The 31-year-old goalie made 23 saves in the Canadiens' 4-3 overtime win against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday, their final game before the Christmas break.
Montreal's road trip continues at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday and at the Dallas Stars on Monday; Price was placed on injured reserve on Thursday, retroactive to Dec. 22, which means he could rejoin the Canadiens and play against the Stars if he's healthy enough.
Coach Claude Julien said he's unsure if Price will be able to return by Monday.
"Well, we don't know yet," Julien said after the Canadiens' morning skate Friday. "I think right now it depends on what's going on and we're not quite sure, either. It's an injury that's been lingering a little bit, more of an irritation than anything else that we've managed for the last couple of weeks. And as you can tell by his play it didn't seem to be bothering him, but we thought the four days break would help and it just seemed to get worse in practice yesterday.
"He wasn't able to finish practice and we felt it was prudent to keep him behind and get him examined by a doctor, which he's doing right now. He keeps getting examined by doctors and we're hoping it's a day-to-day situation, but we'll see here once we get the final assessments on him."
Price is 15-10-4 with a 2.84 goals-against average and .904 save percentage in 30 games (29 starts) this season.
The Canadiens recalled goalie Michael McNiven on an emergency basis from Laval of the American Hockey League on Friday. He will back up Antti Niemi against the Panthers.
NHL.com correspondent Sean Farrell contributed to this report
