I think him and Petey are both frustrated right now. Tocchet is trying to figure out how to get his star player going, but all his bottom 6 options (Garland line is #2 right now) stink. For those who want Ilya off the line, who realistically has done, well, anything better?
That's the thing with this team right now is we've always had a cap on how good we can be. So much inefficiency from the past regime leaves us without quality in the top 6. You can arrange the deck chairs anyway you want we're short a top 6 forward ... or two. There is nobody else to magically pair with Petey unless you put him with Miller, Boeser, or maybe Lindholm.
I'm praying that at the end of the season we find out that he's been hampered by some kind of injury. Because if not, that $11.8m extension has the potential be as bad as Huberdeau's in Calgary.
People really need to slow down and think here. Yes, Petey is having an an atrocious playoffs but he's still an elite player. His 100 and 90 point seasons are not just fluky and he's going to revert to 40 points moving forward. This happens in hockey all the time, only for the player to figure it out in a big way after everyone writes them off. Its been 10 tough games in a pretty tough environment.
Let's remember a couple things. This entire team is struggling offensively. Miller has two goals, one more than Petey. If we're throwing stones then he's playing like garbage offensively too. He may have more assists but he's also playing with real line-mates like Boeser. In all his 9 points to Petey's four don't look much more impressive to the eye test. I know he's playing against McDavid but still he isn't producing much in terms of 5v5 offence.
Aside from our top three (9,43,6) Zadorov has played big with 8 points, and Lindholm/Joshua also has 8. Of course they all play with good linemates. Other than that no one has more than 4 points, including Garland. Also take into account this team is on pace for one of the worst shot totals in playoff history. They have the worst GF and +/- of the remaining 8 teams. 2.6 goals per game. Their offence and strategy has been absolutely anemic ... I think that shoulders a lot of the responsibility.
He's nowhere near Huberdeau, he's only 26 years old and has all the time, an entire 8 year contract to raise his level of play and some proper linemates. This obviously isn't the norm for the player in question.