Music: {allcanada} Canadiens' Price ready for All-Star Fantasy Draft

MONTREAL -- Carey Price will be ready this time.

When the Montreal Canadiens goaltender participated in the NHL's All-Star festivities in Ottawa in 2012, Price's initial introduction to the people watching the fantasy draft was a shot of him taking a big gulp of his drink as Joffrey Lupul of the Toronto Maple Leafs called his name to join the team of captain Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins.

Price, looking like a kid who was caught sneaking some cookies before supper, put his drink down and scurried out of the room onto the stage, where he bowed before Lupul, posed for a photo and made his way into the seats, snubbing a handshake opportunity with his new captain and usual NHL rival Chara.

In the short history of All-Star fantasy drafts, it was one of the more memorable entrances on stage.

So, what does Price plan on drinking during this year's NHL All Star Fantasy Draft presented by Draft Kings (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, SN, TVA Sports) in the lead up to the 2015 Honda NHL All-Star Game in Columbus (5 p.m. ET, NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports)?

"What am I supposed to be drinking again?" Price said after laughing over the memory from Ottawa, then trying to remember the right drink sponsor to name. "It's all about having a good time and making people chuckle if you can. It made some people laugh.

"Besides, it was just water in that cup."

Whatever you say, Carey.

Price can indeed say and do whatever he wants in Columbus this weekend, because he has more than earned the right to attend a celebration of the very best players in the NHL this season. He has been among the leaders in most goaltending categories all season and is the pillar on a Canadiens team that was at or near the top of the Eastern Conference standings since opening night.

But there is much more to Price than his goaltending, and NHL.com sat down with the All-Star goaltender to learn a bit more about growing up in tiny Anahim Lake in northern British Columbia, having his dad Jerry fly him to hockey practice and games in Williams Lake as a kid, his summer hobby of team roping on a semi-pro rodeo circuit in Western Canada and the particularities of playing in a hockey-mad market like Montreal.

First, the only real hockey question I'll ask, but a lot of people have credited the Canadiens success this season solely to you. I don't know if you've heard that or not, but what is your reaction to that?

"It's an easy thing to pin it on. It's easy just to pin everything on one player, but the reality is we've played very well as a team. Everyone's contributed throughout this season. We've had guys step up at the right times, whether it be me, or [Max Pacioretty] or we have any number of guys who seem to have a knack for making the big play at the right moment."

Now let's get into who you are a little bit. When I say the word Corkscrew, what comes to mind?

"Home."

Just to explain to the readers, Corkscrew is the name of the creek behind your house in Anahim Lake where you learned to skate, what was it like growing up in such a tiny community?

"It's very rural and I really enjoyed my time growing up there. I couldn't have picked a better childhood. I had two awesome parents, a great grandmother, a little sister, I was surrounded by family. I couldn't have asked for a better upbringing. I got to live the country life and that's really made me who I am."

How so?

"I think it's kind of the laid back living, a laid back lifestyle. You kind of earn your keep when you're living in a place like that. You have to be self-reliant. You pretty much get everything by earning it out there. That's how it rubs off on you."

You're also proud of your Native Canadian roots and the values instilled in you by your mother Lynda, a former chief of the Ulkatcho First Nation. What are those values, and how have they helped you handle the challenges in your career to date?

"It's kind of linked to being in a rural community. If you want to get something accomplished, you've got to go do it on your own. You've got to be pro-active and find a way to get the job done. It's not easy to make a living in that area. There's some really hearty people out there. It's a tough way to live sometimes, but people get it done."

How old were you when your mother became chief?

"I must have been about 12."

What was it like to see your mom in such a position of authority at that age?

"It was pretty cool. But it's kind of a thankless job, really. It's kind of like being a referee. You've got to take everybody's thoughts and ideas into consideration and you're not going to please everybody all the time. It's just like any other type of politician; there's pros and cons to every idea and you're not going to make everybody happy no matter what. She's a strong-willed person and she was perfect for the job."

So, it was not unlike your position now?

[Laughs] "Right, yeah."

The stories of your dad Jerry flying you over to Williams Lake so you could play organized minor hockey are well known by now. I know that I've flown in bush planes in the dead of winter, and it can be a harrowing experience. Are there any flights in particular that you remember where you wondered if you'd be able to land?

"My dad was super cautious. He's a really good pilot and you're not going to have any foolish ideas when you're in a small plane like that. If the weather's going to be bad you can get in a lot of trouble in a real hurry if you don't pay attention to what the weather's going to be like. There was only one time I can remember when we got hemmed in by weather. My dad thought he was going to have to land it on a logging road, but he found a way to navigate around the weather. When you're in a small, low-wing airplane like that, if you get in a cross-wind it gets pretty bouncy. We had a couple of see-saw moments coming in to the airstrip. But my dad was a really good pilot and he always got us home safe."

I always look at certain things and wonder how exactly someone would be able to do that for the first time. Ski jumping is one example. Team roping would be another. Were you successful the first time you tried it?

"No. Sure wasn't. It's just like doing anything. You try riding a bike for the first time and there's a lot of things going on at the same time. You can rope pretty well on the ground, but it's like playing ice hockey and playing road hockey. It's two different things."

When you compete in the summer you're the "heeler," meaning you're responsible for roping the hind legs of the steer once the "header" has roped the front of the steer. How did you wind up getting that job?

"Because I [stunk] at heading. I wasn't catching anything, so they got tired of chasing the steer to the catch pen. So they just put me on the back end so my buddy could get practice on the other end. It didn't really matter if I missed or not, at least he got to practice. I just wound up kind of getting good at that and went with it."

Anahim Lake and Montreal probably couldn't be any more different, yet you've always maintained that you love playing here, even though there have been reasons for you to hate it in the past. What is it about the hockey environment in Montreal -- the scrutiny, the pressure, the glory -- that you like so much?

"Sometimes I kind of feel like I'm bipolar; they're two totally different situations I'm in. I'm reclusive when I'm back in B.C., and here, I'm kind of reclusive and then you get kind of thrown into a boiling pot. But I like it. I like the challenge. I've always been that way. When I have something on my table I always try to do it to the best of my ability. I really take it to heart. I see it as a challenge to try and win here, and to be able to succeed in that would be my ultimate goal."

Bob Gainey once said it takes a special kind of personality to be able to handle playing hockey in Montreal; that you have to want some "spice" with your hockey. Is that true? Do you enjoy spice?

"I don't mind curry, it's pretty good. Wasabi is great too. You've got to have thick skin, or a tough palate, whatever way you want to put it. But it all comes with experience and being able to manage the good and the bad. I think the more experience you gain, it just makes it that much easier."