I think I'm somewhere between you and OP. Much like the rest of Pettersson's game, he's very Jekyll or Hyde. I can recall several instances of him ducking the corners and just as many instances of excellent defense and hard north-south play.
Up until last night I would have agreed with the "he's probably injured" camp but I have a very hard time coming to terms with the idea of Tocchet knowingly throwing an injured player under the bus. Guy needs MacKinnon's sports psychologist yesterday.
I dunno. When Tocchet said last week, "we don't lie here" and then basically goes "Petey's not injured"....uh, seems like a big tell there. No team is going to come out and say what injury a player has.
Yes, Petey's confidence is definitely shaken. But what he also needs are linemates that can actually make a play. Or like, pass a puck. Petey's looked good on the few shifts he's found himself in the OZ without his scrub linemates. The series-winning goal against Nashville is a hilarious example. He gets one shift with Suter and Boeser and they create a goal. He's never going to get a point setting up Mikheyev and his 0% shooting. He's really never going to receive a pass in a scoring position from any of Mikheyev, Lafferty, or Hoglander.
The Mackinnon comparable is funny. He's also very mercurial. Gets very visibly frustrated and gives up on plays often, shrugging his shoulder and lolligagging on the backcheck to complain to the ref. Once he gets frustrated he'll repeatedly make dumb plays. Despite the win and getting two points in G5, Mackinnon was
awful. Truly looked terrible. But he plays with vastly superior linemates so he'll still get his cookies.