Faces of the Franchise Shine | Three Stars of the Week, NHL, Habs, Montreal Canadiens, Carey Price, Shea Weber, Jeff Petry
ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA — Hello there, folks! Back again for another edition of my weekly column here where I take a look back at the week of action for the Canadiens and award my three stars!
Players will earn points each time they appear as a star in this column and at the end of the year, I will award my three stars of the season.
The Canadiens have been up and down as of late, with a pair of losses to the Calgary Flames, things have not been going as the Habs would like them to, which makes for a tougher selection of my three stars of the week.
☆ THIRD STAR: Jeff Petry
Were it not for a rough two-game set against the Flames, Petry probably walks away with my second star of the week, but he and his partner Joel Edmundson had a rough outing in the Saturday night game against Calgary.
Even with that rough outing, Petry was the lone goal scorer for the Canadiens on the night and has been a consistent offensive producer for the Habs. He has a goal in four of his last five games and his total of 25 points on the season has him only behind Victor Hedman in points by a defenceman this season.
Petry shoulders a big load on this team as one of the only regular defencemen who has puck moving capabilities. As such, even when his game is not where you would like it to be like it was against Calgary, he has earned some benefit of the doubt. That does not excuse him when he has a poor outing in his own zone, that is simply the reality of the situation.
The Canadiens went into this season with a different type of philosophy as to how they constructed their defensive core, they wanted to be big and punishing instead of the new norm in today’s NHL that sees mobile, puck-movers valued much more. This philosophy has put a lot of pressure on Jeff Petry and for the most part, he has delivered.
☆ SECOND STAR: Shea Weber
Shea Weber has three points in his last five games, including a power-play goal against the Canucks where he unleashed his patented one-timer. That was great to see and with a couple assists, it was a good week for Weber in terms of offensive output.
But as we know, that is only one small part of what Weber brings to this team. Right now, the Canadiens are without the services of Ben Chiarot, Weber’s usual defensive partner. As a result of this, Weber is once again being asked to play with a younger defenceman and elevate him to play on the first pair against tough competition.
We have seen him do that with Victor Mete in the past, now he is being asked to do it with Alexander Romanov. Romanov is perhaps more equipped to handle this than Mete was, but even still, the inexperience from Romanov showed early in the partnership and it was on Weber to be that steadying presence and cast a wide shadow.
In the second game against Calgary, the pair was one of the few bright spots for the Canadiens on the night and while credit must be given to Romanov for adapting, Weber is the one who does the heavy lifting and makes whoever he plays with look much better.
As was the case with Mete, Weber may not be able to hide some of Romanov’s deficiencies for very long. Without Chiarot, the Canadiens will be relying on Weber to elevate someone and Romanov is best option at the moment.
There has been some unwarranted criticism towards Weber this season. An idea that he’s lost a step, but he is shouldering the same massive load he always had, having to elevate his defensive partner and he has done so just as effectively as he always has in Montreal.
☆ FIRST STAR: Carey Price
Carey Price was magnificent this week. In his last five starts, he has stopped 138 of 145 shots he has faced, a .952 save percentage. He has been simply incredible. He has given the Canadiens opportunities to win games, they had no business winning, has made the extraordinary saves, such as the remarkable glove save on a Brock Boeser wraparound attempt.
This is exactly what anyone who has been paying attention to Carey Price the last few years expected to happen. Even this season, the underlying numbers have indicated Carey Price has not been the issue for the Canadiens, but everyone points to the save percentage and goals against average, which give you an idea of how a goalie is performing, but do not tell the full story.
Since Dominique Ducharme took over as the interim head coach of the Habs, there have been adjustments made to the Canadiens defensive zone coverage and overall, there seems to be a better understanding of where the Canadiens need to be and less lapses in their own zone. With that, Price’s save percentage and goals against have looked better.
Price was never the problem for this team that he had been made out to be. Some commentary made about him during the team’s struggles were just unfair. Any insinuation that Carey Price is the reason Stephane Waite lost his job, is incredibly unfair.
The heatmap from Saturday night’s game against the Flames, indicating where shots were coming from for the Flames on the night, is as good an indication as any that Price is doing his job and would benefit from better overall play in front of him.
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By Joseph Whalen, Host, Canadiens Connection podcast
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