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Looking Ahead: Shea Weber

July 19, 2019, 6:52 PM ET [37 Comments]
Karine Hains
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
By the time the puck drops on the new season, the Habs' captain will be 34 years old and will have 7 years to go on his deal. Since coming over from Nashville, he's featured in 162 Habs games out of a possible 246, that means he has played 66% of the time. That being said, injuries are bad luck, they can happen to anyone...Unfortunately, they do tend to happen more when a player ages, that's sad but true. The last time Weber played 82 games in a season was back in 2010-2011 but he did play a complete season in 2012-2013, you know, the lockout shortened 48 game season?

I have to be fair though, he looked real good out there when he came back to the line-up in December. Furthermore, he surely did solidify the blue line which had been shaky at best since the start of the season and that meant that we got the best out of Carey Price again. A goaltender can be as brilliant as can be but if his defence is a mess, he won't be looking like the second coming of Jesus out there. In December, Weber played very heavy minutes, with his highest TOI being 29:32. While that is a huge number, it's not that surprising considering that he hadn't played in over a year and had plenty of time to rest up. As the season went on though, his play and time on ice went down. By March, it was sometimes painful to see him out there look so easy to get around... So much so that by the end of the month he was logging 20 to 21 minutes of ice time with his lowest contribution being 18:47.

In the end, he did manage to notch 33 points in 58 games, including 6 on the power play (5 of which were goals). That's quite a good points total all things considered and good for a 0.57 point per game average, just 0.01 in front of Jeff Petry who racked up 46 points in 82 games. To be honest, I thought that perhaps Weber was injured in the tail end of the campaign and I was telling myself, well, he'll be back to his old self come next season, but in his exit interview, he mentioned that he was not injured. So, where does that leave the Habs blue line?

While Bergevin admitted that he was starting a "reset" last year, he was very careful to avoid the word "rebuild"... Why? Because you cannot be a rebuilding team if you keep two big pieces both play and salary wise like Weber and Price. Both of those players are in Montreal to stay and they want to win. Hard to blame them since they're not getting any younger and any hockey player worth his salt want his day with Lord Stanley's mug. What the end of last season showed me is that in this context, if the Habs want any chance at all of competing for the cup while Weber is still relevant, they cannot afford to lose Jeff Petry. Whether we like it or not, the 31 year old Petry was huge for the Canadiens while Weber was off and continued to play a huge role when he came back. How could he not? The truth of the matter is, Shea Weber is getting older and slower. McDonald's can stage adverts in which he races a horse all they want, everyone and their mother knows that Weber is not fast. Is he a good physical defender? Yes. Has he got heck of a slapper from the blue line? Yes. Can he put the fear of God in his opponents with bone crushing hits? Of course he can! But, you cannot hit what you can't catch.





Do not get me wrong, I am not saying Weber is not a great defenseman but what I am saying is that his best days are behind him. While there is a lot of chatter about managing the number of games Carey Price is in net for, there should also be thought put into managing Weber's ice time. A rested Weber is an efficient Weber. To make it to the playoffs, you cannot be relying heavily on end of season Weber. Hopefully, Luke Richardson took notes last season and will be ready with a plan to use his big rugged d-man less this year. It will be interesting to see if Ben Chiarot's arrival can be part of the solution here, in his presser upon signing he did confirm that he'd be given a look alongside Petry on the second pairing. Should they hit it off, it may be easier to give the second pairing more time on the ice and to let the Mete-Weber tandem spend less time on the ice.




Further ahead? It's hard to tell, perhaps when the D prospects are ready the Canadiens will be able to ship Jeff Petry out and have one of them take the mantle but for now, Weber and Petry have to be co number one defenseman. I realize that many readers won't like this take but I feel it's the realistic approach and a fact we'll have to deal with more and more as Weber progresses in the second half of that 14 years contract (the Flyers really did a number on the Preds with that offer sheet didn't they? At least Nashville will be on the hook if he retires early).
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