In the Habs’ Room: Losses mounting, but Jeff Petry sees the positives

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At the beginning of the year, it was given that Jeff Petry was playing his last season for the Canadiens.

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Petry, who was off to the worst start of his career, asked for a trade shortly after Christmas and general manager Kent Hughes said he would try to force the veteran defenceman,

But Petry, who has turned his game around since the arrival of head coach Martin St, Louis, has left the door open for a return next season.

“There’s the possibility of anything,” Petry said Thursday after the Canadiens dropped a 6-3 decision to the Philadelphia Flyers at the Bell Center. “There are a lot of things that have happened during the course of the year, but I’m here for as long as I’m told I’m not.”

Petry, who was once the poster boy for free agents finding happiness in Montreal, sounded as positive as one can be in the wake of a seven-game losing streak.

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“I think I’ve found my game,” Petry said. “The results (for the team) aren’t there, but it’s more enjoyable to be within this group and playing the way we are and see what the future looks like.

“It’s been a tough stretch here but myself and everyone in this room is working to improve. For myself, it’s just making sure that I finish the year strong. Not having a good start at all and the majority of the year not being the player I was in the past. I want to go on building my game.”

Petry, who picked up an assist Thursday, has three goals and 12 assists and is plus-4 since St. Louis arrived. Under Dominique Ducharme’s watch, he had one goal and three assists and was minus-15.

For the first time since Carey Price returned to the lineup, the Canadiens scored some goals, but Price didn’t hold up his end of the bargain. He gave up six goals on 34 shots and saw his goals-against average climb to 3.36, while his save percentage dropped to .880.

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Brendan Gallagher admitted that “we got away with one” on the first Montreal goal. There was a scramble in front and the puck came out to Mike Hoffman as the result of a hand pass from Gallagher.

Referee Éric Furlatt made a mistake when he told Flyers coach Mike Yeo that he couldn’t contest Hoffman’s first goal in 22 games.

“Obviously, I knew what I had done,” Gallagher said. “It’s just that the ref didn’t see what happened. I felt it was worth a try, but I knew we wouldn’t get a power play for the rest of the game.”

“The important thing is that it didn’t take us out of our game,” Yeo said.

Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, who was recalled from Laval, played on a line with Jake Evans and Rem Pitlick for his first game at the Bell Centre.

“In the first two periods, we applied a good forecheck and caused some turnovers,” said Harvey-Pinard. “We brought pucks to the net. We scored a goal and we could have scored more. We had two good periods, but the third was more difficult for our line.”

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