Carey Price comfortable, ready for World Cup

TORONTO -- Carey Price's return to game shape may be the biggest takeaway from Team Canada's three pretournament games for the World Cup of Hockey 2016.
The two games Price played were his first since Nov. 25, 2015 because of an injury to the medial collateral ligament in his right knee. After winning the Hart and Vezina trophies in 2014-15, Price played 12 games with the Montreal Canadiens last season.

Price is expected to be in goal when Team Canada opens the tournament against Team Czech Republic on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, ESPNEWS, SN, TVA Sports). He said it's not just game speed that he's had to rediscover.
"I had kind of forgotten how long a game day was, going through the whole routine of morning skate, warmup, then the game," Price said Thursday. "You kind of forget how much mental preparation goes into it. … I'd like to get back to my routine of going through all the stages of game day. It was nice to go through that a couple of times.
"By the end of [Wednesday] it was feeling pretty comfortable."

In Price's first game against Team USA on Sept. 9, he allowed three goals on 24 shots in a 4-2 loss and showed obvious signs of rust. But in a 3-2 win in overtime against Team Russia Wednesday, Price made 24 saves and said he felt more like himself.
"I feel good about the progression," Price said. "Obviously it's a while since I started a game, and by the end of [Wednesday] it was starting to feel more normal."
Price was asked what normal felt like.
"Just starting to feel comfortable and finding the tempo of the game and letting plays come to me instead of trying to do too much," he said. "Obviously I was pretty amped up for the first game and it didn't turn out the way I wanted. Last game I just slowed it down and started to read plays better and definitely felt a lot more comfortable."
The pace and intensity of the World Cup pretournament games wasn't easy for goalies to keep up with.

"Those first three games were a lot more intense than what you would see in an NHL [preseason] game," Price said. "The tempo of the game was a lot faster, the speed of the game was a lot faster. There's not junior players out there. Everybody's out there to prove something and it was actually really refreshing to get out there and enjoy the competition that there was.
"As a goaltender it's a little bit different. But at the same time there's not a whole lot of time and space for anybody else out there either. I thought the guys played very well for the first three games."
Price's teammates noticed a sharper goalie Wednesday.
"I think the more he plays, he's going to get more comfortable," said defenseman Shea Weber, who will be Price's teammate with the Canadiens this season. "Obviously he hadn't played for almost a year. I think he said the last time he played was November before his first game here.
"I think for him, it's just going to be the repetitions. He looks good. To the naked eye he looks fine. And talking to him, it's little things that he notices, like picking things up or battling through screens, things that he hasn't dealt with and you can't really replicate in practice."
Team Canada defenseman Drew Doughty said he saw little difference in Price's two pretournament games.
"He always looks good to me," Doughty said. "[Price] is an unbelievable goalie. Makes it look so easy out there. As a defenseman he makes you feel very much at ease playing in front of him because you know he's always going to be there to make the big save. He looked good in both games to me. Obviously the outcome was better in the second one, but he looks great."

Team Canada center Jonathan Toews said Price's two pretournament starts were very different, with more traffic at the net and physical play against Team USA.
"The Russians obviously showed a ton of skill, as do the Americans, but the game against the Americans was a little bit more physical," Toews said. "I would assume Carey would tell you the same thing, that he probably felt a little more comfortable [Wednesday], because now it was his second game in almost a year.
"You have to think he's going to take huge strides every single game he does play. At the same time, the five guys in front of him for the most part are doing a better job of carrying pucks and making his job a little easier. We can keep improving as well."
Weber said there was a moment early in the game Wednesday when he knew Price was progressing. It was a back-door, power-play save on Team Russia forward Alex Ovechkin.
"That save on the back door was pretty amazing," Weber said. "I skated with [Price] in the summer, and to me it felt like he was 100 percent and looked good anyways. But at the same time, that's a practice situation and not a game so you have to take that into account."
Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin, who is part of Team Canada's management team, said Thursday there are no concerns about Price's return.
"He's been healthy for a while now," Bergevin said. "He's been working out back in [British Columbia], so everything is on track. Obviously [Canadiens goalie coach] Stephane Waite has been working with him closely, and even he told me he's ahead of schedule of what he was a year ago."