Perry named NHL’s player of the month.

The latest accolade for Corey Perry might not be the last.

The Ducks’ right wing was named the NHL’s Player of the Month on Friday. He finished March with a league-leading 15 goals, bringing his league-leading season total to 46 and becoming just the
fifth NHL player since Jan. 1997 to score 15 goals in a single
month.

The first question he took on a national conference call was about what might be next: The Rocket Richard Trophy, awarded annually to the NHL’s leading goal-scorer.

I don’t know if you can ever say that you’re going to win
it,” Perry said. “I mean, you have to have a lot of great bounces and teammates to
play with. I have to give a lot of credit to them. Recently it’s been
going well, and you know, I’m just trying to help the team win. That’s
all I’m worried about.

Perry’s 15 goals were the most in a single month in franchise history. Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne previously shared
the record (Kariya had 13 in January, 2000 and Selanne recorded 13 in
November, 1997).

For the season, Perry is also tied for
first in the league game-winning goals (10, also Daniel Sedin and Alex Ovechkin).
He’s tied for fourth in points (89) and power-play goals (12), and tied for
eighth in short-handed goals (3). He also ranks second among all NHL
forwards in ice time (22:07), which is also first among all right
wingers.

You
just go into every game expecting to play well,” Perry said. “Things happened in
March that doesn’t happen very often. It’s one of those things where you
go out, you play your game, and you see what happens.
But you know, March was a good month, and hopefully there’s more to come.”

March was a good month for a few Ducks.

Led by several standout performances, the Ducks finished the month with an 11-3-0 mark, tying the club record for wins in any single
month (also 11 in March, 2006). Ryan Getzlaf one point behind Perry, collecting 2-18=20 points in 14 contests. Lubomir Visnovsky posted a plus-13 rating, one ahead of Getzlaf. Teemu Selanne’s 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) was one behind Getzlaf.

Asked if he’s picked up anything from playing the 40-year-old Selanne, Perry said, “just
the way he trains himself off the ice.”

“Just watching him over the past
six years has been enough for me. You know, he comes in every day, like I
said, with a smile on his face. He loves the game, and the way he works
in practice is truly amazing at 40 years old.
It
doesn’t seem like he’s aging at all, and hopefully he comes back for a
couple more years. We have a running joke in the dressing room that we
are three-quarters of the way there, getting him to come back, so
hopefully he’s listening to us.”

This entry was posted in Anaheim Ducks/NHL and tagged , , , , by J.P. Hoornstra. Bookmark the permalink.

About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.

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