At least his family showed up: Canucks 7 Canadiens 1

Henrik Sedin scores his first of two goals on Wed night. AP photo

Carey Price’s mother and father, Jerry and Linda, and numerous family and friends were in the seats of General Motors place to see the B.C native get his first NHL start in Vancouver.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Montreal Canadiens never showed up to support him.

The Vancouver Canucks walked through Montreal’s defense all night in a 7-1 pounding of the Canadiens.

The Canucks had six odd-man rushes in the first period alone, outshooting Montreal 14-4.

Ryan Kessler opened the scoring, for Vancouver at 13:50, splitting the Canadiens defense and beating Price, who made a valiant effort to attempt to make the save.

Mason Raymond then scored three minutes later, with a great up-ice rush off the boards and going five-hole on Price.

A wide open Steve Bernier closed out the scoring in the first with a power-play goal on a seeing-eye pass from Daniel Sedin.

Despite, outshooting the Canucks 13-0 to start the second period and an Andrei Kostitsyn power-play goal.

Henrik Sedin responded for Vancouver with two goals. The first one came on the power-play and the second coming on a highlight reel two-on-one break.

Michael Samuelsson added to the Vancouver lead at 11:39 of the third period, followed by Alex Burrows scored fourteen seconds later.

Montreal coach Jacques Martin had no choice but to pull the 22-year-old in favor of Jaroslav Halak.

It was a discouraging night for Price, who was 2-0 with a .951 SvPct going into the game.

“It’s right up there with the last road trip we came out here.” Price said noting his and the Canadiens’ struggles during last season’s western Canada road trip, where he only played part of third period in Vancouver.

“I battled as hard as I could. It’s pretty disappointing not being able to play, but this is even more disappointing.”

Price pointed no fingers at his teammates citing no excuses, however coach Martin felt otherwise.

“Carey kept us in,” he said. “I know that he’s disappointed he didn’t have better support from his teammates.”

The Canucks’ Roberto Luongo recovered from Monday’s humiliating 5-3 loss to Columbus on Monday and made 27 saves for the Canucks.

Montreal goes to 2-2 to start the season, while Vancouver racked up their first win in four tries.

The Canadiens will have an early morning practice in Vancouver before heading to Edmonton to prepare for a Saturday night game with the Oilers.

Three Stars: 1. Henrik Sedin  2. Daniel Sedin  3. Roberto Luongo

Mats Sundin: Why so quiet this summer?

Remember the summer of 2008?

All the hockey world was hearing was Mats Sundin this, Mats Sundin that.

Well after the Montreal Canadiens gained the rights to talk to Sundin before the July 1 free agent deadline (in an unofficial exchange for Mikhail Grabovski), rumors flew out of the woodwork.

First Montreal, then the New York Rangers, and then the Vancouver Canucks (who reportedly offered a two-year $20 million deal ) were front runners for the then 37-year old center.

The only Sundin signing news that arrived, over the summer, was the fact that he had signed on with PokerStars.

There was talk that Sundin would make his decision by August 1, which turned out to be a “soft deadline” according to agent J.P. Barry.

In a few weeks, later this summer, in a few weeks, later this summer as all that was heard from that point on.

Habs GM Bob Gainey clearly dropped out of any further talks and picked up Robert Lang to fill the void.

Sundin did sign with the Canucks, joining them for the second half of the season at $5.36 million.

I questioned whether or not he was worth it to the Canucks in a prior piece I wrote.

Clearly Canucks GM Mike Gillis felt he wasn’t.

After seeing Sundin battle injuries through the playoffs, he made his focus on successfully signing the Sedin twins to new contracts.

In a story on the Swedish newspaper Expressen’s website, back in June, Sundin did clarify that he would not participate in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Sundin won an Olympic Gold medal with Sweden at the 2006 Games

“There will be no Olympics in Vancouver for me next year,” Sundin said.

“I will not change my mind, I think it’s time that the next generation takes over. We have many good players.”

When asked by Expressen on the possibility of returning to the NHL:

“Absolutely,” he said 

“I will think about my future over the next couple of weeks. I will make a decision in the summer.”

Sundin reportedly has stated that he would make a decision on returning at the end of July as he will be getting married in August and would prefer not to have that distraction waning during that special moment in his life.

Many analysts and media types, clearly did not want to chase the bone that Sundin and Barry fed them all last summer.

Many of them feel that Sundin will retire.

I had the chance to catch, and interview, Rogers Sportsnet’s  Nick Kypreos earlier this month at the Gretzky Golf Classic.

Kypreos flew to Sweden last summer for an exclusive one-on-one interview with Sundin. 

I asked Kypreos if Mats Sundin would return to which he emphatically answered with one word, “No.”

In the event that Sundin does call it quits, he clearly has the offensive numbers to join the Avalanches’ Joe Sakic as a member of the 2012 class of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

That or he may opt for one last kick of the can for a shot to win the one trophy that has eluded him since joining the NHL with the Quebec Nordiques, the Stanley Cup.

Time will tell.