Injury to keep Canadiens' Price out remainder of week

BROSSARD, Quebec -- Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price won't return from his lower-body injury this week, coach Michel Therrien said Tuesday.

"Carey was not responding all that well to treatment so he was a bit worried," Therrien said. "It happens often; there aren't two athletes who respond the same way to treatment. So he asked to get a second opinion on his injury. He went to see the doctor yesterday in New York, and the good news is he got the same diagnosis. We see that as very good news.

"He won't play this week but we expect him to respond better to treatment and to be able to get back on his skates and back in net for us pretty soon."

Therrien said surgery would not be necessary, and explained why the Canadiens are not divulging any details on the nature of Price's injury.

"We're fighting against the competition," Therrien said. "Why would we give an advantage to the competition? I see no positive in saying exactly what it is."

The Canadiens have two games this week, Wednesday at the Pittsburgh Penguins (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, RDS) and Saturday at home against the Colorado Avalanche (7 p.m. ET; TVA Sports, SN, ALT). After that they host the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 16.

Price, the reigning Hart and Vezina trophy winner, is 7-2-0 with a 2.01 goals-against average and .936 save percentage in nine games. He last played Oct. 29, making 23 saves in a 4-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers, the game when the injury occurred. He was the backup the next night at the Calgary Flames. The injury announcement was made Nov. 1.

In Price's absence, rookie Mike Condon is 6-0-1 with a League-leading 1.57 GAA and a .940 save percentage in seven games.

The Canadiens are taking some pride in showing they can have success without Price in goal.

"We have a lot to prove," captain Max Pacioretty said. "We knew that people felt that Carey was the reason for all of our success. He is a very big reason for a lot of our success because he's our best player. But we shouldn't feel bad about the fact that our best player's on the ice for 60 minutes every game. We're so fortunate to have him on our team.

"At the same time this is an opportunity for [Condon] to show what he can do and he's done that so far. It's a little bit of motivation for us as well to open up some eyes. We've done a good job at it so far but we've got to keep improving."