While the season is only half over, the Montreal Canadiens are one of the biggest surprises this season.
After the tyre fire of last season and some questionable management the team has had the hockey gods smile on them this season.
With new Captain Shea Weber out for nearly most of the first half and over paid goalie Carey Price fumbling through until Weber returned it was Jeff Petry that led a very thin D corps and helped keep the ship afloat.
While newcomer Max Domi garners most of the headlines it was Petry logging in high minutes and putting up numbers. And while it may be hard for the D man to match his first half numbers if you had to pick a MVP for the Habs at the break it would be hard to argue for any of les boys who have had as big an impact.
Petry is 4th on the team with 35 points in 51 games with a -8 rating. He’s upped is O game with 118 shots which means he’s either shooting more or hitting net more often. He’s also delivered a team leading 138 hits to go along with 79 blocked shots while averaging nearly 24 minutes per game. That’s not chopped liver! Especially as before Weber’s return he’d be targeted by many opponents.
His overall numbers better any Nashville Predator’s this season including that Subban fella. In some ways better than Mark Giordano in Calgary who has a much deeper supporting cast behind him. Doughty? Letang? Petry is arguably having as good or better a season so far than all of the above.
Now that Weber is back it should be interesting to see if some of the pressure taken off Petry will result in an even better second half.
But for today, he’d certainly get my vote for Norris trophy.
What do you think hockey fans? You can post your comments below.