Canadiens Game Day: Jeff Petry returns to where his NHL career began
Petry #Petry
One of the best trades Marc Bergevin has made as GM of the Canadiens came on March 2, 2015, when he acquired defenceman Jeff Petry from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for two draft picks.
The Oilers used those picks to select defencemen Jonas Siegenthaler in the second round and Caleb Jones in the fourth round of the 2015 NHL Draft. Siegenthaler is now with the Washington Capitals, while Jones remains with the Oilers.
The Canadiens game against the Oilers Saturday night at Edmonton’s Rogers Place (7 p.m., SNE/W/P, CITY, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM) will be a homecoming of sorts for Petry, who was selected by the Oilers in the second round (45th overall) of the 2006 NHL Draft.
“The team looks a lot different from when I was here,” Petry said about the Oilers during a video conference Friday. “There’s a handful of guys. But you know, with the circumstances we’re in (with COVID-19) it’s a little different not being able to kind of go out in the city and go to your favourite restaurant or anything like that. So it is different, but you know this is where it all started for me. So for that opportunity I think it is still a place that has a little bit more feeling for me.”
Petry, 33, is in the final season of a six-year, US$33-million contract with a $5.5 million salary-cap hit. He signed a four-year, US$25-million contract extension during the off-season that runs through the 2024-25 season with an annual salary-cap hit of $6.25 million.
This Game Day notebook will be updated after tonight’s game.
Managing salary cap
The Canadiens recalled centre Jake Evans from the taxi squad Saturday morning, making him eligible to play against the Oilers.
Evans was placed on the taxi squad on Thursday as a salary-cap move. Players loaned to the taxi squad are eligible to travel and practise with the full team, but do not count against the cap.
Evans has a US$750,000 contract for this season and, as CapFriendly.com explained, each day he spends on the taxi squad saves the Canadiens $6,465 against the cap.
No morning skate
The Canadiens didn’t hold a team morning skate Saturday with only the extra players hitting the ice at Rogers Place.
That will be a common occurrence this season, especially if the Canadiens practise the day before a game, as was the case Friday in Edmonton.
“I think it’s going to be a case of a little bit more on the fact that did you get a full day off the day before?” coach Claude Julien said earlier this week when asked about cutting down on morning skates. “And sometimes when you do most guys, and as a team, you like to skate the morning of a game. But if you’re playing lots of games I think for the most part I think most teams are still going to skip those morning skates overall. So I think there’s going to be kind of an adjustment here on a day-to-day basis or game-to-game basis, if we can put it that way. But I think you’re going to see a lot of morning skates not happening, especially if you practice the day before.”
There were no changes to the lines or defence pairings at practice on Friday, so no lineup changes are expected against the Oilers from what we saw in the season opener, a 5-4 OT loss to the Maple Leafs Wednesday night in Toronto.
Preparing for McDavid
Oilers captain Connor McDavid is coming off a four-point game after scoring three goals and adding an assist in Thursday night’s 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Place. McDavid was held pointless in the Oilers’ season opener the night before when they lost 5-3 to the Canucks.
Last season, McDavid had 34-63-97 totals in 64 games to finish second in NHL scoring behind teammate Leon Draisaitl, who had 43-67-110 totals in 71 games. Draisaitl had four assists Thursday night, including on all three McDavid goals, and also had an assist in the Oilers’ season opener.
“I think I watched the first period (of Thursday’s game) and we all know what he’s capable of,” Petry said about McDavid. “And not only him, but guys like Draisaitl and others on that team. I know the majority of us have played against (McDavid) before and have to be prepared for the speed that he has and I think it’s going to be on all of us — not being at home to match lines — to be aware when he’s on the ice and make sure we try to make it as hard as possible on him.
“I think it’s important that we limit the turnovers and make it hard for them to get the puck into his hands,” Petry added. “You know he’s a guy that likes to wind it up, so we have to make sure that if he is going to get it he’s going to get it in their end and have to come 200 feet with back pressure. Like I said, he’s a guy that likes to wind it up, so we have to make sure that our forwards are doing a good job with back pressure as well.”
Good start for Romanov
Rookie Russian defenceman Alexander Romanov made an impressive NHL debut Wednesday night in Toronto. The 21-year-old logged 21:30 of ice time — including 2:58 on the power play and 2:17 short-handed — and picked up an assist on a beautiful breakaway pass to Tomas Tatar for a power-play goal.
Petry was impressed.
“He had poise and if you were to be watching the game, not knowing anything about him, you wouldn’t say that that was his first NHL game,” Petry said. “He looked like a guy that was playing with confidence and I think down the line he skates well, he plays physical and he’s a guy that’s comfortable with the puck on his stick. So I think, especially as time goes on and he gets more and more comfortable, I think he’s going to be a very good D-man for us this year and moving forward.”
Petry added that Romanov’s skating and his ability to make a good first pass will really help him.
“As a defenceman, when you stop moving your feet is when you get in trouble and you allow pressure to get on you quick,” Petry said. “I think those two go hand-in-hand and when you’re moving your feet and seeing what’s available and making that first pass, I think those are the top two assets that I have and I think Romy has as well and will benefit from that.”
Tough schedule
The Canadiens have a tough schedule to start the season with six straight road games.
Saturday’s game is the first of two straight in Edmonton against the Oilers. After playing the Oilers again on Monday night, the Canadiens will head to Vancouver to play three straight games against the Canucks.
“It will be different, for sure,” Brendan Gallagher said during training camp about the condensed 56-game schedule this season. “You just kind of have to look back at all the lessons you’ve learned. I think the biggest thing is when you look at the schedule you’re going to see there’s not a lot of practice time. It’s going to be important for us to not let bad habits seep into our game, which was something that really affected us last year.
“We’re not going to talk about it a ton, but you talk about those losing streaks that we had last season there were the result of bad habits just seeping into our game and when they come they’re hard to get rid of, it takes some time,” Gallagher added about the Canadiens having two eight-game losing streaks last season. “We can’t afford to go through one of those things this year, so it’s going to be something where we’re going to have to stay on top of it, stay on top of each other and make sure that those bad habits — they usually build up, and they’re correctable for a certain amount of time — so just be aware of them. And when they do happen it can’t always be the coaches … sometimes as players we’re going to have to make sure that our teammates are staying on top of things and when you have that accountability throughout the group I think it’s going to have a huge impact on us.”
The lines
Here’s how the forward lines and defence pairings looked for the Canadiens at practice Friday:
Tatar – Danault – Gallagher
Drouin – Suzuki – Anderson
Toffoli – Kotkaniemi – Armia
Byron – Evans – Lehkonen
Frolik – Poehling – Perry
Chiarot – Weber
Edmundson – Petry
Kulak – Romanov
Mete – Fleury
Related What’s next?
The Canadiens will remain in Edmonton and play their second straight game against the Oilers on Monday night at Rogers Place (9 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).
After that, the Canadiens head to Vancouver for three games against the Canucks next Wednesday (10 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM), Thursday (9:30 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM) and Saturday (7 p.m., CBC, CITY, SN, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5).
The Canadiens will then return to Montreal and play their home opener against the Calgary Flames on Thursday, Jan. 28 at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).
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