Canadiens Notebook: Don’t Expect to See Carey Price Before Christmas

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If Canadiens fans were expecting Carey Price’s return as a Christmas present, they can cross it off their wish list.

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“Once again, it’s day to day with him,” Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme said after Monday’s practice at Brossard when asked about Price. “Right now, right now, on December 6, it is unlikely that he will return before Christmas. When will you be on the ice with your team? Hard to say. But we don’t think we’ll see it before Christmas. “

Price has been skating with a coaching staff member without a goalie gear as he continues to recover from offseason surgery for a torn meniscus in his knee, followed by 30 days in the NHL / NHLPA player assistance program while fighting. with the use of substances. issues.

After Price rejoined the Canadiens on November 9 from his stint in the player assistance program, Ducharme said there would be four steps for the goalkeeper before he could play again. The first was work out in the gym to get in shape, followed by skating with a member of the training staff before working with goalkeeping coach Eric Raymond and finally practicing with his teammates. Ducharme added that there is a good chance Price will play at least one game with AHL’s Laval Rocket before playing again for the Canadiens.

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“We know the four steps, but there is no timeline for each of them, so that’s the question,” Ducharme said. “It is difficult to put it in the dates.”

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Not yet Edmundson

Defender Joel Edmundson has yet to play a game this season due to a back injury he has been dealing with since the start of training camp.

Edmundson had started practicing with his teammates again last month and seemed close to returning, but has since suffered another setback and remains at least a couple of weeks away from playing. Ducharme added that Edmundson is basically starting from scratch again in his recovery and is no longer skidding. The good news is that doctors have ruled out surgery.

“It wasn’t for a practice or a gym session or anything else,” Ducharme said of Edmundson’s backhand. “He came back and then he showed up on the track and he wasn’t doing well. So he stepped back and met with the doctors. He pushed everything further and decided he doesn’t need surgery. So it’s coming back again almost restarting where it started. “

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Walking wounded

Defender Jeff Petry, who did not travel to Nashville for Saturday’s game against the Predators, missed Monday’s practice and took a day of therapy. Joel Armia also took a day of therapy and both have doubts about playing Tuesday night at the Bell Center against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Tyler Toffoli did not practice due to an upper body injury and Ducharme said the forward could be out for a couple of weeks and his condition will be further evaluated in the coming days.

The Canadiens called forward Laurent Dauphin from the AHL Laval Rocket and he was on the ice for practice Monday, as was defender Kale Clague, who was claimed by the Los Angeles Kings waivers on Saturday.

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Dauphin ready to debut on Habs

Ducharme said there’s a good chance Dauphin will make his Canadiens debut Tuesday night at the Bell Center.

The 26-year-old forward was 11-5-16 in 18 games this season with the Rocket. The Arizona Coyotes selected Dauphin in the second round (39 overall) of the 2013 NHL Draft. In 35 career games with the Coyotes, Dauphin had 3-1-4 totals. The Canadiens acquired him from the Nashville Predators on January 7, 2020 in exchange for Mike McCarron.

“I got off to a good start and I tried to take advantage of that, going to the net and scoring goals,” Dauphin said of his performance at Laval this season. “Right now, I feel confident. I just got off to a good start and am trying to ride the wave on that.

“I think I bring speed, work ethic and even if I’m not a big guy, I try to play big and be pretty tough on the pucks,” added the 6-foot-1, 189-pound fighter. “So I’ll go online and try to play a full game.”

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The lines

This is how the attack lines and defense pairs viewed the practice:

Hoffman – Suzuki – Drouin
Lehkonen – Dvorak – Evans
Perreault – Poehling – Caufield
Pezzetta – Paquette – Dolphin

Chiarot – Savard
Romanov – Wideman
Kulak – Clague
Norlinder

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Power play units

Clague, Chris Wideman and Ben Chiarot rotated taking turns playing point position on both power play units in practice.

This is how the two drives were configured:

Clague / Wideman / Chiarot
Drouin – Dvorak – Hoffman
Perreault

Clague / Wideman / Chiarot
Caufield – Evans – Suzuki
Poehling

Flyers say goodbye to Vigneault, Therrien

The Philadelphia Flyers fired head coach Alain Vigneault on Monday after eight straight losses, including a 7-1 loss to the Lightning on Sunday.

Assistant coach Michel Therrien was also fired.

“Right now, we’ve gotten lost,” Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher said of the Flyers, who are 8-10-4 and ranked seventh in the Metropolitan Division.

Vigneault was the head coach of the Canadiens from 1997-2000, while Therrien had two seasons as the head coach with the Canadiens, from 2000 to 2003 and from 2012 to 2017.

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For those wondering if Vigneault might get a second chance to coach the Canadiens in the future, something Claude Julien did as well, it seems unlikely. Jeff Gorton, the Canadiens’ new executive vice president of hockey operations, was the general manager of the New York Rangers when he fired Vigneault in 2018 after they finished last in the Metropolitan Division with a 34-39-9 record.

Whats Next?

The Canadiens have a morning skating scheduled for 10:30 am Tuesday in Brossard before taking on the Lightning at the Bell Center (7 pm, TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM). The Chicago Blackhawks will be at the Bell Center on Thursday (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM) before the Canadiens travel to St. Louis to face the Blues on Saturday (7 p.m. ., SNE, CITY, TVA Sports, Radio TSN 690, 98.5 FM).

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