Carey Price makes victorious return to Habs' net
Goaltender plays 1st game for Canadiens since Nov. 25; Shea Weber scores 1st goal
Carey Price didn't have to be spectacular in his return to Montreal's net, but he did enough to secure the win in his much-anticipated season debut.
Price made 27 saves in his first NHL start since last November as the Canadiens beat the Arizona Coyotes 5-2 on Thursday night. The 29-year-old Price missed most of last season with a right knee injury and was expected to be ready for Montreal's season opener, but ended up missing the first three games because of a severe flu.
"It was nice to get back into the routine and get to play a regular-season game," said Price. "I felt fine. I felt pretty good in the skate this morning.
"We were skating well and moving the puck. It's always a bonus to put up five [goals]."
Price didn't have to stand on his head as his teammates provided enough offence, including defenceman Shea Weber's first goal in a Canadiens uniform.
The Habs netminder wasn't tested much in the opening frame. He eased back into NHL action by making eight fairly easy saves in the first period and didn't face a shot until 6:30 into the game.
Things weren't as smooth in the second. A sprawled-out Price was helpless against Jakob Chychrun at 6:36 for Arizona's first of the night to make it 4-1.
Then Price conceded again at 16:09 to Laurent Dauphin, a short-handed goal for the Coyotes after a bad giveaway by Nathan Beaulieu in his own zone.
But those were the only times Arizona would find the back of the net, as Price improved to 8-0-0 in his career against the Coyotes.
"For a guy who hasn't skated for a while, because of his flu, he was sharp," said head coach Michel Therrien. "Very encouraging to see."
Added Torrey Mitchell: "He's got such a calming presence. He's such a big leader for us. He was joking about not setting the bar too high and getting a shutout in game one, so it was nice to get five goals for him."
Montreal (3-0-1) got goals from Weber, Alexei Emelin, Torrey Mitchell, Alex Galchenyuk and Artturi Lehkonen.
The Habs jumped out to a big lead with three goals in less than four minutes in the second period.
Mitchell made it 2-0 with a one-timer at 2:07 off a beautiful cross-ice pass from Beaulieu.
Weber scored his first in a Montreal sweater two minutes later with a hard slap shot through traffic, to the delight of the sold-out Bell Centre crowd.
"It was unbelievable," said Weber of the fans' response to his goal. "I can't describe the feeling. It's really special. Happy to be part of this team."
After Weber's goal, Galchenyuk dangled around Arizona captain Shane Doan at the blue line before beating Louis Domingue with a wrister at 5:49 to put the game out of reach.
Lehkonen, left all alone in the slot, added a fifth goal for Montreal in the third period.
"It got away from us in the second period," said Arizona coach Dave Tippett. "We were all right, we competed hard, but there are areas of our game that we still have to clean up. The execution is not what it needs to be. We need all the parts to work to be competitive."