As announced earlier this week, the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PWHA) has selected Joel Armia as the Montreal Canadiens candidate for the Bill Masterton trophy.
When training camp opened in September, head coach Martin St.Louis explained that there was no position available for young guns up front. It was always possible for younger players to prove that they deserved to be part of the line-up. The coach used an image to explain his thoughts; in the lineup, everyone has to be seated in the right chair. He added that while a veteran might already be occupying a chair, he could be unseated by a young player who performs better than he does. Not only was Joel Armia unseated, but he fell off the chair, down to the waivers, and landed in Laval.
Once there, the veteran could have sulked or even refused to go, as is sometimes the case with veterans who feel they have no place in the AHL. Armia went to Laval with his head held high and got to work. In two stints in Laval, he played eight games and scored nine points, making it impossible for the Habs not to call him up when the injury bug knocked.
Armia, who had often looked disinterested and tended to fade away in the last couple of seasons, looked like a new man on the ice. He skated with purpose; he went to the front of the net to get the puck in danger zones, and it paid off. Right now, Armia is tied with Juraj Slafkovsky as the third-best goal-scorer on the team, and it’s fully deserved. On top of his offensive production, the giant Finn has also significantly contributed to the penalty kill; he showed he could be helpful at both ends of the ice.
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What changed? The demotion to the AHL did hurt; there are no two ways about it, but Armia also mentioned that he worked with Montreal’s mental performance coach, Jean-François Ménard, which was a big help. He sought help because he often let on-ice mistakes linger on his mind, and he needed to find a way to get over them, which he has now done.
Armia version 2.0 has caught not only the fans’ eyes but also the journalists’ eyes. As a result, the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) selected him as the Canadiens’ candidate for the Bill Masterton trophy. I doubt he’ll win it, but being a candidate must feel good in this season of redemption.
The Canadiens still have seven games to play, and Armia has already tied his personal best regarding goal-scoring, but something tells me he’ll set a new high this season. Hopefully, when training camp rolls around in September, it’s the same involved and dedicated Armia who will turn up, the one Marc Bergevin saw in the 2021 playoffs who convinced him to sign the big winger to a four-year extension with a cap hit of $3.4 million.
With each game he plays now, Joel Armia is a more valuable asset to the Habs brass. If the Canadiens are once again sellers at the trade deadline, they’ll have a much better chance of trading a productive winger on an expiring deal. Montreal will cross that bridge when they get there, but they enjoy every minute of this new and improved version of Armia.
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