That doesn’t really help your argument since his knee injury began in January. So if his speed was down in October to December then obviously it wasn’t the knee injury.
Player Discussion Elias Pettersson - A Forward Who Scores
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sting101
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Started with some jump today then wilted like a flower
Sat and watched while Hughes was getting mugged, stopped moving his feet. Was easily taken out on the PP, lacked a shooting mentality again with flat feet and then at the 1:50m mark (fresh on a PK) stood and watched flat and let Braeden Point who had been on the ice for 2 minutes go cross ice to Kucherov who threw it at the net and they lost.
Him and Boeser looked like 2 guys who went out partying and were frankly embarrassing today given how badly on home ice they got outclassed by Tampas big guns.
I just don't get this guy sometimes. Has the talent to be a top10 player and just refuses to play on his front foot. Could care less if he was physical
Sat and watched while Hughes was getting mugged, stopped moving his feet. Was easily taken out on the PP, lacked a shooting mentality again with flat feet and then at the 1:50m mark (fresh on a PK) stood and watched flat and let Braeden Point who had been on the ice for 2 minutes go cross ice to Kucherov who threw it at the net and they lost.
Him and Boeser looked like 2 guys who went out partying and were frankly embarrassing today given how badly on home ice they got outclassed by Tampas big guns.
I just don't get this guy sometimes. Has the talent to be a top10 player and just refuses to play on his front foot. Could care less if he was physical
Hes got the smarts and still gives a shit while defending. The problem is him overthinking in the o zone. Tries slowly going through 3 guys only to be easily stripped, poor shot selection/stick position when driving
I don’t think we’ll see his shot back until he’s fully healed and the earliest might be next season. There is a reason he’s shooting for tips and rebounds and not to score these days.
Having a shooting mentality doesn’t make the shot faster/harder.
sting101
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what do you think is wrong? Skating looked excellent to start the game
Did he get hurt since this goal?
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When was the last time you see Petey lean into his shot like this? I mean that’s how he shot up till like Jan. You don’t stop shooting the puck with a particular method unless you physically can’t, right?
sting101
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Well i dont know but even the highlight above (3 weeks ago) would have been a massive improvement from today where he stood flat and couldn't push his will and front foot into what he was doing.
Looked like he was sick or hungover by how drastically he fell off a cliff in todays game....And Boeser was worse so it wasn't just him but it's simply not good enough for a player of his pay grade and talent.
Especially on home ice without Miller/Hronek.... no matter how many excuses you guys want to keep inventing for him. Effort sucked
Well if you look at the highlight, you’ll notice that even with that slap shot, he doesn’t drive the stick into the ice to bend it. Check out the old highlights, he used to f***ing lean into the stick hard.
Sure you can question the effort today, I am just saying in general, you just don’t see him lean into the stick creating that flex when he shoots anymore. He can’t be changing it because it’s more effective because it’s not and the only real explanation is he can’t load his leg anymore to create that kind of flex.
sting101
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For sure and he has stepped up lately so i'm not saying he sucks outside of today but my point stands.
Here we are on home ice against an excellent measuring stick opponent with Hughes playing like a demon (with his teeth just about knocked out) and most the troops putting their best feet forward and he just can't get himself near the level what he's paid for and what the team needed to win this game.
Such a mercurial player
Exactly.
I don't care if Pettersson is hurt.
f***ing compete. Every other player in the league can manage it. If a little knee tendonitis means this is the effort level you bring, you're a soft f***ing p***y.
Today was embarrassing to watch for Pettersson (and Boeser).
HairyKneel
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18 points in 12 games. One bad game and a smoldering diaper fire.
sting101
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And fair i see it and get he's not 100% but who is most the time. The flat feet and running out of gas and getting overwhelmed vs dictating and pushing back defenders is all over the map and it's deeply concerning and frustrating.
Him and Boeser were frankly embarrassing today 1 shot and 3 total attempts with 3 1/2 minutes of PP and offensive deployment considering their talents. Hope they had a good night partying or whatever the F they were doing.
For a guy getting paid like the best he certainly has a lot of these types of lacking physically engaged games. I get their human but damn was that hard to watch and im starting to question his off ice commitment when it keeps happening.
The fact that he can just choose to flick a switch and start competing from one game to the next and put up 18 points in 12 games after no-showing for basically the entire calendar year to that point is why things are so bloody frustrating.
Most of the team showed up today with their work boots on and turned in a big effort against one of the best teams in the NHL. But our $11 million player was simply not engaged and didn't move his feet, in a 2-2 game where we needed him to be a difference maker. It's not good enough and it's not acceptable. You can't have this sort of inconsistency of effort/engagement and this much variation between your highs and your lows in this league.
You just have no idea what you're going to get from this player on any given night. He might come out engaged with his tail up and be the best player on the ice and carry a dynamic top line (as he did a couple times on the last road trip) or he might come out looking like he's spaced out on another planet just watching guys skate by him all night. It is so bloody frustrating. You just can't trust him. You don't know if he'll be out there giving 100% when the playoffs start or if it will be a repeat of last year.
sting101
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C'mon Hairy are we not allowed to talk about it after it happened.
Does it not bother you watching Hughes load this team on his back (with his teeth just about knocked out) on home ice and attack teams while others paid massive dollars ran out of gas and weren't able to summon a respectable effort in a track meet game that should have been to their liking.
It pisses me off. This wasn't the first game back and you can bet Hughes and others had this one circled by the looks of their efforts but then those 2 muppets skate around like 2 guys hung over??
Disappointing and poor leadership today
All this doesn't compete and flick a switch when he wants to is made up by upset fans being keyboard warriors.
Same complaints as against playoff teams last year.
I just don't trust the guy anymore. He might be great for the next 6 months then wake up one day and feel bad and then he's on another 4-6 month cold streak.
I don't see him as reliable. He seems incredibly easy to knock off his game. I'm not convinced he's putting in the work to really be the star he could be.
But if things go right he could win a Smythe. He's talented enough. When he's engaged he's tough enough.
When he's not he varies from meh to a pathetic soft player who doesn't belong at all on this team.
Injured knee or not, last playoffs was not acceptable. It wasn't just his level of play, he was hurt that excuses a lot. It was the things like his reaction to missing that chance. It was the way he just took it when the Preds bowled him over so they could celebrate a goal.
It really seemed like he struggled to maintain his play with injury, he finally started to slip, then he really started to lose confidence and it just turned into a spiral. That's not great.
This year I think he's finally turned the corner on feeling more comfortable and confident, but he's still getting up to speed after having to spend the summer with rest + rehab on his knee.
I've gotta say I don't understand why some people are so insistent he's still hurt.
What's more likely
his knee is still hurt but he's just playing better for no particular reason
OR
that his knee was hurt but it just suddenly healed after weeks of hockey
OR
a guy suffering from confidence issues had to spend his summer resting and carefully working on his knee to fix his tendonitis, resulting in missed training and being a step behind.
I'd guess scenario 3 since it fits well with what we've seen. He started slow, still had confidence issues. Started to get his feet moving more as he started to get more time and get more confidence in the knee. Started to get some confidence back as he started to make more plays. Still isn't 100% but is getting closer and looks massively improved from a few weeks ago. He's still hesitant to shoot, he's still having bad games. He's still not really driving play consistently. Still massively improved.
Joshua is earlier in the process of getting back up to speed. Demko is going through the goalie version.
I also don't buy the edge data being clearcut evidence he's still hurt. You know what else makes you look slow? Playing slow disengaged hockey for the first few weeks.
or until he scores a few with it.
The guy has massive confidence issues. He looked broken when he missed in the playoffs.
He's way overthinking most of his game.
It really isn't.
In the Anaheim game on the California road trip a month ago I counted 3 times where Pettersson was favoured to win a race to a puck and just stopped skating and conceded the race and possession to the player on the other team. Didn't compete. No effort. The *literal next game* against LA after Boeser gets clocked he's suddenly engaged and skating those out and winning those pucks. It was night and day from one game to the next and immediately after that point he puts up 18 points in 12 games. He literally overnight went from a guy who looked like he didn't want the puck or want to move his feet back to looking like a superstar C.
Today he was, again, visibly not competing in the same way he was against Detroit or Minnesota late in the last road trip. The difference is jarring and his performances are all over the map like no other player in the NHL.
It's been the pattern for his whole career. You have no idea what you're going to get.
PuckMunchkin
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HairyKneel
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You're preaching to the choir. He's inconsistent but not Boeser/Debrusk inconsistent. I get frustrated with him too and they want to deal him for a decent/solid return because management/coaching staff want to go in an another direction, then so be it. But some of the pets where you have people demanding 110 points a season x 8 are ridiculous. I'm pretty open minded to moving him but I'm also open minded to him figuring it out.
I don't know if he is going to have a HHOF career being so razor thin. He does have HHOF talent though. They have to the draft to make a move if that's their choice. I'm ambivalent about it at this point. He and Hughes should have been signed to 8 year deals but the crayon eating GM at the time 'wan out of time'
This team would be right in its wheelhouse with he and Hughes locked in until 2029 with 17-18 million on both. Didn't happen. This team could look drastically different in the next 2 years after it's already been turned over. Lots of moving parts.
I dont trust your judgment on this.
I'm watching the same games. He's not abandoning the play or opting out of races he'd win.
He's getting skated by and he knows it.
Thats why you see the effort today on the empty net goal only for him to come up frustratingly short on Point flying down the wing. Pettersson could not keep pace.
Look at the angle he took initially - he had an idea to angle him to the boards around the redline. He had the angle to do it. Then he ended up doing a Blueger desperation dive because Point was past him.
Was he not competing on this play or was it something else that failed him?
This is happening all over the ice but that was just a glaring example.
There was a sequence where the puck was in the left corner of the offensive zone as it came onto the Dmans stick in a somewhat undefined situation - Pettersson was approaching the man and the puck because he read the play, positioned well and went to do his part on the forecheck... but he didn't approach with speed and the stick out to disrupt as soon as possible. He approached with the stick sideways trying to read and block the pass.
This is a Boeser tactic when he knows he won't get to the puck carrier quick enough on his closeout to get there before the pass opportunity.
He's there executing his assignment but lacking the speed in his play, to play the ideal way.
When he is taking the puck through the neutral zone, he's mostly angling to the boards away from the Dman rather than challenging them to the middle or straight on and adjusting from there. He doesn't have the skating to blow by or threaten that so he is playing off their responsibilities and taking angles to draw them away from Center ice and open passing seams.
His offensive zone play sees him frequently planting himself netfront and using pivots instead of any real hard skating. His recent stretch of points has been a lot of this netfront play or executing fairly basic passes intelligently within the team structure. He's relying on the system rather than being creative with his skating.
He is laboring to move - whatever the reason.
He can take some steps and get a passable pace in a line but his short area quickness is not there. He can predict the open space and use pivots to trick checkers but there's no burst once he escapes the initial check.
I've watched these games where he's been putting up points and he's still struggling to get around the ice how he'd like to.
He hasn't had games where he's chasing everything down and is all over the ice. He's performed better statistically but he's still making calculated moves all over the ice. He's learning how to play at a slower speed with the angles and plays that pace affords him. He's a fairly undynamic passing center right now.
"Suddenly engaged" strikes me as disingenuous.
His recent success has been very much within the team structure and he is simply making smart quick plays within the team structure that have lead to points recently. He's not suddenly skating through half their team... he's improving his net front play, his board play, his positional checking and his defensive positioning. He isn't intermittently looking like his old self - he's playing a new brand.
Just because you have elite IQ for the game it doesn't mean you can remake your game instantly. I hope he hasn't lost his skating like this permanently but we are witnessing a redesign in how he plays - a development of skills he didn't have before and there are growing pains.
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