Scott Morrison, Executive Producer
Fact: we are a nation of puckheads.
As such, it follows that when you are the most valuable hockey player in all the land, you are more than deserving to be recognized as Canada’s top athlete.
And so it is for Corey Perry.
Talk about a clutch and consistent performer. With 30 games remaining in the 2010–11 season, the Anaheim Ducks were sitting so far on the outside that there were no guarantees they could find the post-season with the help of Google Maps. But that was before the 26-year-old Peterborough, Ont., native lifted his team on his back and produced one of the more memorable down-the-stretch performances in recent history—an MVP performance to be precise.
During the season’s last 30 games, Perry scored 25 goals and 47 points. He was even more dependable in the final 16 games, all must-wins for his team. In those, the hard-nosed winger scored 19 times, finishing the campaign with a career-high 50 goals—the only player in the league to do so—and a career-best 98 points, 22 more than his previous high.
Of his 50 tallies, 11 were game-winners, including a handful down the stretch as the once-dead Ducks climbed all the way back to finish fourth in the Western Conference. Twenty-eight of his scores came on the road. And Perry led the league with 21 third-period goals. Half of his goals either tied games or gave the Ducks a lead.
As Anaheim’s GM Bob Murray put it, they kept waiting for him to hit a wall, but it never happened. Perry played his belligerent style all season, earning more than 100 penalty minutes for a fourth consecutive year. Not to disparage the other contenders, but Perry’s heroics came on a nightly basis. The more the Ducks asked of Perry, the more he delivered.
It was a breakout season for Perry—statistically, for sure, but also in how he further established himself as a power forward and as a true team leader.
Thanks to his late-season heroics, Perry won the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player. When the Ducks needed someone to keep them afloat, Perry was the guy, night after night, which is why he was able to swoop in and steal the Hart from Vancouver Canucks winger Daniel Sedin, the NHL’s leading scorer.
Make no mistake, he is not the best player in the world. Not even the best healthy player, you could argue. But he is a terrific, tough, talented player, who scores the majority of his goals from the dirty areas in front of the net.
What makes Perry’s performance last season even more impressive is that he managed much of his success despite the fact his centre, Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf, missed 15 games due to injury. That the Ducks survived such a setback and rallied back to make the playoffs speaks volumes about how Perry emerged as a team leader.
As a result of all the success, Perry was more of a marked man during the first month or so of the 2011–12 campaign. The space and checking have both been tight, but through the first dozen games he still managed five goals (including a pair of game-winners) and eight points. For Perry, it’s simply business as usual, helping his club on the penalty kill, creating a scene in front of the goal, and still putting the puck in the net from the toughest places to play on the ice.
Next finalist: Joey Votto