Carey Price’s return to the Montreal Canadiens practice facility has been a boost for his teammates but, while he is continuing to make progress in his recovery from off-season surgery, it is unlikely he will be joining the team on its upcoming road trip.
“He’s doing good,” Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme said on Tuesday. “It was good for me to see him and see how he’s doing, and for the guys, too, to see their teammate back. Like I said before, we have a good group of guys and they care about each other. And to see a teammate come back like that, it’s positive for the guys. Obviously while he was gone we had no news about him, so to see him again and to see him in a good state of mind, that’s positive.”
Back on Oct. 7, Price began voluntarily taking part in the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program, and was not with the team during that time.
“Obviously he didn’t go to a physical conditioning centre,” Ducharme said. “The training equipment he had available to him was not what we have here. But he found ways every day to keep in shape. So physically we’re happy to see where he’s at because we had no idea what he was able to do or did. He was able to stay pretty active.”
Price met with the Canadiens training staff Sunday so they could examine his surgically repaired knee. The procedure, which repaired a torn meniscus, and ensuing recovery cause Price to miss all of training camp. The team had expected the full recovery would take 10-to-12 weeks.
There remains no timeline for when Price will return, and Ducharme didn’t think he would be accompanying the Canadiens on their upcoming road trip, which includes games against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday and the Calgary Flames on Thursday.
“He’s got many things to do right now so I don’t think he’s going to be on the trip because there are steps that he needs to be taking,” Ducharme said. “So I think it’s important that we focus on that first before going on the road with the team. I think he’s got too many things to do right now before getting into that. He needs to get back in the gym. He had an injury that the therapists are happy to see where he’s at right now with that, so he needs to get back to work and do specific work on that. That’s the first step he needs to do.”
After working out in the gym, subsequent steps for Price include going on the ice, then working out with goalie coach Eric Raymond before ultimately rejoining the Canadiens for practice.
Price was 13-9 with a 2.28 goals-against average, .924 save percentage and one shutout in 22 games during the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season, helping the Canadiens reach the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since winning the Cup in 1993.
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