Post-Game Talk: [Pre-Season] GM03 | Kraken def. Canucks | 3-1 (Myers)

[Nick Lang]

I really can’t be bothered to care about anything in these games. Like at all. It would be encouraging if Pettersson was better. I’m also barely paying attention.

Couldn't agree more. These games are beyond meaningless, just a small tool for the coaches to get the team ready.

 

[Nick Lang]

I find the Petterson criticism's lacking in true hockey knowledge. He's been a terrific player throughout his tenure. One of the best in the league. He has played on sh!te teams in all of his seasons here, except for last. Yet, we still won our division, and almost the Presidents trophy, most successful season in over a decade and here we are people are bitching about this no account pre-season. Regardless of how his personal metrics were he was still a massive piece of the team, and still is. People should give him slack and judge when the real season is being played. I wouldn't be wasting my time on these garbage games either but be focused on the goal at hand.

 

[theguardianII]

The thing I find tiring about all this is, all the other fan bases, when their best players are injured, they tend to be supportive because that’s what you f***ing do when you support your team and players. Here in Van, the moment our best player is injured, there are calls to trade him, get him out of this team. Like what the f*** are we doing here? Is this the way to really support your team and best players?

Excuse me. All is okay in lala land? Contracts paid for less than optimal performance?
The TEAM isn't or shouldn't be in the business of thinking a "participation" ribbon is sufficient. 11.6 million, the most EVER paid a Canuck does attract attention especially with a team this shallow in offensive depth. Did you think Eriksson was great at his dollar value of the day? I don't think so BUT he was not that bad at defensive play, but that was ignored.
The most important name on a jersey is the one on the front not the back and when the TEAM puts that much on ONE player expectations will soar. That EP is playing at a 3rd line level, most of his points the last 40 games have come through the PP, playing with an advantage is comparable to any player playing with a similar advantage and ice time.
Will empathy cure bad play? If so there are 75 McDavids' out there.

And when things went that badly to not register any concern when he looks the same to start the next season is just … weird. Even if it was 100% explainable due to his horrible knee injury that caused him to miss 0 games, you should be registering a concern that those problems are persisting.

I have posted before that I think it is concussion related, slower skating, fatigue, timing off, poor decisions. Repeatedly he is shaking his head after giving or receiving a big hit. Does anyone really believe that any team will now say there star player is suffering from less than obvious concussions? Even players can hide or deny those symptoms, some may not even be aware of them but shaking a head after a hit does mean something.

Yeah. As much as I like Tocchet, I think he also tends to overthink things so I'm not always onboard with his methods. Defense is something that can be worked on over time but if there is chemistry there, that's a foundation that can be built on.

Agree but any coach should be able to teach 5 cones how to play defence but at the cost of offence. Tocchet has been all about "board's guys", bangers. His systems depends a huge amount on the PP, PK, star defencemen and goalies. He has never had a winning team without a star goalie.

I am not saying I know what Pettersson is dealing with exactly, and in fact, I’ve said the opposite. I am saying that I think you have no idea what you are talking about if you are willing to assume any patellar tendinitis is going to cause Pettersson’s play to drop catastrophically and so abruptly.

Patellar tendinitis had a very wide range of outcomes from initially being almost imperceptible. It’s strange, to me, that Pettersson’s play could drop off so quickly solely due to the onset of such a gradual injury.

If I am correct and it is concussion related then you would see a sudden dramatic drop off in all areas of his game and if not resting, taking games off (oh ya, he has) he might have intervals of expected function. If he got a ringer then the next couple of weeks he would be sub par IMHO.

It seems more mental with Pettersson, but there's no doubt when he finds his groove or his lane or whatever, he's massively exciting to watch. There's something going on where he seems to be trying out different approaches to the game and that ease he's evinced in the past seems lost.

His hero was Forsberg and Tocchet wants hitting so it could be his attempt to be another Forsberg or simply trying satisfy Tocchet's "staples" and change his game from what made him good, a more perimeter player, to a Tocchet "boards guy"

 

[MS]

Remember during the first game where I said I looked forward to reading overreactions? This is an overreaction. He could go into the season cold and look terrible, he could start hot, could be in-between. Hell, there are three pre-season games left. There’s legitimate concern to be had. But the 20 posts you have on this topic definitely fall into the “overreaction” camp.

I made one fairly mild comment in my game summary and the ensuing posts were in response to the freakout another poster had about it.

And I find the seeming collective amnesia about what happened with Pettersson in the 2nd half of last season baffling and fascinating.

 

[arttk]

Excuse me. All is okay in lala land? Contracts paid for less than optimal performance?
The TEAM isn't or shouldn't be in the business of thinking a "participation" ribbon is sufficient. 11.6 million, the most EVER paid a Canuck does attract attention especially with a team this shallow in offensive depth. Did you think Eriksson was great at his dollar value of the day? I don't think so BUT he was not that bad at defensive play, but that was ignored.
The most important name on a jersey is the one on the front not the back and when the TEAM puts that much on ONE player expectations will soar. That EP is playing at a 3rd line level, most of his points the last 40 games have come through the PP, playing with an advantage is comparable to any player playing with a similar advantage and ice time.
Will empathy cure bad play? If so there are 75 McDavids' out there.

I have posted before that I think it is concussion related, slower skating, fatigue, timing off, poor decisions. Repeatedly he is shaking his head after giving or receiving a big hit. Does anyone really believe that any team will now say there star player is suffering from less than obvious concussions? Even players can hide or deny those symptoms, some may not even be aware of them but shaking a head after a hit does mean something.

Agree but any coach should be able to teach 5 cones how to play defence but at the cost of offence. Tocchet has been all about "board's guys", bangers. His systems depends a huge amount on the PP, PK, star defencemen and goalies. He has never had a winning team without a star goalie.

If I am correct and it is concussion related then you would see a sudden dramatic drop off in all areas of his game and if not resting, taking games off (oh ya, he has) he might have intervals of expected function. If he got a ringer then the next couple of weeks he would be sub par IMHO.

His hero was Forsberg and Tocchet wants hitting so it could be his attempt to be another Forsberg or simply trying satisfy Tocchet's "staples" and change his game from what made him good, a more perimeter player, to a Tocchet "boards guy"

Too much crap, not worth reading

 

[arttk]

I made one fairly mild comment in my game summary and the ensuing posts were in response to the freakout another poster had about it.

And I find the seeming collective amnesia about what happened with Pettersson in the 2nd half of last season baffling and fascinating.

There is no amnesia about it. If anything, we remember that the last time he got injured, it took him awhile to get going and then he got better. It’s almost like he plays well when he doesnt have some type of inhibiting injury and is not about suddenly deciding not to give up on his team.

 

[HairyKneel]

I made one fairly mild comment in my game summary and the ensuing posts were in response to the freakout another poster had about it.

And I find the seeming collective amnesia about what happened with Pettersson in the 2nd half of last season baffling and fascinating.

You seemed very fired up about it. You were angry at Forbort as well.

I'm a bit concerned about EP but I'll give the benefit of the doubt to him for a bit yet.

 

[Ernie]

I made one fairly mild comment in my game summary and the ensuing posts were in response to the freakout another poster had about it.

And I find the seeming collective amnesia about what happened with Pettersson in the 2nd half of last season baffling and fascinating.

I don't think people forget, but it's just that the pre-season is utterly meaningless. Every other player at the top of the lineup is also on cruise control.

 

[MS]

There is no amnesia about it. If anything, we remember that the last time he got injured, it took him awhile to get going and then he got better. It’s almost like he plays well when he doesnt have some type of inhibiting injury and is not about suddenly deciding not to give up on his team.

It’s almost like star players in the NHL carry small injuries all the time and none of them vanish off the face of the earth like Pettersson has twice.

He was so injured last year they didn’t even rest him in game 82 along with guys like Hronek and Boeser.

And again : even if you think it was 100% injuries my comment about registering concern when he looks poor to start the preseason should still seem correct to you. If any player has an extended poor stretch to finish the the season there is always uncertainty if that will carry over and you want to see them come out strongly and looking sharp. This should not be a controversial statement, but people seem to get incredibly triggered about any sort of questioning of #40.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

Having a small knock doesn't mean you can't move your f***ing feet and compete.

His performances are bipolar to an extent that I've literally never seen from an NHL player in 30+ years of following this sport very closely. And it goes along with crappy body language.

An $11 million player should not be invisible in a preseason game. McDavid or MacKinnon are not invisible in preseason games. Quinn Hughes was blatantly the best player on the ice in our first preseason game.



Boeser is coming off a serious health issue and a good season and excellent playoffs so I'm not going to be remotely critical of preseason performances.

Dude, you are a far far far better poster than this.

"Having a small knock doesn't mean you can't move your feet and compete" is the thing that the morbidly obese gambling addict whose sports fandom consists of betting on the games says about a sport he has never played. That's not you, that's a thing that the less sharp Don Cherry followers would bellow after a game.

His performances are bipolar to an extent you have never seen? Like, are you blinded by emotion here? First off, I completely disagree. But secondly, Alexei Yashin ring a bell? Alexei Kovalev? Young Joe Thornton? Young Alex Mogilny? Robert Reichel? Petr Klima? Kent Nilsson? Alex Semin? Miroslav Satan? Alexei Zhamnov? Valerie Kamensky? Nikolai Zherdev? Nikita Filatov? Mike Ribeiro? Young Jason Arnott? Shayne Corson? Dustin Penner?

Need I go on?

I don't even agree with the premise that he's some quitter, but even if you think he is and assume that every single bad play he has ever made was because he was being petulant, there are dozens of stars (you only said NHL players, not even stars) who have given way higher levels of 'meh, whatever' vibes than Petey.

So once we've established that I have to wonder what's going on for you?

Then we move into the truly regressive 'an 11 million dollar player has to blah blah blah' during preseason.

One of the dumbest things people do on here is assume that a player making more money makes them a different person. Yes he has to show up for the team and be accountable, but assuming that he's suddenly a super robot because his bank account is bigger is like ignorant teen thinking.

Genuinely very confused by your take on this.
-
I think a lot of people don't really understand what they're watching when Petey is playing well, they just see the flashy goals and when they don't see the flashy goals they assume he isn't trying.

Comparing him to Nathan Mackinnon or Connor McDavid is asinine. Those two are vastly physically superior to the rest of the league. Your grandma who has never watched hockey could stumble into the room drunk and immediately pick them out as good players.

Petey isn't incredibly fast or strong. His game is predicated on incredible precision, perfect reads, physical dexterity, and reading the minds of opposition and manipulating them into expecting the wrong thing so he can catch them on their wrong foot.

When Petey's body isn't doing what he wants it to do, or when he can't find that precision, then he doesn't have "But luckily I'm faster than everyone else" to fall back on.

McDavid is fast, Mackinnon is big and fast, Draisaitl is big. Those skills don't slump barring certain (often unplayable) injuries.

A guy who uses his reads and his body control is going to need more to go right health wise than those aforementioned players are in order to play at his most effective.
-

I do think that part of Petey's evolution will be to beat himself up less when he's not playing his best and to more ably contribute his 75% game.

But it's clear that the problem, if there is one, is that he cares too much and beats himself up for it. It's not that he simply doesn't care because he's a 'delicate flower'. That's some of the dumbest shit I have ever read.

-

I love watching and reading the Leafs fans who beat up on Mitch Marner because it's hilarious and it feels like these fans have successfully played their part in creating a toxic environment (he's not blameless, he has sucked in the playoffs more than once) where he's going to need to leave there to have his big glow-up.
But I'm suddenly gaining empathy for Leafs fans who are less vitriolic and impulsive because this thread is...it's literally about a pre-season game and we have seasoned posters trying to find his home with pitchforks.

Embarrassing.

Like we have several posters in this thread who literally want to chase off a player who, when it's all said and done, could be the best forward in our team's history.

For the record, Petey is still younger than Datsyuk was when he had his first season where he 'gave a shit' in the playoffs (and by gave a shit I mean got a bunch of points to convince the knuckle draggers he was worth keeping).

 

[arttk]

It’s almost like star players in the NHL carry small injuries all the time and none of them vanish off the face of the earth like Pettersson has twice.

He was so injured last year they didn’t even rest him in game 82 along with guys like Hronek and Boeser.

And again : even if you think it was 100% injuries my comment about registering concern when he looks poor to start the preseason should still seem correct to you. If any player has an extended poor stretch to finish the the season there is always uncertainty if that will carry over and you want to see them come out strongly and looking sharp. This should not be a controversial statement, but people seem to get incredibly triggered about any sort of questioning of #40.

Disclaimer, I defended Miller when ppl called him bozo, defended Boeser when you claim he should’ve been able to compartmentalize his sadness for his father’s death. So this is not just a Petey thing. Yes there is some weirdness because I also advocated for trading Boeser but you know, nuance.

I asked over and over, what do you define as minor? He had tendinitis and obviously, that imposed some physical limitation. An inflammed tendon is going to reduce the amount of force transfer from the muscle to bone. Is it severe to make him not play? No. But it does impose limitation on what he can do.
There have been long discussions about this, rest does not make it better, working out and strengthening it does. There is almost no point to sit him at the end of the season because rest won’t do shit. To say that because he wasn’t sat therefore is a fine is so ignorant, it’s surprisingly that it came from you.

Once again the concern with Petey is not f***ing effort. He played with tendonitis, he literally played through pain. It anything, it’s that he doesn’t know how to be effective when his body can’t give him what he wants. That’s not an effort issue, that’s a I don’t know what to do when shits not optimal issue. That’s why low effort in a preseason game doesn’t f***ing matter. We don’t need to see effort, we need to see if his speed and power is back or if he is trying something new that is sustainable and doesn’t rely on raw power and speed.

 

[SopelFanThe3rd]

I think @MS needs more soothing

@MS is the best poster this site has ever had. And has been for decades. I'm with him on this one 110%.

Pettersson strikes me as a better player on bad teams or teams in small markets.

 

[HairyKneel]

@MS is the best poster this site has ever had. And has been for decades. I'm with him on this one 110%.

Pettersson strikes me as a better player on bad teams or teams in small markets.

He quoted Dan Russell so that could be a thing. Russell, Brook Ward and Jeff Patterson are from that CKNW crew from years ago. Three very bitter men. That can shape people's perception. Hell, Russell used to have guests like Rod Beaton and think they knew what they were talking about.

It's so early. To get this wound up in September seems a bit fishy.

 

[credulous]

there's so much tone policing on this board lately

 

[VanillaCoke]

there's so much tone policing on this board lately

whoa the attitude isn't necessary man relax

 

[M2Beezy]

Man, you don't love this team!

Man we need a sad or crying emoji option when ya like something

 

[SopelFanThe3rd]

EL > EP

 

[Vector]

there's so much tone policing on this board lately

Careful.

 

[arttk]

@MS is the best poster this site has ever had. And has been for decades. I'm with him on this one 110%.

Pettersson strikes me as a better player on bad teams or teams in small markets.

He is one of the best posters here, doesn’t mean his body analysis is not a shitty take.

 

[SopelFanThe3rd]

Couldn't agree more. These games are beyond meaningless, just a small tool for the coaches to get the team ready.

I'll show you a small tool.

 

[MS]

Disclaimer, I defended Miller when ppl called him bozo, defended Boeser when you claim he should’ve been able to compartmentalize his sadness for his father’s death. So this is not just a Petey thing. Yes there is some weirdness because I also advocated for trading Boeser but you know, nuance.

I asked over and over, what do you define as minor? He had tendinitis and obviously, that imposed some physical limitation. An inflammed tendon is going to reduce the amount of force transfer from the muscle to bone. Is it severe to make him not play? No. But it does impose limitation on what he can do.
There have been long discussions about this, rest does not make it better, working out and strengthening it does. There is almost no point to sit him at the end of the season because rest won’t do shit. To say that because he wasn’t sat therefore is a fine is so ignorant, it’s surprisingly that it came from you.

Once again the concern with Petey is not f***ing effort. He played with tendonitis, he literally played through pain. It anything, it’s that he doesn’t know how to be effective when his body can’t give him what he wants. That’s not an effort issue, that’s a I don’t know what to do when shits not optimal issue. That’s why low effort in a preseason game doesn’t f***ing matter. We don’t need to see effort, we need to see if his speed and power is back or if he is trying something new that is sustainable and doesn’t rely on raw power and speed.

His first injury was a jammed wrist that didn't require surgery. Somehow it meant that he wasn't able to compete or move his feet a year later. It also seems to get applied retroactively to his horrible performances *before* the injury in 20-21 when he was one of the players sulking most about the 'shocking retool'.

This injury caused him to miss 0 games. It's a 'minor' thing in the scope of hockey injuries. They didn't even rest him in Game 82 when the other obviously banged-up guys like Boeser and Hronek were given a break before the playoffs.

At some point if you're an $11 million player you have to suck it up and compete and produce. And yes, if you have niggling tendonitis your performances might drop a bit. But it shouldn't take you from being a 100-point Selke contender to a guy verging on an ES liability who goes 32 games without an ES goal.

And again, his crap results have also gone along with atrocious body language and whining about the state of the team and last year's 'will I/won't I' about re-signing here.

You can tell when a player is engaged and when they're not engaged. Pettersson has been completely disengaged for an incredible percentage of his career, and it's crazy the excuses people make for this guy. Effort is literally the biggest problem. The compete level is a fraction of what it is when he's 'right'. He spent the last half of last season looking like a guy just completely going through the motions, same as he did for the entirety of 2021.

And maybe he just deals with being injured badly. Obviously some guys are going to be better at monstering it through adversity than others, same as in any walk of life. But if your superstar 1C falls off the face of the earth every time he gets a bit of a knock, it's a major problem, because most star players are carrying some sort of knock by the playoffs most years.

 

[arttk]

His first injury was a jammed wrist that didn't require surgery. Somehow it meant that he wasn't able to compete or move his feet a year later. It also seems to get applied retroactively to his horrible performances *before* the injury in 20-21 when he was one of the players sulking most about the 'shocking retool'.

This injury caused him to miss 0 games. It's a 'minor' thing in the scope of hockey injuries. They didn't even rest him in Game 82 when the other obviously banged-up guys like Boeser and Hronek were given a break before the playoffs.

At some point if you're an $11 million player you have to suck it up and compete and produce. And yes, if you have niggling tendonitis your performances might drop a bit. But it shouldn't take you from being a 100-point Selke contender to a guy verging on an ES liability who goes 32 games without an ES goal.

And again, his crap results have also gone along with atrocious body language and whining about the state of the team and last year's 'will I/won't I' about re-signing here.

You can tell when a player is engaged and when they're not engaged. Pettersson has been completely disengaged for an incredible percentage of his career, and it's crazy the excuses people make for this guy. Effort is literally the biggest problem. The compete level is a fraction of what it is when he's 'right'. He spent the last half of last season looking like a guy just completely going through the motions, same as he did for the entirety of 2021.

And maybe he just deals with being injured badly. Obviously some guys are going to be better at monstering it through adversity than others, same as in any walk of life. But if your superstar 1C falls off the face of the earth every time he gets a bit of a knock, it's a major problem, because most star players are carrying some sort of knock by the playoffs most years.

First off, that wrist injury year was the north division year. Things were so rosy then we had the Miller bozo controller disconnect moment and Nate Schmidt having such a great time he waived to go to f***ing Winnipeg. Everyone was in lockdown and you want to say, Petey was sulky. Sounds like you are looking for reason to justify your bias rather than looking at the facts and understanding what was actually going on. Hell who the f*** in the world has fun that year? Did you have fun? I certainly didn’t and don’t know anyone that did. Somehow locking down everyone in the world has some unintended consequence.

The injury caused him to miss time since Dec til like July or August. I jammed my wrist trying to push some building materials away from my garage and it took me 1.5 years to recover and I couldn’t lift any kind of weights for like 6 months. If you are asking why a player missing 7 months doesn’t look right, shouldn’t that question be pretty f***ing obvious? How dare he take time to get back into form after a long term injury?

The whole well he should move his legs is a classic, I am not a pro but I know better than a pro. I don’t know about you or Petey but it looks like it takes time for him to get back into form after an injury for whatever reason that makes no sense to speculate. But you would love to speculate taking time to get back into form = quitting on the team or deciding to be ass. That makes no f***ing sense. It’s like oh he came back from injury, sucked for half a season and decided he doesn’t want to suck anymore for the next 1.5 years until the next injury and then he decided oh it’s time to suck again, before he extends. None of this makes any f***ing logical sense. Don’t you see this?
Like he plays at like a 140 point pace and the moment he picks up an injury, he made a very conscious decision to just suck. What kind of f***ing logic is this? Who the f*** does that?

Yes he didn’t miss time and in hindsight it was a giant mistake. Hockey players will play even when it doesn’t make sense for them to, look at Mik playing half a season with a torn ligament. Hockey culture makes no f***ing sense, look at the NBA or soccer, any knocks the player is taken out because less than 100% is a waste of time for everyone. Petey played with an injury that physically limited how much he can provide. If he had like a bone bruise, broken finger, bruised rib or whatever then yeah, like wtf man, you should be able to perform. But looking back, it’s obvious that his scoring is built around precision and surprisingly power and when he can’t score and you pair him with guys that can’t f***ing finish, then the game falls apart.

I think it’s fair to say, hey he’s a 11M guy and he has to figure out how, but there needs to be some nuance in terms of what is reasonable. You can’t expect a player just to come up with a new play style in the middle of the season with very little practice time while nursing an injury. I fully expect him to figure that shit out in the offseason. The thing I find baffling is not critiquing that part but the part where you just assume, or want to believe that he just decided to suck. Like nobody does that, that makes no f***ing logical sense and is not grounded in any kind of reality. You know what quitting is? Quitting is just refusing to go play and say I have an injury. If he is going on out playing with tendonitis, that’s not quitting.

In terms of engagement, I was looking though all this highlights last night. He just plays differently than the other stars. He doesn’t dominate the puck and 90% of his points are from him getting the puck and then it ending up in the net almost right away. He’s like a better skating 2 way Brett Hull with elite playmaking and dangles. If you want him to be more “engaged” or translated to hockey terms, actually be more puck dominant, you will probably never see that because that is not his game. And from what I see, it seems like you don’t like that part of his game and somehow associated that with non engagement and then somehow linked it further upstream to body language and not caring and stuff. I can see how you got there but I disagree with it. I always remember how Botch reported that Petey broke his shot mechanics down to improve it step by step. You can’t not care when you are that OCD.

 

[Hit the post]

I find the Petterson criticism's lacking in true hockey knowledge. He's been a terrific player throughout his tenure. One of the best in the league. He has played on sh!te teams in all of his seasons here, except for last. Yet, we still won our division, and almost the Presidents trophy, most successful season in over a decade and here we are people are bitching about this no account pre-season. Regardless of how his personal metrics were he was still a massive piece of the team, and still is. People should give him slack and judge when the real season is being played. I wouldn't be wasting my time on these garbage games either but be focused on the goal at hand.

I mean if anybody deserves a "mulligan", it's him (Elias).

 

[MS]

First off, that wrist injury year was the north division year. Things were so rosy then we had the Miller bozo controller disconnect moment and Nate Schmidt having such a great time he waived to go to f***ing Winnipeg. Everyone was in lockdown and you want to say, Petey was sulky. Sounds like you are looking for reason to justify your bias rather than looking at the facts and understanding what was actually going on. Hell who the f*** in the world has fun that year? Did you have fun? I certainly didn’t and don’t know anyone that did. Somehow locking down everyone in the world has some unintended consequence.

The injury caused him to miss time since Dec til like July or August. I jammed my wrist trying to push some building materials away from my garage and it took me 1.5 years to recover and I couldn’t lift any kind of weights for like 6 months. If you are asking why a player missing 7 months doesn’t look right, shouldn’t that question be pretty f***ing obvious? How dare he take time to get back into form after a long term injury?

The whole well he should move his legs is a classic, I am not a pro but I know better than a pro. I don’t know about you or Petey but it looks like it takes time for him to get back into form after an injury for whatever reason that makes no sense to speculate. But you would love to speculate taking time to get back into form = quitting on the team or deciding to be ass. That makes no f***ing sense. It’s like oh he came back from injury, sucked for half a season and decided he doesn’t want to suck anymore for the next 1.5 years until the next injury and then he decided oh it’s time to suck again, before he extends. None of this makes any f***ing logical sense. Don’t you see this?
Like he plays at like a 140 point pace and the moment he picks up an injury, he made a very conscious decision to just suck. What kind of f***ing logic is this? Who the f*** does that?

Yes he didn’t miss time and in hindsight it was a giant mistake. Hockey players will play even when it doesn’t make sense for them to, look at Mik playing half a season with a torn ligament. Hockey culture makes no f***ing sense, look at the NBA or soccer, any knocks the player is taken out because less than 100% is a waste of time for everyone. Petey played with an injury that physically limited how much he can provide. If he had like a bone bruise, broken finger, bruised rib or whatever then yeah, like wtf man, you should be able to perform. But looking back, it’s obvious that his scoring is built around precision and surprisingly power and when he can’t score and you pair him with guys that can’t f***ing finish, then the game falls apart.

I think it’s fair to say, hey he’s a 11M guy and he has to figure out how, but there needs to be some nuance in terms of what is reasonable. You can’t expect a player just to come up with a new play style in the middle of the season with very little practice time while nursing an injury. I fully expect him to figure that shit out in the offseason. The thing I find baffling is not critiquing that part but the part where you just assume, or want to believe that he just decided to suck. Like nobody does that, that makes no f***ing logical sense and is not grounded in any kind of reality. You know what quitting is? Quitting is just refusing to go play and say I have an injury. If he is going on out playing with tendonitis, that’s not quitting.

In terms of engagement, I was looking though all this highlights last night. He just plays differently than the other stars. He doesn’t dominate the puck and 90% of his points are from him getting the puck and then it ending up in the net almost right away. He’s like a better skating 2 way Brett Hull with elite playmaking and dangles. If you want him to be more “engaged” or translated to hockey terms, actually be more puck dominant, you will probably never see that because that is not his game. And from what I see, it seems like you don’t like that part of his game and somehow associated that with non engagement and then somehow linked it further upstream to body language and not caring and stuff. I can see how you got there but I disagree with it. I always remember how Botch reported that Petey broke his shot mechanics down to improve it step by step. You can’t not care when you are that OCD.

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.

 

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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.

It’s not a laundry list of excuses, I mean if you are saying he was sulky during the pandemic lockdown when the whole world was sulky then I would argue you are looking for reasons to critique.

Well he’s made 8.5 last season? So no it wasn’t a 11M player disappearing. And oh can you find a top line player that plays injured and at the same time need to carry a zero goal winger and a 4th line winger? You simply don’t ever see any top line player put into that kind of situation. Every top line player in the league plays with another top line guy unless it’s like CBJ. McD when he was injured didn’t score goals but he also plays with 50 goal Hyman and Nuggets, 150pt Draisaitl so yeah no f***ing shit he still racked up a ton of assists.

If he doesn’t perform this season then yeah. Has the season started yet?

That’s the thing, why the f*** are we tearing down our own guys. Miller was unfairly criticized for showing emotion when everything was shit. Haven’t anyone learned anything from that? It’s like oh we unfairly shit on Miller back then so it’s fine, we can give equal unfair treatment afterwards. Who cares if Petey is put in a shitty situation, let’s just shit on him for playing injured and not elevating 4th line guys.