It’s Christmas, and we here at CanucksArmy thought it’d be fitting to give our ideas of what might be on the Vancouver Canucks’ Christmas Wishlist, whether that be to Santa Claus or, in this case, to the teams’ top two forwards to produce, together offensively.
Look, this isn’t even asking them to be best friends or friendly.
For Christmas this year, all I want is for JT Miller and Elias Pettersson to produce at the same time. That is all. If they don’t become buddy-buddy, that’s alright. If they don’t magically mend the bridge set on fire repeatedly, that’s fine. But for the Canucks to win and look to contend down the line in the playoffs this season, they need their two best forwards to play like their two best forwards.
The 2024-25 season just hasn’t been… right for the pair of them. While both players are still putting up points (Miller with 20 in 23 games, Pettersson with 26 in 33 GP), they’ve been nowhere near the game-breakers that the Canucks need them to be, especially at 5v5 play. Miller’s only had six goals all season, while Pettersson has nine. Most glaringly, EP40 only has five goals at even strength. The pair of them simply aren’t putting things together, and as two players that the Canucks hope to drive play consistently for them, it isn’t good enough.
Pettersson’s come under the magnifying glass for his lack of production recently due to Miller’s return after a decent stretch of games where he was racking up points with the American’s absence in the lineup. The splits are harsh between the before and after, where Pettersson has gone bone dry – and Miller hasn’t exactly impressed on the scoresheet or with his play on the ice, either. Splitting these two up on the power play units seemed to symbolize the chasm that has formed between them. Most teams don’t put two of their best offensive players on two different man-advantage units.
This lack of star power from the stars of the team is seriously hindering this Canucks group. Quinn Hughes has elevated himself to another level after his Norris season last year, putting this team on his shoulders for at least over a third of the game per night. With both Miller and Pettersson missing in action, there’s an unfortunate likelihood that the Canucks could be wasting one of the best seasons they’ll ever get from their captain.
With Thatcher Demko slowly rounding back into form after recovering from injury, the Canucks will want Miller and Pettersson to return to their usual selves sooner rather than later. It’s especially important with Brock Boeser slumping down slightly after putting up a 40-goal season last campaign. This isn’t to say the winger has been bad – but he can’t carry the boats, especially when the centres he plays with aren’t performing as expected.
The ideal hope is that Miller and Pettersson can patch things up with each other on a personal level. Any team would hope that they could get along swimmingly. But that might not be the case here, and that’s alright. The bar is low – all this Canucks team needs from these two is to function together, to produce the points that they need on the ice, and to be the difference makers that they are being paid to be.
Vancouver just needs them to score and produce and do a lot of that simultaneously, with both of them in the lineup, simultaneously. That shouldn’t be too much to ask for, right?
They’ve done so in the past. Hopefully, this Christmas brings good tidings and helps them figure it out going into the new year.
Merry Christmas from all of us here at CanucksArmy!
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