I've followed Petry since his rookie call up game in Edmonton. He played something like 246 games for the Oil.. (which at the time of his trade was 46th all time in games played for that franchise!!). They didn't even have a tribute video on his return game with the Habs. I suppose they didn't want to call attention to what a fool McTavish was. With the Oil he was thrown out there to sink or swim, night in, night out, against the Kopitars, Sedins and Getzlafs... many many defensmen came through there in his time and most are off into oblivion but Petry stuck... Now he finishes 24th in the league in scoring. Heck, the Oilers highest scoring D was 69th in the league, Darnell Nurse... D purgatory is alive and well in Oil Country...
When he came to the Habs that Spring, Mark Bergevin was his liberator from the abyss. The first night he played for the Habs against the Sharks, he got the trade news at 6:00 AM and having traveled two connections and a 56 minute car ride down the 105 at rush hour, walks in the arena 20 minutes before warm ups and played 18 steady minutes for Coach MT... I remember all these hard core guys.. (like Prust, Eller and others pounding on the fore check going to the corners and battling.. I thought. 'damn this is a whole new ball game here... it seems that that team has been dismantled...
he's played LONGGGG MINUTES on shltty teams 6 of 7 years or so.. this year after the Habs were eliminated they shut his minutes back some .. I think they are going to trade him