MONTREAL – Sometimes, when one player is so outstanding and his success is such a compelling story, it can cast a looming shadow, one that leaves other worthy stories wallowing in the background.

With Carey Price making 41 saves to shutout the Philadelphia Flyers 3-0 Tuesday night, he is absolutely worthy of all the praise that will be launched at him over the coming days, if not weeks and months. And the most encouraging thing about it is he appears fully prepared and ready to handle that praise, because he knows from personal experience how quickly that can go sour.

But this game was about so much more than just Price. It was about a team growing into the identity it has built for itself. It was about players comfortably slotting into the roles given them by the coaching staff. It was about standing up to a team that tried to physically intimidate them when all else failed. It was about re-affirming that last year's playoff run was no fluke, and wasn't solely based on the outstanding play of a certain Slovakian this city fell in love with.

Tomas Plekanec, Michael Cammalleri and Brian Gionta are suddenly one of the hottest lines in the league, with all three of them notching points in five straight games.

Plekanec has two goals and eight assists over that span, Gionta has four goals and four assists, and Cammalleri's bringing up the rear with only two goals and five assists. That is first line production that is true to the name.

And the Canadiens special teams have hit another level after the power play went 2-for-7 in the first full game without Andrei Markov and the penalty kill shutout the Flyers on eight chances.

The power play is now 8-for-22 over this current four-game winning streak and a very respectable 15.9 per cent on the season, a remarkable turnaround considering they were 3-for-47 to start the year.

"It's always a work in progress, next game you start all over again," Jacques Martin said. "There's some principles that are important, and you have to work within the boundaries that are given to you."

The penalty kill, meanwhile, is now clicking at a league-leading 90 per cent rate, though a big part of the credit for that does go to Price.

Generally, if your special teams percentage add up to more than 100, you're doing pretty well. The Canadiens now sit at nearly 106.

"The relief is when our special teams are on," Gionta said. "It's a huge part of today's game, killing penalties, scoring opportune power play goes, that's how we get our wins."

At least it has been lately, whereas earlier the wins came as a result of strong 5-on-5 play. That hasn't appeared to have wavered while the special teams play has improved. If the Canadiens can maintain that, it would be a scary combination we haven't seen in these parts for quite some time.

It should be an interesting match-up between these two in Philadelphia on Monday because it looks as though P.K. Subban is going to be a marked man.

Subban claims innocence, but there is definitely something he does on the ice that gets to his opponents.

"There's no reason for me to go out there and start chirping at guys," Subban said afterwards. "I just play the game."

I think several members of the Flyers, starting with Mike Richards, Claude Giroux and especially Sean O'Donnell, would beg to differ.

This was far from being the first time Subban appeared to be a target on the ice, and I'd love to know why that is, but it's pretty clear that his claim of keeping his mouth generally shut out there is a little fib.

I asked Subban if the same thing tended to happen last year in Hamilton while he was lighting up the AHL, and he said no.

"I was paired with Alex Henry last year, so he'd clean up a lot of messes," Subban said. "If guys came after me, they were usually spending five minutes in the box afterwards."

Unfortunately, Alexandre Picard or anyone else on the Canadiens likely won't do that for Subban this year.

So, does this give the Canadiens an advantage, a second pest to go with Maxim Lapierre?

"You don't want to take away a player's passion, you want him to use his strengths, use his speed, use his skills," Martin said. "But at the same time, you want to keep the team aspect in mind."