After a string of bad days, it’s been a pretty good last 24 hours for Carey Price.
Yesterday, Price was named to Team Canada’s preliminary roster for the 2016 World Cup, despite having missed over three months with a lower-body injury.
Today, more good news -- Price revealed he’s “pretty confident” he’ll return to play at some point during Montreal’s final 18 games of the regular season.
“I don’t know when I’ll be back at practice. I’m just continuing the process, and slowly progressing,” Price said on Thursday, per CBC. “The last couple of weeks, I feel I’ve turned the corner, and me skating in full equipment shows that.”
There was a fair bit of media hoopla in Montreal today, and not just because Price spoke to the media. Prior to, he was taking shots from injured Habs forward David Desharnais, a session Price said felt “great.”
Price also lent credence to the notion this injury wasn’t as severe as some made it out to be. He said surgery was never on the table, and echoed some of the comments made earlier by GM Marc Bergevin, who said he was “convinced if [Price] played a position other than goalie, he would be playing hockey right now.”
The reigning league MVP agreed.
“The nature of my position, it was just bad for goaltenders,” Price said, per NHL.com. “It’s the only way to explain it. It’s never been an option to get surgery, so that’s that. Time was going to be the only option to let it heal fully, and it’s obviously taken longer than expected.”
Montreal heads into Thursday’s action six points back of Pittsburgh for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Habs are in L.A. tonight for a date against the Kings.