Carey Price: On IR and out at least one week

The Canadiens left Madison Square Garden with a 5-1 win over the Rangers, however Carey Price was replaced after the second period and wasn’t around to see his team’s three-goal outburst in the final frame.

To have a solid number one is obviously every team’s goal but to have a number two goaltender who can come in and still give you a chance to win is big also.

The Canadiens did just that in snapping the Rangers’ nine-game winning streak at home and handing them only their second loss in 12 games. The schedule is heavy, and the Blueshirts are doing themselves a disservice if they truly believe they played well in Wednesday’s first period against Montreal, as Vigneault said after the loss.

Price’s right leg appeared to bend awkwardly when he was trying to move across the crease during a sequence in the second period.

In addition to the back-to-back games against the Devils, the Canadiens host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday and the Washington Capitals on Thursday in the first meeting of the season between the two Eastern Conference powers.

The faceoff between two of the top goalies in the NHL; Henrik Lundqvist and Carey Price ended in the third period. “When you make the type of mistakes we made tonight, they are going to make you pay for it. That’s what happened”. We won’t ignore that he takes the majority of his draws in the offensive zone, where the opposing centre is now forced to put his stick down first, but that barely detracts from this impressive feat. “It’s still early in the season, so it’s important for us when he plays, he’s got to make sure he is healthy”. There couldn’t be a better opportunity for Smith-Pelly to crash the net and bother an elite goalie like Lundqvist.

The Canadiens (17-4-2) won three straight and lead the league with 36 points.

“It just kind of caved on us”, Marc Staal said.

Still, the Rangers’ concern right now is not the standings, it’s getting back to the way they want to play. Mike Cammalleri notched an assist on the goal to match his total from last season (15).

New York Rangers defenseman Dan Boyle (22) fights for control of… Pacioretty got the puck and quickly sent it in front to a wide-open Smith-Pelly for a point-blank shot past Lundqvist. They also had a lot of momentum heading out of the power play even when they didn’t score, so at least that was a positive to take away from the game. The Rangers are absolutely on fire through the month of November, having lost only a single game in their past ten and holding a 13-1-1 record over their last fifteen. How can GM Marc Bergevin, celebrating Thanksgiving with his new contract extension, not have to consider needing a Plan B in goal?

Paul Stastny, Robby Fabbri and Alex Pietrangelo scored for St. Louis, which dropped to 2-0-2 in its past four games.