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).