Player Discussion Elias Pettersson Talk | Also Chiropractors, the Medical Staff, and You

[crowfish]

You are in crazy denial for an 11.6M player. Don't know how you can watch Pettersson his last 50 or so games and not be concerned.

He isn't getting leash because he is supposed to be the guy towing the car.

I just understand that injuries, slumps, and bad runs can happen, and that a 25-year-olds don't just stop being stars randomly mid-season.

He had his only productive linemate shipped out of town and a knee injury around the exact time that the slump began. I am just willing to weigh all of that into my concern meter, and with it being 2 games in to the season I am not even remotely concerned. If I were unaware of social media, I would have no clue that Pettersson's start to this season is a story right now.

 

[LemonSauceD]

Petey was also reunited with JT and Brock last year and didn't look any better?

One could also argue Petey plays on a loaded PP with JT, Brock and Hughes - and still looks bad out there mishandling the puck and giving it away.

I would accept your point if Petey was setting up his linemates and they were just not putting the puck in the back of the net, which is not what's happening at all. He hasn't looked right for the last ~40 games or so. Looks disinterested

The excuses for Petey are simply astounding - people do really like to live in denial around here

yes he’s been trash the last 50 games but he’s earned the benefit of the doubt simply off 2022-2023 and his first 2 seasons.

He has literally held a 104 point pace between December of 2021 and February of 2024. This is quite literally why we paid him $11.6M.

And the PP thing is quite literally not only just him sucking. Our whole PP has been dogshit since January.

JT Miller has had an equal amount of bad performances as Pettersson. Majority of 2021 and his 50 games of the 2022-2023 season until Tocchet brought accountability to his poor defensive commitment. I had never seen a player play as lazy and give less of a f*** on the ice. Miller devolved into a PP specialist. The guy had 27 even strength points and 7 even strength goals until March. That was literally a 6 month stretch of him playing absolute dog shit 5 on 5. He didn’t get nowhere near this amount of hate and vitriol. So many people pick and choose what they want to remember.

 

[Another Empty Netter]

Hey all take a look at the oilers game thread from tonight for a little pick me up - they sound bonkers ragging on 97 - you know it’s nuts right

 

[Fraser28]

I’m beginning to question if Pettersson will ever be great again.

 

[Vector]

I just understand that injuries, slumps, and bad runs can happen, and that a 25-year-olds don't just stop being stars randomly mid-season.

He had his only productive linemate shipped out of town and a knee injury around the exact time that the slump began. I am just willing to weigh all of that into my concern meter, and with it being 2 games in to the season I am not even remotely concerned. If I were unaware of social media, I would have no clue that Pettersson's start to this season is a story right now.

Dad?

 

[oceanchild]

wonder how patient the team will be after how things played out last year. He is a game breaker and can be Pavel Datsyuk when he is on his game. My concern is more around him putting to much pressure on himself and getting lost in his own head.

 

[MS]

They played like 5 games together and had like 12-13 points including couple of called back goals.

That was earlier in the season.

They gave it a run of games post-deadline and it was terrible.

 

[LordBacon]

You really dont get to be paid this much money and get away with subpar performance.
Im pretty sure most people on this board loves Petey including me, hence the frustration.

And before you say anything, criticising doesnt equal being unsupportive.

 

[PuckMunchkin]

I swear parts of the fanbase are living in completely different worlds. It's kinda surreal. I just can't believe the excuses some of you come up with for this guy. If a player on any other team were playing like this for a long stretch - including the playoffs - on an $11.6M cap hit you'd all be laughing. I'm not even talking about the points here, to be clear. I'm talking about how he plays. I've never seen a superstar player instill so little confidence. He doesn't push the play, he falls down on his ass all the time, his intensity is at pretty much nill throughout every game (again, including the playoffs). He doesn't impose himself on the game in any way shape or form. All this and he's one of the highest paid players in the league.

Again, completely different worlds.

That being said, I do agree 100% with the sentiment that what's done is done - we've signed him and unless we're getting the haul of a lifetime for him it's absolutely not worth trading him - so we may as well support him as much as we can. I just don't think that means we have to pretend that this is anywhere close to good enough. I'm going to continue to be honest about him, even if ultimately I want to support him as a Canuck.

Well.

If you are right lets hope management sees ir your way too and blows this tean up and starts the rebuild asap.

 

[DFAC]

yes he’s been trash the last 50 games but he’s earned the benefit of the doubt simply off 2022-2023 and his first 2 seasons.

He has literally held a 104 point pace between December of 2021 and February of 2024. This is quite literally why we paid him $11.6M.

And the PP thing is quite literally not only just him sucking. Our whole PP has been dogshit since January.

JT Miller has had an equal amount of bad performances as Pettersson. Majority of 2021 and his 50 games of the 2022-2023 season until Tocchet brought accountability to his poor defensive commitment. I had never seen a player play as lazy and give less of a f*** on the ice. Miller devolved into a PP specialist. The guy had 27 even strength points and 7 even strength goals until March. That was literally a 6 month stretch of him playing absolute dog shit 5 on 5. He didn’t get nowhere near this amount of hate and vitriol. So many people pick and choose what they want to remember.

Where have you been? JT absolutely did get criticism for his poor play around here

This narrative that posters are on a witch hunt with Petey is just flat out wrong. He's been bad and the criticism is warranted

He's being paid like a superstar, its about time he started playing like one

 

[strattonius]

I just understand that injuries, slumps, and bad runs can happen, and that a 25-year-olds don't just stop being stars randomly mid-season.

He had his only productive linemate shipped out of town and a knee injury around the exact time that the slump began. I am just willing to weigh all of that into my concern meter, and with it being 2 games in to the season I am not even remotely concerned. If I were unaware of social media, I would have no clue that Pettersson's start to this season is a story right now.

A bad run to me insinuates a player hitting the post a lot or some bad puck luck. That ain't it.

A slump for an 11.6M player should only last maximum 10 games. We are over half a season. It's a poor excuse.

You're speaking and giving excuses like this is Jake Debrusk, who will have large stretches where he's not scoring or slumping. When you have the contract Pettersson has you can't slump. He's making 3M more than Sidney Crosby. Seriously think about that.

 

[sting101]

Where have you been? JT absolutely did get criticism for his poor play around here

This narrative that posters are on a witch hunt with Petey is just flat out wrong. He's been bad and the criticism is warranted

He's being paid like a superstar, its about time he started playing like one

Not only that we were a losing dysfunctional team with poor leadership from the top down and JT made 5.25m. Now were in a contention window where the stakes are higher EP40 got his bag and then has starting playing like he's disinterested.

 

[RobertKron]

I think the most curious thing about this is that if it were the case that he just wasn't interested in trying, or he was more focused on things away from the rink, or that he was pouting because of whatever, or really anything along those lines, you'd expect it to have made its way into the media discourse either directly, or as conversation about the locker room problems that would be caused if his teammates felt he was dog f***ing out there for this long. Like even last fall when he was producing but looked off, there was pretty quickly a lot of discussion about him being potentially injured and then it turned out he had been playing with a groin issue, IIRC. But now something has obviously been going on with this player for some time, and the relative lack of media speculation about it is kind of strange, and if it's not just the knee injury it sort of feels as if nobody wants to touch it.

 

[Jay26]

Yeah I don't think this is a character issue. He isn't a player that just completely doesn't give a shit, otherwise he wouldn't be playing smart and reliable defensively as he has been. That's why this case is so strange. Usually it is a give a shit thing and the player is coasting and costing teams games. Pettersson is doing his duties in all areas overall, he just has no desire to push the play offensively. It's a mental issue of some kind. He's definitely devoid of confidence, that's for sure. Something happened around the all star break last year. I doubt we'll ever know...

 

[crowfish]

A bad run to me insinuates a player hitting the post a lot or some bad puck luck. That ain't it.

A slump for an 11.6M player should only last maximum 10 games. We are over half a season. It's a poor excuse.

You're speaking and giving excuses like this is Jake Debrusk, who will have large stretches where he's not scoring or slumping. When you have the contract Pettersson has you can't slump. He's making 3M more than Sidney Crosby. Seriously think about that.

Here is Crosby's first 20 games of the 2015 season. Looks like a 1/4 of the season slump, which you just told me was not possible for elite players. And don't cherry-pick Crosby's contract that he signed at age 37 as a comparable for Pettersson, you know that is a flawed comparison. Nylander would be a fine comparison, or Panarin who got Pettersson's contract 5 years ago when the cap was lower.

 

[strattonius]

Here is Crosby's first 20 games of the 2015 season. Looks like a 1/4 of the season slump, which you just told me was not possible for elite players. And don't cherry-pick Crosby's contract that he signed at age 37 as a comparable for Pettersson, you know that is a flawed comparison. Nylander would be a fine comparison, or Panarin who got Pettersson's contract 5 years ago when the cap was lower.


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The root of the entire issue with Pettersson is what his play looks like. Don't care if he's pointless the next 5 games so long as he's engaged, driving play, backing off defenseman, making some moves, executing crisp passes, etc. Pettersson is not doing any of those things with regularity.

Unless Crosby was really hurt, I seriously doubt he ever had a stretch this long looking as lethargic as Pettersson.

 

[Coffee]

Well.

If you are right lets hope management sees ir your way too and blows this tean up and starts the rebuild asap.

Come on, puck, I don’t think he really meant it like that

 

[PuckMunchkin]

Come on, puck, I don’t think he really meant it like that

To me it follows that the team needs to be rebuilt.

I dont see us talented enough to contend for a cup with EP40 running on all cylinders. If you feel thats how its going to be than we have zero hope to compete for a cup.

I know some people have lowered their expectations to just make playoffs and see what happens. To me that is not the game.

 

[David71]

Petey was also reunited with JT and Brock last year and didn't look any better?

One could also argue Petey plays on a loaded PP with JT, Brock and Hughes - and still looks bad out there mishandling the puck and giving it away.

I would accept your point if Petey was setting up his linemates and they were just not putting the puck in the back of the net, which is not what's happening at all. He hasn't looked right for the last ~40 games or so. Looks disinterested

The excuses for Petey are simply astounding - people do really like to live in denial around here

oh right the lotto line. yes i remember that new york game vividly it was quite fun while it lasted. tochet broke it up. boudreau did use that line alot in spurts as well.

 

[SillyRabbit]

Would you guys say that Pettersson is a similar level of player as Pastrnak?

Because last season, Pastrnak finished 43 points ahead of second place on his team in scoring.

His linemates? Zacha and Heinen.

That's what great players do. They stand out from the pack. They are the best player on the ice, and everyone can see it.

The linemates excuse for Pettersson is nonsense. He looks absolutely nothing like he did a couple years ago.

 

[arttk]

Would you guys say that Pettersson is a similar level of player as Pastrnak?

Because last season, Pastrnak finished 43 points ahead of second place on his team in scoring.

His linemates? Zacha and Heinen.

That's what great players do. They stand out from the pack. They are the best player on the ice, and everyone can see it.

The linemates excuse for Pettersson is nonsense. He looks absolutely nothing like he did a couple years ago.

Zacha had 59 points and Heinen had 36 poitns.
Mik had 31 points and the other linemates were Lafferty/Hog with 24 and 36 pts respectively and Petey still put up 89 points which is pretty much the same difference between Pasta and Zacha.

I feel like you guys are making it seem like Petey was ass all of last season when the reality is that his play dropped off starting in Feb. If anything, his production from Oct to Feb was better than any of his previous season.

 

[SillyRabbit]

Zacha had 59 points and Heinen had 36 poitns.
Mik had 31 points and the other linemates were Lafferty/Hog with 24 and 36 pts respectively and Petey still put up 89 points which is pretty much the same difference between Pasta and Zacha.

I feel like you guys are making it seem like Petey was ass all of last season when the reality is that his play dropped off starting in Feb. If anything, his production from Oct to Feb was better than any of his previous season.

Points is not the issue with Pettersson. He's managed to rack them up even when his impact has been low.

The issue is that he simply isn't driving the play.

Using the eye test, Pettersson looked great in October.

After that, he continued to pile up the points until February but he did not look anywhere as impressive as his point totals suggest. I distinctly remember that we all thought he was injured as early as November because his play had fallen off a cliff, even though he was still collecting points.

He had a resurgence during the Eastern road trip early in the calendar year but that was short lived.

Miller finished 14 points ahead of Pettersson last season but in terms of impact, he might as well have been 50 points ahead.

 

[arttk]

Points is not the issue with Pettersson. He's managed to rack them up even when his impact has been low.

The issue is that he simply isn't driving the play.

Using the eye test, Pettersson looked great in October.

After that, he continued to pile up the points until February but he did not look anywhere as impressive as his point totals suggest. I distinctly remember that we all thought he was injured as early as November because his play had fallen off a cliff, even though he was still collecting points.

He had a resurgence during the Eastern road trip but that was short lived.

Miller finished 14 points ahead of Pettersson last season but in terms of impact, he might as well have been 50 points ahead.

This is so f***ing stupid and makes no f***ing sense. Putting up points is impact, hell putting up points is essentially all that f***ing matters in a game where the objective is to score more than the other team.


And it's just hard to compare Miller and Petey considering the linemates. Kuz was in the doghouse because Kuz was Kuz and Petey had a rotating cast of Mik, Laff and Hog while Miller had Boeser who was playing the best hockey of his life along with Suter who actually worked quite well on that line. Miller had legit support while Petey was relied on to lift 3rd and 4th line guys.

His best points output was actually in Jan, so it's not like he was f***ing hot in Oct and that was it. Just look at the point totals, Petey put up 21 points in Jan with like 14 goals. Kuz put up 2 points and Mik 3 points that month. And it's not like Petey was feasting on the PP, he had 5 points out of 21 from the PP that month so he put up 90point pace at ES that month with like barely any help from any of his wingers. I don't know, if a player can put up like PPG pace at ES, that's pretty f***ing impactful.

 

[AlainVigneaultsGum]

Is Petey the most divisive player we've had since the twins were starting out?

 

[arttk]

Is Petey the most divisive player we've had since the twins were starting out?

I think this fanbase just needs somebody to complain about. Miller was equally divisive and that was proven to be absolutely stupid as well. Sedin hate was also f***ing stupid.