MONTREAL — On Wednesday evening, Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports reported that goaltender Carey Price will not face the New York Rangers when they visit the Bell Centre Thursday to take on the Montreal Canadiens.
Price missed practice on Wednesday for a “therapy day,” according to team officials, and Canadiens coach Claude Julien later confirmed he was being evaluated because Shayne Gostisbehere’s shot hit him in the head in Montreal’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Flyers Tuesday.
Price appeared stunned when Gostisbehere’s slapshot hit him in the second period of Tuesday’s game. He lay on the ice, face down, for several second before getting up and being tended to by team trainer Graham Rynbend. He remained in the game and made a total of 29 saves, and he was present for media availability directly afterwards.
It was an hour before Lavoie tweeted out Price’s status for Montreal’s game against New York that the Canadiens announced they had recalled goaltender Charlie Lindgren from the AHL’s Laval Rocket on an emergency basis.
Lindgren, who went 3-4-1 and posted a .924 save percentage and a 2.43 goals-against average with the Canadiens earlier this year, was signed to a three-year contract extension on Feb. 13.
It’s not known yet whether the 24-year-old or Antti Niemi will face the Rangers.
Defenceman Noah Juulsen was also recalled to Montreal from Laval, with a spot being freed on the Canadiens blue line following Jakub Jerabek’s trade to the Washington Capitals on Wednesday afternoon.
Juulsen, who was drafted 26th overall by the Canadiens in 2015, has one goals and five assists in 31 games with the Rocket this season and has never played an NHL contest.
[relatedlinks]
