Elias Pettersson deftly stickhandled better than he has in a while on Tuesday afternoon. It came in a five minute media scrum following practice as the struggling Vancouver Canucks centre ably answered questions about his disappointing season so far.
Pettersson was candid, expressing disappointment in his own play and the position of his hockey club, which sits below the playoff bar in the NHL’s Western Conference with 22 games remaining in the regular season.
He calmly took pointed questions and showed no signs of frustration that he has at other times this season. In fact, he took the opportunity to address his sometimes prickly relationship with the media and even cracked a joke about it.
With only 11 goals and 35 points through the 54 games he’s played, Pettersson appeared humbled by his lack of production. He knows he hasn’t been anywhere close to good enough this season. He can’t do anything about what’s led to this point, but vowed to be better over the final six weeks of the season starting on Wednesday against Anaheim.
“Well, I think about it a lot, and I haven’t been the way I want to be this year,” he said. “I haven’t played to the expectations I have on myself or the franchise has on me, and I’ll be the first one to tell you. That’s in the past. I just want to take these last 22 games – and hopefully more – and play my best hockey. I wish we had more wins; I wish I had played a lot better. I can’t dwell on that. Just try to look ahead.”
For much of the season, the story around Pettersson had been the locker room drama involving himself and JT Miller. However, since Miller was moved to the New York Rangers on January 31st, very little has changed. Pettersson has gone 13 games without a goal and has just one goal in 20 games since returning from an undisclosed injury that kept him out for six games following the Christmas break.
He is seventh on the team in goals and fourth in points among players still on the roster.
He’s clearly feeling the heat in the market place but claims he welcomes the scrutiny that comes with his $11.6M annual salary.
“Pressure is good; it means you care,” he explained. “If I wouldn’t care, I wouldn’t think too much about it. I want to turn it around more than anyone. Good practice today and get ready for tomorrow.”
When asked if he had a message for the fans that have stood by him during the struggles, Pettersson offered his gratitude.
“I appreciate the love all the time,” he said. “I think my comments after the Utah game (when he claimed dealing with the media was annoying), I missed a breakaway, and I got asked about it and how frustrating the season has been. I was really mad at that moment and said something I didn’t mean. Somedays (dealing with the media) it can be. But it’s the last thing that is making me play bad or not myself this year. I just wanted to make that clear.”
One thing that has stood out among Pettersson’s many issues this season is a lack of shots and his reluctance to put pucks on net. The winner of the hardest shot competition at the 2023 All-Star game is headed for a career low in shots with 94 through his 54 games. But more recently, it’s been hard to comprehend how little he is shooting with just two shots on goal on the team’s recent 1-4 road trip. He hasn’t had multiple shots in a game since registering three in Dallas in the final game of January.
“Yeah, definitely, that comes with not getting looks and trying to make the perfect pass instead of simplifying it,” he said. “I’ve always been a pass-first guy, but I also have a good shot. So I should use it more. Yeah, maybe not trusting it. Hopefully, that’s not a headline. But I’ll definitely look to shoot more moving forward.”
Acknowledging problems is the first step toward solving them. And in a calm and cool manner, Pettersson deserves some credit for being as open and honest as he’s been all season about his lack of production. But ultimately, all it was Tuesday was talk. He needs to back up his words with actions, and it has to start on Wednesday night.
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