Hodgy
Registered User
- Feb 23, 2012
- 4,725
- 4,912
That hurts to hear, but I can't immediately dismiss it.
Pettersson could just be afraid and soft, but then that doesn't reconcile with Bubble Pettersson. Nor does him being afraid align with the start of the playoffs, as he was being questioned since the All-Star break.
He mentions a mental issue where Pettersson cannot flush bad play. This could be it, but if it is, then it's again not the heebeejeebees due to the playoffs.
So many questions as to what happened to him...
Ya, I think when you are confident and being decisive with the puck, and making moves and plays with speed, then its hard for the other team to hit you. But when you are playing like Pettersson was its actually really easy for the other team to hit you if you try and hold onto the puck. And I think it was kind of a positive feedback loop in that he was playing poorly (not confident or decisive or quick with puck) for the last half to a third of the season, and this carried over into the playoffs when the speed and opposition forecheck and physicality increased, and he wasn't able to speed up his game and become more dynamic and quick, and as a result, he was forced to become even more tentative and less confident with the puck.
For sure. Petey has already gone through a similar stretch of poor play and he bounced back and scored a 100 points. I don't view his play as showing us that he can't be a playoff performer. I think its pretty obvious he was bad over the last half of the regular season and came into the playoffs playing bad, and its not surprising that he wasn't able to get out of his slump during the playoffs when its the fasted most tight checking time of the year.Personally, like countless other star players that have struggled at some points in their career I believe Pettersson is going to make many people look stupid and eat their words. I really do.
If he came into the playoffs playing great and then played liked he did then I'd be more concerned on that point.