Habs Report: Price Traveling With Team But Won’t Play

Carey Price continued to progress towards a potential return to game action Wednesday. After skating with his teammates for the last three days, the injured Montreal Canadiens goalie will now join his teammates for the his team road trip since last July in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final.

Following practice on Wednesday, Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis confirmed that Carey Price would be on the two-game road trip that kicks off in New Jersey Thursday night and concludes in Toronto Saturday. However, Price will not be between the pipes for the Habs just yet. As of now, there is still no set date for Price to play his first game since he and the Montreal Canadiens lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 5 on July 7th.

Martin St-Louis confirme que Carey Price voyagera avec l'équipe au New Jersey aujourd'hui.

Martin St-Louis confirms that Carey Price will travel with the team to New Jersey today.#GoHabsGo

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) April 6, 2022

As Martin St. Louis pointed out Monday, it’s difficult for him personally to gauge where Price is in his comeback attempt at practice because he is focused on the entire team and not just the Montreal Canadiens netminder or any goalie for that matter.

“It’s tough to tell,” St. Louis acknowledged when asked about what he thought of Price at practice Monday. “I thought today he looked good but I’m not focused on every rep that he takes. When you’re running a practice, especially when you have the whistle and stuff, sometimes you’re just focused on so many things but the shot that’s gonna be taken on Carey, but from what I saw today, what I noticed, I thought he looked pretty good.”

While Price will join the Montreal Canadiens on this road trip, veteran forward Paul Byron and rookie defenceman Justin Barron will not be on the trip after missing practice on Wednesday.

Barron, who in his seventh NHL game, scored his first NHL goal in the 6-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators Tuesday night and while he didn’t skate Wednesday he did address the media and reflected on the milestone moment.

“You always hope it’s going to be a nice goal, that it’s not going to be one that deflects in off you or something like that,” the 20-year-old defencman said. “I was pretty happy with the way I scored it. It was definitely really exciting. It was kind of a blackout. Originally, I wasn’t sure if Jake [Evans] tipped it in front of the net, so I was kind of looking over my shoulder. I couldn’t tell,” revealed the Halifax, NS native. “But, it was just kind of a blackout and lots of excitement.”