The Montreal Canadiens will be without their esteemed goaltender Carey Price for longer than expected.
"We don't expect him to be back before the All-Star break," Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said Friday, according to NHL.com.
All-Star weekend takes place on Jan. 30 and Jan. 31, meaning that the best case scenario for the Habs still has their 28-year-old star goalie missing eight games, SB Nation reported. Their first game back is Feb. 2 at the Philadelphia Flyers.
Price, the reigning Vezina and Hart trophy winner, originally suffered his lower body injury early on in the regular season at Edmonton on Oct. 29. He missed the next nine games but returned on Nov. 20 to face the New York Islanders. His injury was aggravated again on Nov. 25 during a game at the New York Rangers, and he has not played a game since then. The team has been a paltry 6-12-1 since Price was injured.
The initial timetable given on Nov. 30 was for Price to miss six weeks, meaning that Price was meant to return by this Monday.
"We said it would be a minimum of six weeks, so it was a long-term injury," Therrien continued, according to NHL.com. "When you're dealing with a long-term injury it's always tough to say that he's going to be back on this specific day. We need to follow the rehabilitation process and I'm told it's going well."
Goalie Mike Condon is attempting to pick up the slack while Price is out. Newly acquired from the Edmonton Oilers, Ben Scrivens is expected to share time with Condon.
Condon is expected to get the start Saturday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins, according to SB Nation noted. The Canadiens' Jeff Petry is expected to be out and will be replaced by Greg Pateryn.
