All Habs Hockey Magazine is proud to provide a platform for guest writers to express their views on current issues. Today, we present a fan piece on the contributions of Canadiens defenceman Jeff Petry. If you would like to share your fan experiences or have an opinion to share, contact us.
by Paul Pembroke, Guest Writer
If I was coaching in the NHL, I would expect consistency and reliability from my players. Fortunately for Claude Julien, 30-year-old Jeff Petry has been delivering just that on the Habs’ back end since his arrival in March 2015 from the Edmonton Oilers. Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin gave up a second and fourth round pick to acquire Petry.
Petry, a product of Michigan State University, has rather unassumingly molded his skills to the Montreal defense which has gone through many changes in his time with the Habs. For his part, Petry has been an anchor on a ship that has been battered in the standings and by the media for the past two seasons.
After a disappointing playoff run in the spring of 2015 where Montreal was defeated by Tampa Bay in the second round, the Habs have played just five post season games. Petry has witnessed the erosion of his teams back line during that same period. Gone are a long list of defencemen including Andrei Markov, Alexei Emelin, and fan favorite P.K. Subban.
Analytics might suggest that Petry’s numbers don’t reflect what they should for a first pair defenceman, but when it comes to numbers since the departure of Habs blue line core, there is more here to dissect. After Carey Price and Shea Weber where shelved last season, Petry was paired with a number of different players and went on to have his best season offensively with 42 points. The year before, in 2016-17, Petry was in a mostly second pairing position and scored 28 points while keeping a respectable plus-three rating.
What is worth noting here is that none of his partners were any where near a top-tier defender yet the smooth-skating rearguard amassed 42 points on 12 goals and 30 assists last season. In 2017-18, Petry’s 42 points were good enough for a 24th place finish for defencemen albeit a minus-30 rating. In my opinion, this is relatively good production on a team that finished 28th overall in the NHL.
This past summer, Bergevin barely adjusted the defensive core, adding only free-agent Xavier Ouellet after an unremarkable season with the Detroit Red Wings. Maybe the more important changes coming out of the training camp was who management had chosen to be its’ leaders. The players wearing the letters are the ones who are expected to leave it all on the ice each night.
Shea Weber was the obvious choice to be the 30th captain of the Montreal Canadiens. Workhorses like Brendan Gallagher and Paul Byron are the alternate captains. And while waiting for the newly-minted Weber to return to the lineup, Artturi Lehkonen, and Petry wear the “A” on a rotating basis. With the addition of Carey Price, coach Julien has a solid leadership group in place to make the rest of the players accountable.
With Petry playing almost 34 minutes against the Washington Capitals, a career high, it is safe to assume that he has earned the trust of the coaching staff. While Petry has struggled at times in his own end, he has contributed offensively on a consistent basis, currently sitting in seventh for scoring for NHL defensemen.
While the likes of Max Domi, Tomas Tatar, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi have breathed new life into Habs waning mystique, journeyman Petry has quietly seized the role of a puck-moving defenceman who can eat big minutes in a reasonably reliable manner. It is obvious that the Canadiens defence corps is the major weak spot of the team. But whatever changes are ahead, Bergevin should be confident that Petry can be an effective part of a rebuilt back end.
For now, my fingers are crossed that Petry can handle the minutes he’s getting until Weber returns to lighten the load.
Edited by Cate Racher, All Habs Hockey Magazine
