Montreal Canadiens: Carey Price Out At Least One Week With Concussion

Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price clearly irritated something when he was playing the Edmonton Oilers on April 4th.

He slid across his crease to make a save and got tangled up with Oilers forward Josh Archibald. Price appeared to be favouring his right leg after the impact, but played the rest of the game.

After that game, it was announced he would be out for a few days to ensure nothing serious was wrong. He finally returned on Saturday against the Ottawa Senators, but then left last night’s game with the Edmonton Oilers early.

Last night’s injury had nothing to do with the Archibald bump, and everything to do with another Oilers winger running into him. This time it was Alex Chiasson who made pretty direct impact with Price’s head while Price was in the crease, getting ready to stop a puck. The puck ended up in the net but was called back due to goaltender interference.

This evening, it was announced that Price is in concussion protocol and will be out of the Canadiens lineup for at least a week.

The Habs have a fairly busy week coming up. They are in Alberta to face the Oilers again tomorrow night before facing the Calgary Flames in three crucial matchups over four days. The Flames are the Habs biggest threat to the fourth and final playoff spot in the Canadian Division. Though the Canadiens have some breathing room at the moment, their grasp on a playoff position seems to be slipping with every loss.

To be without Carey Price for this stretch is difficult. He is the team’s starting goaltender and a main component of the leadership in the room that is already being tested with Brendan Gallagher out of the lineup.

It is unfortunate that the Canadiens have to be without their number one netminder at this time of year, but at least the NHL finally got a goaltender interference review right.