Carey Price to start Game 1 against the Penguins

Just hours after completing one of the biggest upsets in NHL history, Canadiens coach Jacques Martin announced that Carey Price will get the start against the Penguins on Friday.

“Jaraslav (Halak) was obviously wonderful in the the past three games,” said Martin in a Thursday morning press conference, “but we feel if given just one more chance, Price will come through for us.”

Martin said he was leaning towards Halak, the netminder who stopped 131 of 134 shots (.978 save percentage) over the final three games against Washington, before talking to his former boss Bob Gainey.

“Pierre (Gauthier) and I obviously have a lot of respect for Bob, so when he said, “I talked to Carey. There’s no way he lets us down again,” we listened,” said the Montreal coach. “Bob really, and I mean really, feels Price can be a franchise goalie if we stick with him just a tad longer, so that’s what we’re going to do.”

When asked if starting Price was just a motivational ploy to make his team play harder, Martin passed off the notion as ridiculous.

“A lot of you guys in the media are saying I kept going back to Carey all season just to remind my team that they’re really not that good and that they need to work harder,” said Martin incredulously. “You’re saying I only went with Price in Game 4 so the players would beg me to put Halak back in and promise to never take shifts off again, but that plan would never work, would it?

When told of the decision by Martin, Halak just shrugged and began his preparations for Game 2, while the 22-year-old Price seemed frightened, but cautiously optimistic.

“Bob told me to just go out there and play my best,” mumbled Price.

“He promised that if I win we can go for ice cream after the game, so you know I’ll be bringing my ‘A’ game for this one.”