Coyotes at Canadiens
Standout netminder Carey Price could make his much-anticipated season debut when the Montreal Canadiens host the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night. Price has been sidelined with a case of the flu that caused him to lose seven to eight pounds, but he took part in his first full practice Wednesday since Oct. 9.
"It's getting close," Price told reporters Wednesday. "It's day-by-day. Everybody's probably had the flu before, so you kind of know it takes a couple of days to get your energy back, especially when you're playing sports." Backup Al Montoya has played superbly in Price's absence, including a 36-save shutout of defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. Arizona opened its season with an overtime win over Philadelphia, but kicked off a six-game road trip by getting trampled by Ottawa 7-4. " We didn't execute very well and we've got some guys that aren't competing as hard as they need to compete," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FSN Arizona, SN360, RDS (Montreal), NHL.TV
ABOUT THE COYOTES (1-1-0): Arizona received a scare when starting netminder Mike Smith exited Tuesday's game with a lower-body injury. Smith, who turned aside 27 of 30 shots before giving way to Louis Domingue, was scheduled to undergo tests Wednesday, leaving Montreal native Domingue to get the start against the Canadiens. "He came in and played really well last year and we expect the same from him this year," Tippett said. "He's done it before, there's no reason to believe he can't do it again."
ABOUT THE CANADIENS (2-0-1): Few goaltenders impact their team's collective psyche than Price, who led Montreal to a record-setting 9-0-0 start last only only to watch the Canadiens implode when he suffered a season-ending knee injury on Nov. 25. Montreal went 21-34-4 after Price went down for the season. "It's not a terrible thing for us to be a team, to not be reliant on one single individual, one single talent, as good as he is," forward Brendan Gallagher said. "We want to be a team."
OVERTIME
1. Price has surrendered 10 goals in winning all seven career starts against Arizona.
2. The Coyotes recalled G Justin Peters from Tucson of the American Hockey League and placed F Jamie McGinn on injured reserve.
3. Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty, who netted his first goal Tuesday, has three tallies and six points in eight games versus Arizona.