Canadiens keep rookie Galchenyuk
As the goaltender gets a day off to treat a groin injury
Coach Michel Therrien says rookie Alex Galchenyuk will be in the lineup Saturday when the Canadiens open the season against the Toronto Maple Leafs ( 7 p.m., CBC, RDS, TSN 690 Radio).
But there’s less certainty about the status of No. 1 goaltender Carey Price.
While Therrien said Price assured him he would be ready to play, the goaltender wasn’t on the ice as the team practised Friday at the Bell Centre. The official word from the team is that Price was taking a therapy day, a term that usually refers to a player nursing a minor injury or taking extra recovery time after a tough game.
In Price’s case, he was getting treatment for a groin injury suffered during the shootout at the end of Thursday’s intra-squad game at the Bell Centre. Price had difficulty getting up after making a sprawling save on Max Pacioretty. Price continued to play, but it was apparent he was favouring the injury and his teammates took it easy on him by not trying to deke him.
Price dismissed the injury as a minor tweak Thursday night and said he would be ready for the Leafs. But his absence Friday and the fact he experienced a similar tweak earlier in the week are cause for concern.
The Canadiens trimmed their roster to the openingday limit of 23 players, and while it was no surprise that Galchenyuk was among the survivors the 18-year-old said he had some anxious moments before receiving the official word from Therrien and general manager Marc Bergevin.
“I was one of the last guys to have my meeting and I’d see these guys come out and pack their bags and I was a little worried,” Galchenyuk said. “Then (Brendan) Gallagher came out and said he was staying and I knew I was probably staying.”
Galchenyuk stood on a riser in the middle of the Canadiens dressing room as he answered questions from several waves of media types.
“I’m trying to hold it all in, but I’m pretty excited,” he said.
Therrien emphasized that the team’s commitment to Galchenyuk doesn’t go beyond the season opener. The Canadiens can use Galchenyuk in five games before they have to make a decision on whether to keep him or send him back to the junior Sarnia Sting.
Given his performance in camp and the fact he has held on to a position on the No. 2 line, there is reason to believe he’s here to stay.
Linemate Brian Gionta, who celebrated his 34th birthday Friday, said he’s impressed with the 18-year-old.
“He has a lot of skill and he’ll be fine as long as he plays a north-south game,” Gionta said.
Galchenyuk and Gionta will flank veteran centre Tomas Plekanec, who has been nursing a rib injury. Plekanec was held out of Thursday’s scrimmage as a precaution, but Therrien said he expected him in the lineup against the Leafs.
The cut-down contained two surprises. Gallagher stayed up even though Therrien said he wouldn’t keep a young player as the 13th or 14th forward. Gallagher will probably be in that role for the opener, but Therrien said the 20-year-old will get a chance in the first three or four games.
“I like his speed and his vision and he’s always on the puck,” the coach said. “We think he’s going to be a good player for us.”
Gallagher said he didn’t know what to expect when he went into his meeting.
“They talked about some of the good things I’ve been doing and the things I need to work on, and then they told me I was staying and I’m very happy,” Gallagher said.
The final spot on the roster was filled by Michael Blunden, who was not invited to the camp but arrived in Montreal Wednesday as part of a group of Hamilton Bulldogs brought in to fill out the rosters for the intra-squad game.
Blunden, who finished last season with the Canadiens, scored two goals in the intra- squad game, but that wasn’t the deciding factor in the decision to keep him.
“He’s an older guy with some experience,” Therrien said. “He scored two goals last night, but what we like about him is his defensive game.”
Blunden wasn’t invited to camp because the Canadiens already had a book on him and Therrien wanted to keep the numbers at camp small.
“If we had invited 29 or 30 players, (Blunden) would have been here, but we kept it small and brought in a couple of extra forwards and defencemen to make it easier to scrimmage in practice,” Therrien said.
The 26-year-old Blunden has size at 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds and has played 90 NHL games, including 39 last season with Montreal.
Gabriel Dumont was in- vited to the camp because he was the leading scorer in Hamilton, but his tenacious play wasn’t enough to keep him in Montreal. He was sent back to the Bulldogs along with defencemen Mike Commodore and Jarred Tinordi. The 20-year-old Tinordi showed lots of promise, but there’s no room for him on a roster with seven veteran defencemen in camp and unsigned restricted free agent P.K. Subban on hold.
The Canadiens also returned four other players who were called up for Thursday’s scrimmage — defenceman Frédéric St. Denis and forwards Louis Leblanc, Michael Bournival and Patrick Holland.