Captain Shea Weber refuses to allow Carey Price to blame himself for Finals loss
Regrettably, all good things must come to an end. The Montreal Canadiens' Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Final didn't end in the way they had hoped.
The disappointment that an entire region (and some might say, an entire country) is experiencing right now was evident on the faces of franchise goaltender Carey Price and team captain Shea Weber shortly after the Habs were defeated 1-0 by the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 5 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, giving the Lightning their second straight Stanley Cup championship.
"It's incredibly disappointing, but I'm only disappointed about the result," Price said in the team's post-game media availability session. "In the end, I don't think I played well enough at the start of the series."
"It's hard to look ahead right now. We'll just take some time off to regroup, lick our winds and get back at it eventually."
Nobody expected the Canadiens to make the Stanley Cup Final, much less advance past the first round against the heavily favoured Toronto Maple Leafs. People began to believe after a thrilling come-from-behind seven-game series victory. Price was outstanding as the Canadiens swept the Winnipeg Jets in the second round and then defeated the Jennings Trophy-winning tandem of Marc-Andre Fleury and Robin Lehner in the third round against the Vegas Golden Knights.
But unfortunately for Montreal, they ran into a buzz-saw in the form of the Lightning.
For Weber, he believes it was a matter of his team not playing well enough in front of Price, who posted a solid .924 save percentage in 22 playoff contests.
"I don't think that's the case at all, to be honest," Weber said after Price stated he believes he didn't play up to standard. "I think that we didn't play well enough in front of Carey. I mean, give them credit. They're a heck of a team, they're here for a reason, and they were better than us in the end."
"I'm very proud obviously - this group has a lot of character, and went up against a lot of adversity this year," Weber said of his teammates. "We proved a lot of people wrong in a tough year, to boot, in a year that wasn't normal. Guys stuck together and battled hard, and I wouldn't change it for anything. I'm super proud of these guys."
Credit: HockeyFeed
