Carey Price Out 6 Weeks, Carr Recalled & Bournival Almost Healthy (Habs)

Habs

Carey Price Out 6 Weeks, Carr Recalled & Bournival Almost Healthy

By Jennifer B Cutler

Nov 30, 2015 • 2:56 pm

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Montreal Canadiens General Manager announced today that goaltender Carey Price will be out at least 6 weeks with his lower body injury but will not require surgery. The rumour mill was running rampant this morning that Price might have suffered a tear, have surgery and be out 4-6 months. Considering the rumours, 6 weeks and no surgery is somewhat good news.

Is it panic time for the Montreal Canadiens? Does Marc Bergevin have to go out and shop for a veteran goalie that can share the load with Mike Condon? For now, the answer is no to both questions. The Canadiens have proven that they can win with or without Price. They have built a 10 point cushion over the Ottawa Senators in the Atlantic division and probably only need to play a little above .500 hockey to survive without Price. They have not lost in regulation against an Eastern Conference team. They will have a tougher time in December though with games against the likes of the Dallas Stars, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks... Bergevin is clearly comfortable with his goalies right now and it would come as no surprise if the Canadiens even give young Zach Fucale a start if they still do not have confidence in Dustin Tokarski:

In December alone there are 3 sets of back to back games. As well as Condon has played, he cannot be expected to start every game. Tokarski or Fucale will have to get into a few games to relieve the workload and allow Condon time to mentally and physically recover. Price’s teammates will have to step up as well, and that means I am looking at the Canadiens leaders of specifically Max Pacioretty and P.K. Subban to step up and rally the players. The stats of both players are more than solid as Pacioretty is tied with Tomas Plekanec for the team lead with 24 points in 25 games while Subban has 20 points. However, they have lacked that extra gear that they are more than capable of giving.

Subban might be overcompensating for his partner Andrei Markov’s errors. The last 5 games especially, Markov has appeared slower and shown a lack of judgement as to when to jump into the play. He was directly responsible for the New Jersey Devils winning goal on Saturday night in overtime as his decision to jump up to try to keep the puck in the Devils zone led to a breakaway and he was unable to recover in time to get back into the play. When he is on Markov is still one of the best in the game. Unfortunately inconsistency is settling in and the Canadiens cannot afford so many ‘off-nights’. At the very least, he should not be playing 3 on 3 overtime when there are other options…

Today in practice the lines looked like:

Bud Holloway was sent down back to Saint John’s yesterday while Daniel Carr was called up. Some are still questioning why Charles Hudon and Michael McCarron have not gotten a chance yet. I believe the Canadiens know what they have in these two players and plan on them being part of the team’s future for a long time. Whereas players like Holloway, Carr and Christian Thomas, Bergevin wants to see what these players can bring at the NHL level and decide whether or not they are keepers or trade bait.

It looks like Devante Smith-Pelly will get another crack at playing in Brendan Gallagher’s spot. He was dynamite in his first game against the Rangers and somewhat lacklustre on the weekend against the Devils. In those 3 games he only had three shots on net. If he wants to succeed he has to go to the net like he did in against the Rangers get in position to shoot.

The fourth line without Torrey Mitchell has not been as strong either. Brian Flynn is a better winger than center man. It was good though to see Michael Bournival at practice this morning for the first time this season as he has recovered from a concussion. Perhaps once he is ready to play, he could contribute on the 4th line as Mitchell continues to recover from his lower body injury.

Finally, Alex Galchenyuk’s week at work was rewarded as he was named the NHL’s 3rd star of the week. Galchenyuk has been excellent the last few games, coinciding with an increase of workload as he gets time on the 1st powerplay unit and the arrival of Sven Andrighetto. Galchenyuk recorded 4 goals and an assist. Galchenyuk is currently on a 5 game point streak and has scored in 4 consecutive games for the first time in his career. He is also the 4th Canadiens player to be honoured in the weekly stars this season as previous selections have included Price, Markov and Condon.

Cheers & Follow Along!

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