The New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens squared off in Eastern Conference Final all the way back in 2014, but to this day there is a lot of bad blood between the people of Montreal and forward Chris Kreider. Over the weekend Kreider acknowledged an incident that many fans like to claim ended the career of Carey Price, someone who went on to win the Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy the year after the event in question took place.
The incident was Kreider crashing into Carey Price on a breakaway, something that happened because defenseman Alexei Emelin slashed his stick into Kreider's skate resulting in him tripping and losing his balance.
Price was knocked out the Eastern Conference Final with a knee injury, and the Blueshirts eventually eliminated Montreal in six games before losing to the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Final.
Kreider acknowledged the "controversy" at a signing event on Sunday, and after adding his autorgraph he added "CLEARLY TRIPPED!" to the inscription as a way of officially addressing something that took place 11 years ago.
Montreal fans weren't happy about this, and still maintain he ruined Price's career. Even though Price would appear in 343 games after exiting the playoffs during which he posted a record of 182-124-35 with a .917 save percentage, a 2.49 goals against average, and the aforementioned Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy which came in the very next season!
It is unfortunate that Price's final season came at age 34, but he still had a 15-year career that spanned 712 games. Kreider didn't mean to cause him any harm, and it is clear that Price was able to bounce back. That didn't stop him from showing some aggression toward Kreider during a Rangers-Canadians game back in 2015, so maybe Price himself had some additional animosity toward the Blueshirts winger even though it wasn't his fault.