In a return to practice Sunday after pausing team activities, the Montreal Canadiens welcomed back nine players who were previously in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol: Tyler Toffoli, Jake Allen, Arturri Lehkonen, Laurent Dauphin, Mike Hoffman, Ben Chiarot, David Savard, Chris Wideman and Samuel Montembault.
Lots of returning faces back at practice on Sunday.#GoHabsGo https://t.co/8IIvINb5As
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) January 9, 2022
All players except for Toffoli participated in regular team practice. Toffoli skated alone after the main session as he continues to recover from hand surgery.
Jeff Petry, who was also on the protocol list, is in the United States and will join the team on Monday to participate in practice Tuesday.
Goaltender Cayden Primeau will join the team ahead of Montreal’s game against the Boston Bruins Wednesday.
Head coach Dominique Ducharme provided an update on Carey Price and his hip injury after he did not participate in a solo session on Sunday.
“He’s continuing his treatments. Obviously today was the first day that the players could come back to the facility, so our training staff had a lot of evaluations to do — not just with COVID cases but also in terms of injuries,” Ducharme said. “So, I’ll have more news in the next few hours, because there are a lot of things to determine in terms of where each player is at exactly, health-wise.”
Ducharme also said Price is waiting for a meeting with his doctor in New York, but there should be an update from team trainers later on Sunday. He did not rule out a return to play this season for Price.
The Canadiens paused team activities through Saturday to deal with the COVID outbreak after a 5-2 loss to the Florida Panthers on Jan. 1.
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