MONTREAL - The Habs are quickly reassembling on icy surfaces, as 20 Montreal Canadiens were working out Thursday in Brossard, prior to the official kickoff of training camp Sunday.
One thing is certain: goalie Carey Price won’t be playing as many games in this 48-game season as the previous two seasons where he tended the nets for 72 and 65 games.
Price came into camp a lithe 209 pounds after spending time in Washington State working out with his old junior club, the Tri-City Americans.
Price, 25, signed a $39 million six-year deal last summer and only blipped onto the public radar during the lockout when his tweets detailing his hunting of coyotes hit an unexpected nerve among some animal lovers.
Now Price is preparing to be the one being shot at, with pucks at least.
He said that improving his overtime shootout results is his main plan to help the team improve this season.
Price concedes, however, that it might take some time to get his reflexes back into game condition.
“It's going to be difficult to pick up timing for sure. You can't replicate it in practice. It's tough to pick it up right away. We'll have some inter-squad games here so we can get some simulation in,” he told CTV Montreal.
Meanwhile Tomas Kaberle hinted that he is in better form than he had been with the Habs last season, while fellow buy-out prospect Scott Gomez declined to speak to media Thursday.
The team is divided between players who played competitively in Europe and elsewhere and those who simply stayed home.
One veteran stay-at-home rearguard said that there’s not much difference between the conditioning of the two groups.
“I tried to look for that,” said Josh Gorges, who stayed in Montreal during the lockout. “If the guys that went over were in better shape, I couldn't see it.”
“We trained hard,” said Gorges of the players who did not play on any teams during the break.
