Player Discussion Elias Pettersson - A Forward Who Scores

[sandwichbird2023]

I don't think Petey has gotten enough credit for adapting and reinventing his game. Skating is such a foundational skill in hockey, it's like being able to stick handle or receive a pass, if you lose it, it's pretty much impossible to compensate. Every player are good skaters nowadays, if you can't skate you almost can't play. Hard to name many good players that are slow these days. Goes to show how truly elite Petey's IQ is on the ice.

 

[Breakers]

If you read my post I didn't say it was nothing mental. I just find the suggestion that he was simply "disinterested" for the latter half of last year, and nothing else, absurd.

Almost as absurd as claiming it is just an injury

What about when it came out he really had hurt his knee?

So the knee just healed instantly in one night and turned his season around at a home stand?

 

[Tinhorn1]

Almost as absurd as claiming it is just an injury

I see you've moved off your original point. That's good to see.

 

[racerjoe]

Almost as absurd as claiming it is just an injury


So the knee just healed instantly in one night and turned his season around at a home stand?

So it slowly got better… and even now there is lots of evidence to say it’s not 100%…

But even still it’s an injury, coming back ends up being at the very least partially mental as you test it out and learn to adapt.

 

[Ernie]

Yes, definitely. But he's also just not moving his feet and attacking like he used to, and Tochett has repeatedly referenced him not moving his feet. So its tough to say what the cause is for that. Is it an injury, or confidence/mental, or a combination? I don't think it could just be an injury because I'd still expect to see him attack with the puck more, even without great results.

If you ask me there were likely a confluence of factors including his injury, difficulty adapting to Tocchet's system, lack of quality line mates, poor puck support from the back end (he wasn't getting paired with Hughes/Hronek), and then obviously mentally it took a big toll on him. Tocchet is right that the way to solve these things is to just keep moving. Hopefully he's learned something from this experience.