BROSSARD, Quebec -- The Montreal Canadiens will not have Carey Price at their disposal when they face the New York Islanders at Bell Centre on Saturday.
Price is day-to-day with an upper-body injury he sustained during a 3-2 win at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday. He backed up Dustin Tokarski on Thursday during Montreal's 4-1 loss at the Ottawa Senators.
"(Friday) morning he was stiff and that's the reason we made our decision," Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said after the morning skate at the team's suburban practice facility.
Price, who was named to the 2015 Honda NHL All-Star Game, is 23-10-2 with two shutouts, a 2.19 goals-against-average and a .927 save percentage in 35 games.
Therrien did not have a timeline for Price's return. Montreal hosts the Nashville Predators on Tuesday, its last game before the All-Star break.
"I can't confirm that he's going to be there for the next game and for the All-Star Game, but the only thing I can say it's day-to-day and it's an upper body, but it's not like a major injury," Therrien said.
Canadiens left wing Max Pacioretty took the blame for Price's injury. Columbus forward Matt Calvert was driving the net when he was pushed into Price by Pacioretty. Price was hunched over in pain after his back struck the right post but he remained in the game.
"I feel bad obviously with the fact that that's how it happened, but the good news is it's nothing serious and I'm happy that it's something minor," Pacioretty said.
Tokarski will start a second game in a row for the first time since the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He started the last five games of Montreal's six-game series loss to the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final after Price was injured in Game 1.
Goalie Joey MacDonald was recalled from Hamilton of the American Hockey League on Friday.
Therrien has tinkered some more with his lines, including moving Alex Galchenyuk from center to left wing. Galchenyuk has one assist in his past four games and Therrien said he had a good conversation with the 20-year-old forward Saturday.
"As a coach and with a young player I've got to make sure that he's developing well, his confidence is there. I asked him where he felt comfortable, because it's a lot of responsibility to be a centerman, and he told me that right now he believes that he's going to feel a lot better on the wing," Therrien said. "He's going to be able to play his game better than he was at center, less thinking, less responsibility, so together we took the decision that moving on the wing, and I'm going to support Alex 100 percent. We're going to work with him and I'm sure the kid is going to be fine."
The Islanders did not skate Saturday following a 6-3 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday.
Here are the projected lineups:
ISLANDERS
Josh Bailey - John Tavares - Kyle Okposo
Michael Grabner - Brock Nelson - Nikolay Kulemin
Anders Lee - Frans Nielsen - Ryan Strome
Matt Martin - Casey Cizikas - Cal Clutterbuck
Calvin de Haan - Travis Hamonic
Scratched: Eric Boulton, Matt Donovan
Injured: Mikhail Grabovski (lower body), Matt Carkner (back), Lubomir Visnovsky (upper body)
CANADIENS
Max Pacioretty - Tomas Plekanec - Dale Weise
Alex Galchenyuk - David Desharnais - Brendan Gallagher
Jiri Sekac - Lars Eller - Christian Thomas
Michael Bournival - Manny Malhotra - Brandon Prust
Andrei Markov - Sergei Gonchar
Scratched: Tom Gilbert
Injured: Carey Price (upper body), Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau (illness)
Status report: Parenteau is out after playing the past two games. He missed three games after sustaining a concussion on Jan. 2 on a hit by Tim Sestito of the New Jersey Devils. "He didn't feel well (Saturday) morning so he won't play (against the Islanders)," Therrien said. Weaver has not played since Dec. 6, when he sustained a concussion during a 4-1 loss at the Dallas Stars.
Who's hot: Okposo has scored five goals in his past three games, including his first career four-goal game Friday. Tavares and Bailey each had three assists. … Pacioretty's six-game goal streak is tied for the longest in the NHL this season with Filip Forsberg of the Nashville Predators.
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