A lot has changed between New York Rangers forward and Carey Price since the 2014 NHL Eastern Conference Finals. That series gave birth to one of the league’s most intense player to player rivalries.
The New York Rangers will be playing the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the 2017 NHL Playoffs. The two teams match up well and it should be an excellent series. They also have a history too.
The Rangers and Canadiens have played in the same conference ever since one could remember. The two teams are also of the Original Six variety. Their rivalry intensified just a few years ago in a heated playoff series.
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The Beginning
It all started when New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider played a puck hard to the net in Game One of the Eastern Conference finals just three years ago. Take a look at the play here.
The play was enough to aggravate Montreal Canadiens fans. Kreider knocked Price out of the playoffs on this play and the Rangers won the series in six games.
There are two angles to this play that one could look at. If you’re a Canadiens fan, you can argue that this was a cheap shot at the team’s most valuable player. Considering that this happened in game one, it looks a lot more like that is plausible.
However, the Rangers and Kreider can argue that this was just a hard play gone wrong. It’s the playoffs and everyone wants to leave it all on the ice. Kreider doesn’t want to let up and give away a scoring chance and that’s how this happened. It’s a shame Price got hurt, but it was a fair effort from Kreider.
It’s also worth noting that Kreider hit in the skates by Alexei Emelin just before he falls. The slash is nothing more than a futile effort to slow down the play by Emelin. It’s hard to tell if the slash is the main cause of the spill, but it certainly didn’t help Kreider stay on his feet.
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Redemption
Price left game one after Kreider took him out, but he didn’t forget that it happened. Last October, Price got his chance to get back at Kreider with some revenge. Take a look.
This play looks like it is very dirty. However, goalies are allowed to deliver hits to players when they are out of the crease. No foul from Price and the message was surely sent to Kreider.
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The Saga Continues
What Price did is by no means equal to the damage Kreider did to Price in the 2014 playoffs. This upcoming series between the Rangers and the Canadiens is the first since the 2014 ECF, and there certainly could be fireworks.
It will be a tense series and everyone will be playing hard. Extra-curricular activity between Price and Kreider could be the powder keg for a nasty remainder of the series.
Kreider loves going hard to the net. He has hit more goalies than Carey Price, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility of happening again. The result would be insane.
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There is more to a series than old blood, but this feud will undoubtedly be in the back of everyone’s minds come game one.