And now that we've established that he's not injured...
Saying that Pettersson has been a complete disappointment would be a massive understatement.
Spare me the "yeah but he had a great shift!" "he had three shot attempts!" "he won a key faceoff!"
None of that is remotely close to being good enough. His job is to produce offensively at an elite level.
Elias Pettersson has four points these playoffs.
Four.
He's tied for 7th in team scoring with Carson Soucy.
Ian Cole, Nils Hoglander, Tyler Myers and Teddy Blueger all have the same amount of points as Pettersson does in the Edmonton series.
Lindholm had more goals in Game 3 than Pettersson does in the entire playoffs.
But, but but, his linemates!
He has two goals in his last 23 games.
You know who else has two goals in his last 23 games? Sam Lafferty.
You know who else has two goals in his last 23 games? Phill Di Giuseppe.
Do those guys have better linemates than Pettersson?
How many minutes do those guys play on the #1 PP unit with JT Miller, Quinn Hughes and Brock Boeser?
There's quite literally no more excuses left for this guy.
He's been absolutely bailed out by the fact that JT Miller is the true #1C of this team and carries the load both offensively and defensively.
Remember when Pettersson was supposed to be an “elite defensive forward?” Why isn’t he tasked with matching up with McDavid?
He’s not even tasked with matching up with Draisaitl.
They gave him the matchup against Ryan McLeod hoping he could take advantage of the mismatch and create something 5-on-5. Of course he's done no such thing.
Imagine being JT Miller and being the “everything” #1C for this team while Pettersson contributes absolutely nothing? While making way more money than you?
Whatever criticism Pettersson has received, he deserves way more.
I legitimately haven’t seen a star player regress this hard since Jonathan Huberdeau.
We're stuck with him for 8 more years, so I sure hope he figures it out.
But he's let this team down so far in these playoffs. Which is a real shame considering it's our best shot at a deep run in 13 long years.
Yeah, I feel like the last 10 minutes of this game (and Tocchet's last few pressers) pretty much settled this issue. He got off a few really good shots, engaged in battles, won a key faceoff and had flashes where he looked dangerous. But if he is as badly injured as many of his defenders would have you believe, how did he pull all of that off?
At this point, people need to park the excuses. Tocchet said he didn't have any injuries and even called him out today as needing to "step up", most likely including Pettersson in the group of 5-7 players who "forgot that this is the playoffs".
This is really worrisome. It wouldn't have me as worried if it hadn't already happened in the past. He has had previous stretches where he has looked disinterested and checked out, for whatever reason, and here we are again. He's been defended stubbornly at every turn "Oh, he's injured... he's over-thinking things... his linemates suck... he's trying to get Benning fired... etc."
Time to just accept that this is on him and only he can pull himself out of it. I desperately hope he does.
We have not established that he’s not injured. It's the playoffs, they aren’t going to disclose anything the same way Draisaitl is having “cramps”
Draisaitl's "cramps" haven't stopped him from being the best player in this series.
