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Alex Pietrangelo outperformed his captain with two second place, two fourth place, and a fifth place vote for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, but the real votes of note went to the Blues captain. David Backes, he of 62 penalty minutes in 48 games, actually got a third and fifth place vote. To contrast, Petro had 10 PIM in 47 games.
The winner of the Lady Byng, diminutive and dangerous (but not to other people, obviously) Martin St. Louis, had 14 penalty minutes while winning the Art Ross scoring race with 60 points in 43 games. Backes obviously got a few votes for saying excuse me before throwing huge hits like this:
Maybe he mixed it up with an "I beg your pardon" before leveling Brandon Saad:
His mild-mannered style of play surely is what has endeared him to Detroit and Chicago fans everywhere. Hey, you gotta be cruel to be kind, NHL Award voters, right?
Backes has, in his last six seasons, 99, 165, 106, 93, 101, and 62 penalty minutes. If this last season was a full one, Backes would have cracked 120, easily.