This is just a laundry list of excuses.
You’re an $11 million player. Star players have niggling things all the time. They still perform. None of them turn into pumpkins for a half a season like Pettersson has twice.
This is a big boy league and he’s getting big boy money. Suck it up.
When he’s ‘on’ he makes things happen by being more engaged than anyone else on the ice, moves his feet, breaks up plays everywhere. Loves attacking defenders. Takes the puck to hard areas of the ice. When he’s not he’s a passenger. Goes through the motions. The Datsyuk stuff off the puck stops. Pulls up at the blueline. Plays on the perimeter. It’s night-and-day.
And yeah, JT Miller checked out for a bit twice, too. And nobody has any problems saying this, and he’s been torn to shreds for it. But somehow Pettersson checked out twice worse, and for longer and if you even slightly hint at this the fanboys absolutely lose their minds.
