Carey Price leaves game against Rangers with injury

Montreal Canadiens star goaltender Carey Price left Wednesday’s game against the New York Rangers with a lower-body injury. 

The Montreal Canadiens have already lost 2014-2015 Vezina Trophy and Hart Trophy winner Carey Price for nine games earlier this season. He had to leave Wednesday’s game against the Rangers due to the same lower-body injury that caused him to miss those nine games earlier in the season. One has to wonder if Montreal might have rushed Carey Price back. The Canadiens insist that they did not rush him at all.

“The medical staff was really comfortable and Carey was really comfortable to come back,” Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien said, via NHL.com. “If we would have had any doubt, for sure we were never going to take that risk. That’s all we could say about it. He tweaked it again tonight and that’s why we don’t want to take any chances. It’s still early in the season, so it’s important for us that when he plays he’s got to make sure he’s healthy.”

The Canadiens will likely replace Price with rookie goaltender Mike Condon. The Habs turned to him when Price missed time earlier this season. Condon started all nine games that Price missed and went 5-2-2 with a 2.39 goals-against average.

“Have a short memory, focus on the things that matter,” Condon said, via NHL.com. “It doesn’t matter about the game you played before, it just matters about being in the moment. Whether it’s a bad goal or a nice save, you’ve got to move on to the next one because there’s a lot of games to be played.”

The Canadiens can likely overcome the loss of Price because their team is much stronger than they were last season. They relied heavily on Carey Price last season, almost to a fault. This season they’ve been much better and they’ve proven that they can win without Price.