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Mikko Rantanen

Nathan MacKinnon To Undergo MRI For Possible Foot Injury

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Saturday: MacKinnon has officially avoided the worst-case scenario, NHL.com’s Amalie Benjamin reports. MacKinnon did not suffer a broken left foot, but does have a major bruise on the inside of the foot. The Avalanche pivot called it “sore” and “swollen” and did not want to test it this weekend. Colorado is likely in agreement with that judgement call. They are likely to have MacKinnon back in the lineup following their upcoming “bye week”.

Friday: MacKinnon is flying to San Jose later today according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The Colorado center is unlikely to participate in any on-ice events.

Thursday: It isn’t clear right now to what extent his foot his injured – so no cause for alarm yet Avalanche fans – but Nathan MacKinnon is set to undergo an MRI on his foot, per Sportsnet’s John Shannon. Shannon reports that the Colorado Avalanche are being cautious about a possible left foot injury and want to get a better sense of their superstar center’s health. Shannon adds that, regardless of the MRI results, MacKinnon could miss this weekend’s All-Star festivities in order to rest.

No one can blame the Avalanche for taking any health issue with MacKinnon seriously. The 23-year-old has accrued 71 points already this season and is on pace to shatter the career high of 97 that he set last year and that nearly won him the Hart Trophy. MacKinnon centers the top line with Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog that is responsible for a higher percentage of their team’s production than any other line in the NHL. A long-term MacKinnon absence would be devastating for a Colorado team that is already slumping; the Avs have won just three games in their last 15 and are one loss away from falling out of a playoff spot completely. They need MacKinnon now more than ever.

With that said, this seems to be purely cautionary, especially given Shannon’s insistence that sitting out the All-Star Game may be the only measure taken to ensure MacKinnon’s return to full health. The franchise center also logged approximately 21 and 19 minutes of ice time in each of his past two games and did not look uncomfortable. Perhaps this is just a minor nagging injury the team wants to look at – MacKinnon did suffer a foot fracture back in 2015 – or perhaps he was simply sore after an incident in last night’s contest against the Minnesota Wild and wanted to get checked out. Either way, this is news simply due to MacKinnon’s name value but right now does not look like anything major worth worrying about.

The biggest concern may actually be who replaces the Central Division captain at this weekend’s All-Star festivities. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that MacKinnon is still expected to be in attendance in San Jose, but would need a substitute if he cannot compete. With both Rantanen, an original selection, and Landeskog, the Central’s winner of the “Last Men In” fan vote, already going, it’s very unlikely that MacKinnon would be replaced by another Avalanche player. Other popular “Last Man In” candidates like the Winnipeg Jets’ Patrik Laine, the Minnesota Wild’s Zach Parise, or the Nashville Predators’ Filip Forsberg are possibilities to get the call if MacKinnon is unable to participate.

NHL Announces All-Star Skills Competitors

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The NHL All-Star Skills Competition is scheduled for this evening, and though Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon have both pulled out due to illness and injury there are still an incredible amount of talented players taking part. Most notable however may be the final entrant in the fastest skater competition: Kendall Coyne. A member of the US Women’s National Team, Coyne will take MacKinnon’s place after the Colorado Avalanche forward suffered a foot injury this week. The Olympic gold medalist is known for her speed and posted a 14.226 yesterday during event testing according to Emily Kaplan of ESPN. Though that wouldn’t have been enough to dethrone Connor McDavid last year, it would have put her ahead of Zach Werenski, Noah Hanifin and Josh Bailey in the competition. We’ll see what Coyne can do tonight, along with the rest of the competitors:

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Injury Notes: Pettersson, Lewis, Steen, Kase, Rasmussen, Rantanen

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The Vancouver Canucks hope that the wait for star forward Elias Pettersson to return from injury will be over soon. Canucks’ coach Travis Green said Pettersson looked good in practice Saturday on a line with Brock Boeser and Josh Leivo and the team is hopeful that he might play Sunday against Detroit.

“I hope he can go. We’ll see,” said Green.

Green said he will talk to the medical staff about Pettersson’s status before making a decision on whether the 20-year-old will be available Sunday. Pettersson has been a revelation for the Canucks in his rookie campaign as he has 22 goals and 42 points in 39 games.

  • Fox Sports’ Jon Rosen reports that while Los Angeles Kings forward Trevor Lewis has not started skating  yet, he’s been told that the veteran is close to getting on the ice by himself. The 32-year-old has been out with a broken foot since Nov. 13, but could be ready to make his way back to the ice. Lewis had surgery on his foot on Dec. 4 and was expected to be out for four to five weeks which is fast approaching.
  • NHL.com’s Lou Korac reports that the St. Louis Blues have activated forward Alex Steen of injured reserve Saturday. The veteran forward has missed the past six games for the Blues after suffering a shoulder injury. The 34-year-old has six goals and 15 points in 32 games.
  • While it has already been reported that Anaheim Ducks forward Ondrej Kase was placed on injured reserve today, Elliott Teaford of the Orange County Register reports that the injury isn’t another concussion, like the one that kept the 23-year-old out of the lineup for the first month of the season. The scribe writes that Kase’s right arm is in a sling, but offers no other details about how long he might be out. Kase has 11 goals and 20 points in 30 games this season.
  • Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press writes that Detroit Red Wings forward Michael Rasmussen participated in a full practice for the first time since he injured his hamstring. The 19-year-old rookie remains on injured reserve and hasn’t appeared in a game since Jan. 4. Rasmussen has six goals and 13 points in 41 games.
  • The Colorado Avalanche lost Mikko Rantanen to a lower-body injury early in the third period Saturday in their game against the Kings, according to The Athletic’s Ryan S. Clark. No word on how serious the injury is, but the team was already up 7-0 at the time of the injury, so they could have pulled him for precautionary reasons. However, if the injury was serious, that could be crippling for a struggling Avalanche team as Rantanen is third in the league in points with 71.

2019 All-Star Rosters Announced

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The NHL has announced the four rosters for the 2019 All-Star Game today, scheduled to be held on January 26th in San Jose. Earlier today, Alex Ovechkin, who was elected captain of Metropolitan Division squad, told the league that he wouldn’t be attending and will accept the punishment of missing one game either before or after the break. Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Auston Matthews will represent the Pacific, Central and Atlantic respectively, as the other captains. A replacement Metropolitan captain for Ovechkin has yet to be named.

The full rosters are as follows:

Pacific Division

G John Gibson (ANA)
G Marc-Andre Fleury (VGK)

D Erik Karlsson (SJS)
D Brent Burns (SJS)
D Drew Doughty (LAK)

F Connor McDavid (EDM)*
F Johnny Gaudreau (CGY)
F Joe Pavelski (SJS)
F Elias Pettersson (VAN)
F Clayton Keller (ARI)

Central Division

G Pekka Rinne (NSH)
G Devan Dubnyk (MIN)

D Roman Josi (NSH)
D Miro Heiskanen (DAL)

F Nathan MacKinnon (COL)*
F Mikko Rantanen (COL)
F Blake Wheeler (WPG)
F Patrick Kane (CHI)
F Mark Scheifele (WPG)
F Ryan O’Reilly (STL)

Atlantic Division

G Jimmy Howard (DET)
G Carey Price (MTL)

D Keith Yandle (FLA)
D Thomas Chabot (OTT)

F Auston Matthews (TOR)*
F Nikita Kucherov (TBL)
F Steven Stamkos (TBL)
F John Tavares (TOR)
F David Pastrnak (BOS)
F Jack Eichel (BUF)

Metropolitan Division

G Henrik Lundqvist (NYR)
G Braden Holtby (WAS)

D John Carlson (WSH)
D Seth Jones (CBJ)

F Sidney Crosby (PIT)
F Taylor Hall (NJD)
F Mathew Barzal (NYI)
F Claude Giroux (PHI)
F Cam Atkinson (CBJ)
F Sebastian Aho (CAR)

*Denotes team captain

One final skater spot on each roster has yet to be announced, as it will be determined by the “Last Man In” fan ballot, a concept borrowed from Major League Baseball. The format of the current All-Star Game, which requires one representative from each team on these smaller 3-on-tournament rosters, was bound to cause some confusion with the initial selections. Seven top-twenty scorers were not selected – Mitch Marner, Brayden Point, Leon Draisaitl, Sean Monahan, Matthew Tkachuk, Phil Kessel, and Gabriel Landeskog – and several will inevitably remain out of All-Star participation even after the fan ballot additions. Morgan Rielly, the league’s top-scoring defenseman, and Mark Giordano, enjoying an elite season on both sides of the puck, are two surprising omissions on the blue line. Several of the league’s top goalies are also going to miss out, ineligible for the fan ballot, including Ben Bishop, Frederik Andersen, and Andrei Vasilevskiy. The “Last Man In” will be an intriguing new addition to the All-Star process, with nominees to be named shortly, but more than a few notable names will be left out regardless. Meanwhile, the health of players like Price and Chabot for Team Atlantic and Hall for Team Metropolitan will bear watching, as those players may opt to skip the All-Star festivities, opening up more players to selection.

Trade Rumors: Senators, Blackhawks, Avalanche

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With leading scorer Matt Duchene on injured reserve and expected out for “weeks”, what little chances the Ottawa Senators had of making the playoffs this season are likely to slip away. This was always the expected result of the 2018-19 season for Ottawa, but their efforts thus far to stay out of the basement of the NHL have surprised many and inspired some. However, as reality now begins to finally set in, the team must decide what they want to do with Duchene and fellow impending free agents Mark Stone and Ryan Dzingel. As Ken Warren of the Ottawa Sun writes, Duchene – currently tied for ninth in the league in scoring – will likely ask for an eight-year deal in the ballpark of $60-70MM to remain in Ottawa, reflective of the salary he will likely command on the open market. Stone will be in the same neighborhood, with Dzingel significantly lower albeit not cheap by any means, but the Senators cannot even begin negotiations with the pair until the new year, per the rules pertaining to their recent salary arbitration decisions. As such, the team is dealing with three high-quality expiring assets without any guarantee that they will be re-sign or if the team will be willing to meet their salary demands. In a season in which Ottawa could finish with one of the worst records in the league but lacks their first-round pick – given to the Colorado  Avalanche in the deal that landed Duchene – it stands to reason that GM Pierre Dorion will strongly consider recouping as much trade capital as possible if extensions are not in place by the trade deadline. Given the uncertainly surrounding the ownership status of Eugene Melnyk, whose tactics thus far leave much to be desired anyway, Warren believes that Duchene, Stone, and Dzingel, as well as any other free agent in the coming off-season, will think twice about a future in Ottawa. All things considered, it’s beginning to look like the trio stand a better chance to all be traded away in the coming months than any of them do of signing a long-term extension.

  • The Athletic’s Graeme Nichols wonders if yet another Senator is prime trade bait right now as well. With veteran goaltender Craig Anderson playing his best hockey of the season so far, Nichols opines that Ottawa would be best-served to try moving their starter while his stock is high. While the recent home-and-home series with the Montreal Canadiens did not go so well, Anderson did look very good in wins over the New York Rangers and San Jose Sharks prior, recording 63 saves on 65 shots over the two contests. Anderson also made 48 saves against the Dallas Stars last month and notched wins over the Tampa Bay Lighting and Pittsburgh Penguins. Admittedly, even as this best, Anderson is still a 37-year-old replacement-level goaltender at this point in his career and won’t command much of a return. However, the Senators’ season is sinking and they should get what they can while his value is potentially at its peak. The knock on moving Anderson this season has been that Ottawa has no suitable replacement – backups Mike Condon and Mike McKenna have performed very poorly in limited appearances – and thus trading Anderson means giving up on the season. Yet, with Duchene out long-term, any postseason hopes will fade and moving Anderson will begin to make more sense. As Nichols recalls, Anderson himself also alluded to a desire to move on from Ottawa this summer, so making a deal seems to be in the best interest of all parties. There are plenty of teams out there who would be intrigued by adding an established veteran in net this year and Anderson could soon fill that role.
  • The Chicago Blackhawks made it known yesterday that they are looking to move out some of their defensive depth, but NBC Sports’ James O’Brien asks if they are focused on the wrong players. Rather than try to flip the likes of Brandon Manning or Jan Rutta, for which they would receive relatively little, O’Brien believes that the team’s long-term needs would be better served by trading away a mainstay like Duncan Keith or Brent Seabrook. This is not so cut-and-dry, as O’Brien admits, but would be worth looking into. Both players carry no-trade clauses that Chicago GM Stan Bowman would first need to ask them to waive. Even if Seabrook was to agree, it seems very unlikely that Bowman would find a taker for the depreciating defenseman and his albatross of a contract. If by some chance he does, it would be a small return similar to Manning or Rutta, but with a far greater salary cap relief. Keith is another matter; while not what he once was, the 35-year-old is still a very capable defenseman who would play in the top four for nearly every team in the NHL, at least for now. The worry is that Keith will continue to age and his ability will fall off, while the Blackhawks continue to pay him more than $5.5MM per year and rely on him for top minutes. Removing that crutch (and cap hit) now, in what appears to be another lost season for the team, would give Chicago a strong return that they could use to begin rebuilding the team. The alternative, which also appears to be the current plan, of waiting for the current roster to turn things around, will only increase the risk of injury or drop-off from Keith while damaging his market value as he ages. A move now would be painful to the fan base in the short term, but the right move looking toward the future.
  • One team who could be a dangerous player at the trade deadline this season are the Colorado Avalanche. Per CapFriendly, the Avs are currently projected to have more than $56MM in cap space available at the deadline, or in other words have no limit to the amount of talent they can bring in if they so choose. Colorado is currently tied for the lead in the Central Division with the Nashville Predators and could even emerge as President’s Trophy threats this season. Armed with the best line in the NHL, including the top two scorers in the league, Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon, and the best power play as well, the Avalanche are second in goals for per game among all teams. They also play well in their own end, seventh in goals against per game behind the efforts of Semyon Varlamov. Yet, the Avalanche are not without fault and could stand to add a contributor or two both on defense and up front. The team was expected to add top prospect Cale Makar to their blue line by the end of the regular season, but with his college squad, the UMass Minutemen, ranked No. 1 in the nation, Makar could be occupied through the Frozen Four tournament in mid-April. A capable puck-moving defenseman should thus be at the top of the list for Colorado, followed by an injection of offensive ability and two-way accountability among the forward corps, where their secondary scoring and penalty kill could both use work. While the matter of cost in trade capital is another question entirely, the Avalanche will have the cap space to hypothetically address their needs by adding the likes of Jordan Eberle, Kevin Hayes, and Jay Bouwmeester for example. That’s a dangerous premise for other contenders to consider as Colorado continues to excel this season.

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Colorado Avalanche

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As the holiday season approaches, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for as the season heads past the one-quarter mark. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. Let’s take a look at what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Colorado Avalanche. 

What are the Avalanche most thankful for?

The continued improvement. Last season the Colorado Avalanche had an incredible season, going from one of the worst teams in the league to just squeaking into the playoffs. Colorado found themselves matched up with the top team in the league in the Nashville Predators and while no one gave the Avalanche any chance to beat the powerhouse squad, but the team still managed to take two games from them. This year has only gotten better for the franchise as they are currently tied for first place with the Predators in the Central Division and have started to show that they have an impressive team that is only getting better.

Who are the Avalanche most thankful for?

Their top line. Colorado’s top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog was impressive last year, but they have only gotten better this year. MacKinnon, who had a breakout season last year after posting 39 goals last year, already has 18 goals and is on pace for an even bigger year. MacKinnon, the runner-up for the Hart Trophy, could take the award this year with the way he is playing as he has 41 points already and he’s not even at the half-way point of the season.

Rantanen already has 11 goals and 43 points in just 26 games as he’s on pace for an even bigger season. He could be one of MacKinnon’s biggest challengers for the Hart Trophy if the 22-year-old continues to play the way he has. Landeskog, on the other hand, is playing well with 15 goals already, which likely has him headed for a career-high. While they were a very good line a year ago, the pairing has become one of the top lines in the NHL now. With Landeskog only being 26 and the veteran of the group, the line could be together for a long time.

What would the Avalanche be even more thankful for?

Secondary scoring. One of the team’s biggest problems is getting more scoring from its other lines. Many people felt that Tyson Jost and J.T. Compher might step up as well as other players, including Alexander Kerfoot and Colin Wilson. While they each have made some contributions, none of them have taken the next step. Jost has shown to be impressive when moved to the second line, yet he has just four goals and 10 points this season. Compher could be the answer, but has been out with a head injury. However, he has seven goals in the 10 games he’s played this year. Kerfoot has 18 points in 26 games, but only four of those are goals, while Wilson has seven goals and 10 points in 26 games.

The team needs one or two of these players (and preferably everyone) to take that next step and start providing the team with secondary scoring so when the first line gets shut down, the team doesn’t get shutout.

What should be on the Avalanche’s Holiday Wish List?

A young impact player. The team is quite young, but there is more talent on the way. The team could get a significant boost from 2017 first-round pick Cale Markar. The 20-year-old defenseman has been lighting up the college scene this year with the University of Massachusetts – Amherst. After posting respectable numbers as a freshman of five goals and 21 points in 34 games for the Minutemen, he has already topped those numbers in just 13 appearances. He already has six goals and 18 points with more than half a season to go. If the team can convince him to turn pro after the season, there is a good chance the fourth-overall pick could step right onto the ice during the stretch-run of the season and give the team another impact player on their defense.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Snapshots: Three Stars, RFAs, Marleau

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The NHL has released their latest Three Stars of the Week, and to absolutely no one’s surprise Patrik Laine finds himself on top. Despite plenty of other outstanding performances last week, Laine was the easy choice after scoring 11 goals in just four games including a five-goal effort on Saturday night. The young Winnipeg Jets forward set all kinds of franchise records with the outstanding performance, and joined an incredibly small group of players to post five goals in a game before their 21st birthday. Only Laine, Don Murdoch and Wayne Gretzky have ever done so; Laine will have to do it again this season to tie Gretzky with two such performances.

Coming in second and third this week are Marc-Andre Fleury and Nikita Kucherov, two players well versed in this award. Fleury earned third star honors just over a month ago, while Kucherov has been in the top three several times throughout his career. The Vegas Golden Knights goaltender and Tampa Bay Lightning forward will have to continue their strong play if they hope to compete for the Stanley Cup again this season, and may even find themselves on this list again down the road.

Mikko Rantanen Fined For Embellishment

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The NHL has issued a $2,000 fine to Colorado Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen, citing two instances in which he broke Rule 64 for Diving/Embellishment this season. Fines will increase for Rantanen for any subsequent instances, and eventually include financial punishment to head coach Jared Bednar as well. The first incident, which garnered just a warning, was on October 16th against the New York Rangers, while the latest was during a November 14th game against the Boston Bruins.

Rantanen has been one of the league’s brightest stars this season and still leads the entire NHL in scoring with 32 points. His play alongside Nathan MacKinnon has been a revelation, and has the Avalanche poised to become one of the league’s most dangerous offensive teams. Unfortunately with this history, he’ll now be watched even more closely by the officials and may not get the benefit of the doubt on close calls. He also could very well draw the ire of his coaching staff if he causes them to be fined, or costs his team with an ill-timed penalty.

Central Notes: Jost, Zadorov, Nichushkin, Kane

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With a dominant top line that includes Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen, the Colorado Avalanche can’t be happier as they have combined for 75 points so far this season. However, the biggest concern for the team has been their secondary scoring, which most recently seems to have improved when the team re-inserted center Tyson Jost together with wingers Alex Kerfoot and Colin Wilson, according to Kyle Newman of the Denver Post.

Jost had spent some time with that line earlier this year, but between a demotion to the team’s fourth line and an injury that kept him out for four games, Jost finally got a chance to center the two wingers and has made the most of his opportunity with a pair of goals in the past week as well as improved play from both Wilson and Kerfoot.

“It’s tough to score every night, but I want to see them generate chances every night and I want to see them doing the right things defensively,” Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said. “They’re starting to earn more trust on the defensive side of the puck as a young line, and they’re finding ways to chip in, and the last (few games) are a prime example.”

  • Sticking with the Avalanche, Ryan S. Clark of The Athletic (subscription required) writes that Bednar has lost faith for the time being in defenseman Nikita Zadorov, who led the league in hits with 278 last year and averaged 19:28 of ice time last season. However, his role has changed as he is averaging just 15:12, was benched in the third period Wednesday against Boston and then finally was a healthy scratch for the team’s game against Washington on Friday. “We’ve got some D that are playing well,” Bednar said. “Like I said, we’ve got the depth at D now, seven (defensemen) and sometimes you gotta make tough decisions. … Sometimes that means moving around the lineup, elevating guys, lowering guys in the lineup with their minutes. Other times it means you have to make tough decisions and scratch some guys. That’s what we did with Nikita. He’s going to get an opportunity to go back in and continue to play. We’ll see how the game goes.”
  • Dallas Stars winger Valeri Nichushkin hasn’t scored an NHL goal in 989 days. Granted, he just spent the last two season in the KHL, which has something to do with that statistic. However, Nichushkin went 26 combined regular season and playoff games without scoring back in 2016 and now has gone 14 straight goalless games this season, according to SportsDay’s Matthew DeFranks. His struggles are not stopping him, however. “Tough start, but I feel better every game, especially the last three games, I had a lot of moments,” Nichushkin said. “I need to score and I think everything will be good. Team’s winning so I don’t care. I know I will be better.”
  • Chicago Blackhawks new head coach Jeremy Colliton has utilized the strategy of playing Patrick Kane as much as possible since he’s taken over, but another interesting stat is that Colliton has used Kane almost entirely on the power play, according to the Chicago Tribune’s Jimmy Greenfield. In fact, Kane has been used for 16:50 of power play time under Colliton in a total of 17:52, an unbelievable usage rate for a 30-year-old player. “I don’t think it’s been a problem so far, and I think the power play’s moving in the right direction,” Colliton said. “I thought the power play was better tonight than it was against St. Louis, but we scored against St. Louis so it (wasn’t) a talking point. We’ve just got to work on it.”

Atlantic Notes: Bergeron, Helm, Marner, Price

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The Boston Bruins already have plenty of injury concerns this season, especially on the defensive end. However, it may have gotten worse as the Bruins announced in an injury breakdown, that they have sent Patrice Bergeron back to Boston to be re-evaluated for his upper-body injury by team doctors with two games left on their road trip. That means that Bergeron is out for Saturday’s game against Arizona, although considering their next game won’t be until Wednesday, he could return to the team before then.

The team also reported that defenseman John Moore, already listed as day-to-day, has also left with Bergeron for Boston to get his lower-body injury looked at by doctors. The release also notes that Zdeno Chara, who was listed as out for four to six weeks, will not be re-evaluated for another four weeks.

While many were already aware of the defensive injuries, however the loss of Bergeron would be another devastating blow. The 33-year-old was driven into the boards on Friday on a hit from Dallas’ Radek Faksa. Bergeron has nine goals and 26 points in 19 games this season and anchors one of the top lines in the NHL.

  • The Detroit Red Wings may be without a forward as well as Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James reports that Darren Helm, who left the first period of today’s game against New Jersey after taking a hard hit from Travis Zajac, could be out for a while. Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said that he had no timetable for his injury, but the 31-year-old winger was holding his right wrist after it had taken the brunt of his fall to the ice.
  • Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun writes that with the way that Toronto Maple Leafs’ Mitch Marner has been playing lately, he is likely to fetch a huge price when he hits restricted free agency at the end of the year. The 21-year-old Marner, who has 26 points in the first 20 games is currently on a trajectory to hit 106 points this season and become the franchise’s first 100-point winger. That could cost the team that has carefully weighed each players’ salary carefully before signing John Tavares this summer. With holdout William Nylander asking for big numbers on his next contract, Marner could complicate things for Toronto as well as he might be the best young winger outside of Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen and Boston’s David Pastrnak.
  • Montreal Canadiens Carey Price’s numbers may not be particularly impressive as he owns a 2.99 GAA and a .899 save percentage. However, after an impressive performance against the Calgary Flames on Thursday, The Athletic’s Paul Campbell (subscription required) analyzes the 31-year-old’s play and notes that Price is starting to adapt to a combination of his aging skills and the improved shootings skills of younger forwards. The scribe breaks down his play Thursday, writing that if Price can continue to play like that, then the Canadiens have a chance to fare well this season.

 

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