A lesson learned: Tweet at your favourite athlete, they’ll respond if they’re a beauty like Petey.

On Thursday around 10:00 PM, I was in bed scrolling down #HockeyTwitter, which was relatively dead due to it being an off-day from the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars.

I just recently joined the community in the second week of September, shortly after Game 7 when the Vancouver Canucks lost to the Vegas Golden Knights (sigh). Basing my silly username and profile photo off of Quinn Hughes (my second-favourite player after the event in this article), I spent the majority of my time liking and retweeting NHL playoff content, live-reacting to games, and making hockey-related memes.

That being said, I encountered an amusing video from a popular Twitter humour account on my timeline. He was ridiculously demonstrating a stationary form of dribbling called the “Spider”. It required him to rapidly bounce the basketball beneath his legs whilst alternating both hands in front and behind his back.

The way he embellished the dribbling drill made me chuckle, and I remembered when the Canucks posted an impressive video of Elias Pettersson making buckets during the team’s off-time in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He described basketball as a hobby, humbly explained his skills as sub-par, and said his favourite basketball player to watch is Stephen Curry due to his small size and big plays.

On another day-off, Petey also posted videos of Quinn Hughes shooting (and missing) hoops in the courtyard of the Edmonton Bubble to his Instagram Story.

So, I did what any fan would: directly @’ing Pettersson on Twitter, requesting him to remake the humorous dribbling video. With the cramped aspect of social media, a famous hockey player like him would most likely have notifications turned off. As he spends his offseason in Vancouver, I assumed he was probably sleeping early to prepare for another solo skate session in Rogers Arena, or to play more rounds of golf with B.C-born teammate Troy Stetcher.

However, less than 24 hours later, he responded with this video, proving he could, in fact, remake it:

With popular Tiktok song Kolors by Monte Booker playing in the background, Pettersson recorded himself purchasing a classic, Spalding basketball, spinning it on his finger, and re-enacting the dribbling video flawlessly, smiling cheekily after accomplishing the recreation.

During the third period of Game 4 of the SCF, Canucks Twitter and hockey fans alike erupted online as a result of the prompt and well-produced video. Users admired his off-ice skills, with some urging NBA teams to take notice. They complimented his style, wearing trendy brand Fear of God and, unexpectedly, glasses. Many were calling for other NHL players to fulfill their athletic requests during the off-season.

Hockey, golf, basketball, football, and even juggling on a unicycle, Elias Pettersson has proved time and time again that he can do it all.