happened never happened. Kreider’s critics aren’t taking into account the nature of hockey itself, the speed, the momentum, the fact that you can’t plant your cleats in the turf to turn on a dime. As Stephen W. Lee said on Bluesky, “This isn’t an uncommon play, just an uncommon result.”
Nor did the hit end Price’s career. The following season was his best — he played in 66 games and finished the season with a 1.96 goals-against average and a .933 save percentage and won the Hart, Vézina and Jennings trophies and the Lindsay award.
If I know this fan base (and I think I do) half will be muttering in their Molsons about what an outrage this is until the moment Kreider pots a couple of goals — then it will be the biggest standing O in sports.
Heroes: Chris Kreider, Josh Anderson, Martin St. Louis, Jeff Gorton, Kent Hughes, Elena Rybakina, Camryn Rogers, Ethan Katzberg, Marco Arop, Antwan Raymond, Natasha Cloud, Kimi Antonelli, Davis Alexander &&&& last but not least, Jean Chrétien, national treasure.
Zeros: Gianni Infantino, Mark Walter, Josh Kushner, Steve Ballmer, Kawhi Leonard, Tom Dundon, Enes Kanter Freedom, Jed York, Cathy Engelbert, Marketa Vondrousova, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bud Selig Jr., Claude Brochu &&&& last but not least, David Samson and Jeffrey Loria.
Now and forever.
