(Reuters) – Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price was reunited with his team mates on Tuesday after a voluntary stay in the NHL’s player assistance program and will now begin a multi-step process before he returns to action.
Price, who spent 30 days in a program designed to assist players and their families with mental health, substance abuse and other matters, interacted with players and coaches at the team facility.
“It was good for me to see him and see how he is doing and for the guys too, to see their team mate back,” Montreal head coach Dominique Ducharme told reporters.
“We have a group of guys that care about each other so having him back, just on the personal side, the guys feel pretty good about seeing him and seeing that he is doing good.”
Price, who backstopped Montreal to last season’s Stanley Cup Final where they lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, missed all of training camp while recovering from off-season knee surgery and entered the player assistance program on Oct. 7.
No official reason for Price’s decision was disclosed by the team but his wife cited mental health in a note of support she posted on Instagram at the time when the news broke.
It could still be some time before Price suits up in a game as Ducharme said that in addition to basic training the goalie will have to complete on-ice work both on his own and then with a goalie coach before rejoining team mates at practice.
“He didn’t go to a training center. The facilities at his disposal probably weren’t like what we have here. But, he found a way to keep in shape every day,” said Ducharme.
“Physically, we’re happy to see where he is, because we didn’t really have any idea what he could do and what he did do. He kept pretty active.”
Ducharme also said it is unlikely Price will travel with the team on their upcoming road trip given all the work he needs to do to get back into game shape.
Montreal lost their first five games of the NHL’s 2021-22 season and are sitting in last place in the Eastern Conference with a 3-10 record.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
