Carey Price is unconscious, should Mike Smith be a buyout candidate?, and why isn’t John Klingberg generating Calder buzz? 

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Let’s begin with the Washington Capitals and the Montreal Canadiens, who played to a 0-0 draw through 60 minutes before Max Pacioretty gave the Habs an extra point with an overtime goal.

Pacioretty’s tally, his 23rd goal of the year, gave Canadiens goaltender Carey Price his fourth shutout of the season. The Olympic gold medal winning netminder has been outrageously good over the past two months, and has managed a .949 save percentage in 19 games since December 1st. That’s the best mark for any goaltender with more than five games played (only Chicago Blackhawks third-stringer Scott Darling has been better overall, but in only four appearances). 

Price is second in the entire league in wins, second in save percentage, third in goals against average, and is tied for fifth in shutouts. Considering the quality of the team he plays behind (young and improving, but with serious issues controling play at 5-on-5), he’d be my slamdunk pick for the Vezina Trophy if the season ended today.

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Though he didn’t find the back of the net and was on the ice for the game-winning goal against, Alex Ovechkin still had something of a monster game recording eight shots on goal and managing five hits. Shooting on a human goaltender, he probably would’ve had a really big afternoon.

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The Detroit Red Wings stayed red hot on Saturday, defeating the New York Islanders and Chad Johnson in a battle of backup goaltenders. The victory gave the Red Wings their seventh win in the past eight games, which is a nice run for a team being mentioned by precisely nobody as a bona fide contender this season.

Detroit is also the second best team by score adjusted Corsi For percentage (Tulsky method) since December 1st, so this isn’t just a run of favorable bounces.

Can a blue-line that thin really make noise in the postseason though?

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The Arizona Coyotes got blown out (again) by the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night 7-2, but this time it felt different. Whether it was Don Maloney’s over the top reaction to his club’s performance, or Dave Tippett ripping into Mike Smith’s performance after the contest; it’s hard to escape the feeling that something is bound to change in Arizona.

We all know that the Coyotes are going to be major sellers at the trade deadline (or perhaps before), but you’ve got to wonder if they might even consider buying out Smith this June. No player has cost their club more dearly this season, not even Darcy Kuemper. Smith is due 24 million over the next four seasons after this one, so his buyout will be expensive (8-years, $3 million per). It would leaves the Coyotes with almost $5 million in pure buyouts tied up in Smith and Ribeiro alone through 2020.