Carey Price will be manning the crease when the Montreal Canadiens play in Boston on Tuesday night, but to hear coach Jacques Martin talk, it will be just another start and not his last for the team.

Price is in net after Jaroslav Halak had a busy workload for Slovakia, which finished fourth at the Olympics.

Martin said on Monday he foresees the Price-Halak tandem being in effect long after Wednesday's NHL trade deadline, but the ultimate decision on that matter will be left to general manager Pierre Gauthier.

Fans hoping Price's time in Montreal is up will likely be disappointed. The vast majority of NHL clubs are set in net, and it's unclear why a contender would want to take a run at a championship with a netminder sporting a 12-18-4 record.

Price has struggled often this season, but not against the Bruins. He has stopped 79 of 81 shots in a pair of wins over the Bruins this season, improving to 8-2-2 in the regular season against Boston.

Montreal headed into the break losing three of four, allowing 17 goals during that span.

No Canadiens player earned a medal at the Olympics. Aside from Halak, the team's other competitors were Sergei Kostitsyn of Belarus, Andrei Markov of Russia and Tomas Plekanec.

The Canadiens have dropped six of their last eight on the road, and they begin post-Olympic play with a challenging four-game trip that takes them to the West Coast following Tuesday's game.

"A game against Boston is a great way to kick off a road trip," forward Brian Gionta told the the team website. "[Tuesday] will be a chance to get back into our rhythm."

The Canadiens remain without leading goal-scorer Mike Cammalleri and top-scoring defenceman Marc-Andre Bergeron as each recovers from a knee injury.

Bruins out to add offence

Boston is believed to be in the market for scoring help ahead of the deadline. The Bruins went from near the top of the NHL in goals scored last year to near the bottom this season.

The drop-off occurred after a trade of last year's leading sniper (Phil Kessel), injuries to Marc Savard and Milan Lucic and slumps that have afflicted Michael Ryder and David Krejci.

The Krejci who suited up for the Czech Republic was the player the Bruins were expecting to see after a strong season last year and a big contract extension in the summer.

Krejci was a playmaking threat for the Czechs but has just 11 goals and 21 assists in 57 games for Boston.

The Bruins hope to build on their four-game winning streak that began before the break and snap a string of nine straight home losses.

The nine-game home skid is two shy of the franchise record, set during the club's inaugural season in 1924-25, and it includes a 3-2 shootout loss to Montreal on Feb. 4.

It has been even more surprising coming one season after the Bruins went 29-6-6 at the TD Garden.

Tuesday's winner will likely be in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins (27-22-11) are in seventh place in the East with 65 points, one more than Montreal (29-28-6) and two ahead of Tampa Bay and the New York Rangers.

"It's a big game, right away, and we just have to make sure we're ready for that," German Olympian and Boston forward Marco Sturm told the Bruins' official website. "Break is over, so we just have to make sure that we start there where we left off the week before the break."

Patrice Bergeron, who played for the Canadian Olympic team, is not expected to play on Tuesday due to a groin injury.

Tuukka Rask started the last six games for Boston — going 4-0-2 with a 1.90 goals-against average — despite the fact that Tim Thomas was named to the U.S. Olympic team.

Thomas was signed to a big contract extension in the summer after winning the Vezina Trophy last year as top goalie, but is increasingly looking like yesterday's news in Boston.

Montreal will fly out to California next, taking on San Jose on Thursday.