Canadiens Game Day: Carey Price will be back in goal vs. Jets

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Carey Price will be in goal when the Canadiens face the Winnipeg Jets Saturday night at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., SNE, SNW, CITY, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).

Head coach Dominique Ducharme is hoping right-winger Josh Anderson can return to the Canadiens lineup after missing the last three games with a lower-body injury. Anderson will be a game-time decision after skating on a new line with centre Jesperi Kotkaniemi and left-winger Tyler Toffoli Saturday morning in Brossard. Before the injury, Anderson had been playing on a line with Nick Suzuki and Jonathan Drouin. If Anderson plays, it looks like Joel Armia will replace him on that line.

If Anderson returns to the lineup, Paul Byron will be a healthy scratch for the second time this season judging by the lines at the morning skate.

“We want to have the best lineup possible,” Ducharme said after the morning skate. “We’ll see what happens with Josh. We’ll have to make a decision about him before the game. We saw some positive signs this morning, so we’re confident he’ll play. But we can’t confirm that he’ll be in the lineup. With respect to the line, it’s something we’d like to see eventually.

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“Josh brings a lot to our team,” the coach added. “He’s a guy who skates and he plays physical. He’s talented and he can score goals. We saw that in the past. He usually has strong starts to games, which is good for us.”

Ducharme said he has been impressed with Kotkaniemi’s play the last few games, which led to him getting new linemates Saturday morning.

“I want to see the combination of speed and skill on that line,” Ducharme said. “But we might see some movement in the lineup within the game on the right side. That’s something that I might feel during the game depending how the game is going and from one game to another.”

Price is coming off a 3-1 win over the Ottawa Senators in his last start Tuesday night at the Bell Centre and now has a 6-4-3 record with a 2.96 goals-against average and a .893 save percentage. Canadiens goalie coach Stéphane Waite was fired by GM Marc Bergevin after the second period of Tuesday’s game.

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Jake Allen was in goal when the Canadiens lost 4-3 to the Jets in overtime Thursday night at the Bell Centre, making 23 saves as his record fell to 4-2-3 with a 2.31 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage.

The Canadiens are in fourth place in the all-Canadian North Division with a 10-6-6 record, while the Jets are in second place with a 15-7-1 record.

The Canadiens can certainly use the 6-foot-3, 226-pound Anderson against the Jets.

“I think we all knew the kind of player he was coming in,” defenceman Jeff Petry said about Anderson, who was acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets during the off-season in exchange for Max Domi. “We’ve all played against him. He’s a guy, his speed, his physicality, just his presence on the ice is very big for our team. To have a guy potentially coming back tonight that plays like that — especially against a team like Winnipeg, they like to cycle the puck, they’re a big team as well. He’s a big, important part to our team and hopefully he’s feeling up to it and feeling good and we can see him in the lineup tonight.”

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This Game Day notebook will be updated after Saturday night’s game.

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An adjustment for Price

Waite did a 15-minute interview Friday afternoon on Mitch Melnick’s TSN 690 radio show and talked about how Price has struggled while adjusting to sharing the net with Allen, something that is new to him.

Waite said the Canadiens expected that would be a struggle for Price at first this season while trying to find his timing and rhythm, but that it would help him in the long run with the team planning to play him two out of every three games starting in March.

Waite said the 33-year-old Price is capable of playing three or four games in a row, but that he has to take care of his body because of previous issues with his knees, hips and back.

“Unfortunately for Carey, that’s a reality right now at his age,” Waite told Melnick.

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When asked if Price is 100-per-cent healthy now, Waite said: “He’s not 100 per cent, but he can play. He’s not hurt, but he’s got some stiffness. He’s got to learn to play with those things right now. That’s the reason why we need a very good backup and that’s exactly what we have in Montreal right now.”

Price has five more seasons remaining after this one on his eight-year, US$84-million contract with an annual salary-cap hit of $10.5 million.

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The lines

Here’s how the forward lines and defence pairings looked at Saturday’s morning skate:

Tatar – Danault – Gallagher
Drouin – Suzuki – Armia
Toffoli – Kotkaniemi – Anderson
Lehkonen – Evans – Perry
Byron

Chiarot – Weber
Edmundson – Petry
Kulak – Romanov
Mete

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Power play clicking

The Canadiens’ power play is 3-for-4 in the last two games and 4-for-8 in the first four games since head coach Claude Julien and associate coach Kirk Muller were fired. Muller had been in charge of the power play, which is now the responsibility of new assistant coach Alex Burrows.

Petry said Burrows’s energy and enthusiasm at his first meeting with the team “kind of took everybody by surprise.”

“He’s brought, I guess, a new style to our PP and he’s really focused on making sure that we’re executing not only in games but in practice,” Petry said. “That excitement, enthusiasm that he brings I think is contagious. There’s nothing that he hasn’t covered. We have plays that we’re running off the O-zone draws to our breakouts to our puck retrievals. He’s really hammering home the basic things that we need to do to get us prepared to go out and execute.”

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Petry added that Burrows has been stressing to the two power-play units that the play isn’t over after one shot and has been focusing on puck recoveries.

“After that shot we’re not just watching to see where the puck is,” Petry said. “We got to read it quick and get three guys on it to relieve pressure and get that setup again. I think that’s something that from Day 1 when Burr stepped in is he’s tried to ingrain in us that the play’s not done after one shot. We have to work hard to get it set up again and to sustain the pressure because the longer you’re spending in the O-zone it doesn’t give them a chance to change.

“When fatigue sets in, that’s when the PK makes mistakes so that’s what we’re striving for.”

The Canadiens now rank 15th in the NHL on the power play with a 22.2 per cent success rate.

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New look for Petry

Petry had a new look when he appeared for a video conference after Saturday’s morning skate with a shaved head and full beard.

“I shaved it a couple of times this year,” Petry said about his new hairdo. “Haven’t been able to get a haircut so this is the quickest and easiest way.”

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Waite hopes to find new job

Waite is hoping to find a job with another NHL team, but said that’s unlikely to happen before next season.

“I hope so because I still have that passion for the goalie coach job,” Waite told Melnick on TSN 690. “I still have a passion for the game and I’m still young (55) for a coach. So I think I got some good years in front of me and I would like to be back in the NHL next September.”

The timing of Waite’s firing was very bizarre, coming after the second period of the Canadiens’ 3-1 win over the Senators. Price played well in the game, making 26 saves.

“Honestly, it kind of came from nowhere to me,” Waite told Melnick. “I was very confident that Carey’s going to be good. I think I had a plan with Carey, already we worked four days together (at practice) before that game Tuesday night and we fixed a couple of things. We had a plan. I was so confident that everything’s going to be fine. So there was nothing wrong around me. On the same page with Berg and Dominique for the schedule, everything. … After the second period, the beginning of the third period Berg came in my suite a the Bell Centre and I learned from him right there that I was done.

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“He said: ‘Steph, I decided to make a change and let you go,’” Waite added. “He said he felt that Carey needs a new voice and that for him that was very important that Carey has a good end of season and good playoff because maybe the next time it’s going to be his job. So that’s the reason why. I told him: ‘Berg, I don’t understand. I got a plan and I know exactly what I’m doing. I know Carey’s still with me, he’s still focused. But for Berg that was over, so that’s it. I took five minutes and back downstairs, picked up my stuff and just left (the Bell Centre).”

Bergevin hired Sean Burke to replace Waite as the team’s new director of goaltending. Burke is observing a 14-day COVID-19 quarantine after arriving in Montreal from his home in Arizona. In the meantime, Marco Marciano, the goalie coach for the AHL’s Laval Rocket, is working with Price and Allen while communicating with Burke.

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When asked how he’s doing now, Waite said: “I’m doing better … that was a tough one to swallow, but I’ll be fine.”

Despite the firing, Waite said he still has a good relationship with Bergevin, Ducharme, Price and Allen.

Waite said he will now spend time preparing for his summer goalie school for young goaltenders, which will have sessions in Brossard, Sherbrooke and Terrebonne in July.

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A call from Carey

Waite said Price didn’t learn about the firing until after he had done his post-game video conference with the media Tuesday night. Waite said the goalie called him while driving home after the game and they talked for about five minutes.

“He was a little bit shaky, I think,” Waite said about Price’s voice. “I found him very shaky.”

Price visited Waite at his Montreal condo on Wednesday and they spoke for about 90 minutes.

“It was a little bit emotional, but that was a great talk and that just shows what kind of guy Pricey is,” Waite told Melnick. “He’s a class-act guy. He’s a good person, a good father and I got a lot of respect for him. I know he respects me as well.”

Attitude adjustment

Price is a man of very few words when it comes to dealing with the media, which can give some people the perception he doesn’t care enough about what he’s doing.

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When asked about that during a video conference the day after Waite was fired, Price said: “It doesn’t matter to me anymore.”

Waite told Melnick that the Price fans see when he’s dealing with the media isn’t the person he knows.

“In front of the media or in front of the camera he’s a guy that doesn’t like the attention of the media,” Waite told Melnick. “He’s not comfortable with that. But he’s a totally different guy with me one-on-one when he’s in my office. He’s a guy who can talk and he’s more engaged, he shows some emotions sometimes — good or bad. He’s a great guy and I know what people think about Carey, but that’s his demeanour and that’s how he is. You just look at him walk and he’s a little bit nonchalant. That’s his personality, that’s him. But he’s not a lazy guy. To me I got nothing to say against Carey about that.

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“That’s something he knows that he tried to improve still,” Waite added. “He told me again last time I met him at my place on Wednesday. He said: ‘I know, Steph, I got to improve my demeanour, my body language, my emotions … show some emotion. I try to work on it, but that’s not easy.’”

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What’s next?

The Canadiens will fly to Vancouver on Sunday to start a six-game Western Canada road trip.

The Canadiens will play the Canucks on Monday (10 p.m., TSN2, SNP, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM) and Wednesday (11 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM). After that, they travel to Calgary to play the Flames on Thursday (9 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM) and Saturday (7 p.m., SNE, CITY, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).

The following week, the Canadiens play the Jets in Winnipeg on Monday (8 p.m., ,TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM) and Wednesday (9 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM), before returning to Montreal for six straight games at the Bell Centre.

scowan@postmedia.com

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