Elias Pettersson.. Playoff Ghost

[ItWasJustified]

Can tell he's rattled by the physical intensity, shades of Matthews/Marner.

He dominated the SHL playoffs (the third best league in the world) as a 19 year old. I doubt that it's the ''physical'' part of the NHL playoffs he can't handle.

Canucks fans were mad at me for suggesting that Pettersson could struggle in his first real try at playoff hockey (2020 bubble doesn't count)

Why doesn't it count? Do you really think that he's intimidated by packed arenas 6 seasons into his NHL career or do you think that teams didn't try their hardest in the bubble?

 

[syz]

Why doesn't it count? Do you really think that he's intimidated by packed arenas 6 seasons into his NHL career or do you think that teams didn't try their hardest in the bubble?

He had a 5 month break between the end of the regular season and the playoffs. 2020 was not a typical playoff experience where you go into it with the wear and tear of an 82 game regular season.

 

[Coffey]

Soft finesse players are always bad during playoffs. Reminds me of Eberle.

 

[nihlify]

I'm sorry, that's just pathetic. Everyone in this thread defending the guy needs to give their heads a shake. This is the response you would expect from a 16 year old; not a 25 year old professional athlete. Even if you're frustrated, just give a professional answer that isn't "yeah, that's a good question".

And people wonder why fans are hard on the guy...

The large majority of the 25 year old "professionals" in the leage answers with boring, empty platitudes to questions like this, he just skipped the pretense. If he knew why he wouldn't be struggling like this, you just want to hate on him for no reason.

 

[nihlify]

Looks like he's high.


He could talk about what he thinks the problem is and how he's trying to fix it. It's not that difficult.

So now you think he's on drugs and expect him to have a theraphy session with insulting journalists. Ok then. You're just inviting players to lie to you instead.

 

[Bobby9]

This is such a horrible idea. Good god. 3 depth players vs a franchise star lol.

It’s stunning how fans can be swayed by small sample sizes. I’m sure I’ve done it in the past too, but it’s definitely more noticeable when looking at it from an external perspective.

News flash. He is the depth player when it matters

 

[canadianmagpie]

Would Calgary want Mikheyev though? The guy has no upside. Fans always think that other teams are willing to take their team's garbage players

At the time, Mikheyev has 24 points in 45 games and Kuzmenko had 21 in 43 games. At the time of the trade, they were pretty even in points and Mikheyev had more goals. I remember reading in the trade forum that fans were treating Kuzmenko as a cap dump and paid to get rid of him. So if both were cap dumps, then Mikheyev would have been the one I would have traded away.

 

[BB79]

Is he playing through something, nursing an injury perhaps?

If a coach calls out a player knowing that they're injured, they're a pretty stupid coach.

 

[nerblet]

Just noticing in the video he is waering a Nike hat and shirt. Is that normal? Don't players usually have team hats and shirts after for interviews?

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Soft finesse players are always bad during playoffs. Reminds me of Eberle.

Patrick Kane disagrees.

 

[DamonDRW]

Patrick Kane disagrees.

Briere as well. There are exceptions, but generally that's true.

 

[Davo Ikinzom]

Soft finesse players are always bad during playoffs. Reminds me of Eberle.

RNH isn't physical at all or even very noticeable in the playoffs and he still produces. Had a big goal last game too.

 

[Coffey]

RNH isn't physical at all or even very noticeable in the playoffs and he still produces. Had a big goal last game too.

Patrick Kane disagrees.

Briere as well. There are exceptions, but generally that's true.

 

[DamonDRW]

RNH isn't physical at all or even very noticeable in the playoffs and he still produces. Had a big goal last game too.

I don't know how people may even mention RNH and playoffs in the same sentence. To me, he is a huge disappointment. So much playing time, so much expectations based on regular season, and basically no production at all. Replace him with any other competent 2nd line center and Edmonton would have won the Cup already.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Soft finesse players are always bad during playoffs. Reminds me of Eberle.

Eberle sucked his first playoffs, when he tried to play more physical.
Dude got absolutely skunked in 2 rounds.

Then in New York something changed, where he went back to Team Canada style Eberle, where he was scoring clutch goals and shit.

Surprised the hell out of me too.


Ask Penguin fans what they thought of Eberle in the playoffs. Reminded me of when Silfverberg wrecked us in the Anaheim series, or Marschessault last year. Sneakily able to get behind the defense, and rip them into the net.

His playoff stats outside of Edmonton are quite good given the focus in that Trotz system was defense:

 

[SupremeTeam16]

I don't know how people may even mention RNH and playoffs in the same sentence. To me, he is a huge disappointment. So much playing time, so much expectations based on regular season, and basically no production at all. Replace him with any other competent 2nd line center and Edmonton would have won the Cup already.

50 pts in 58 career playoff games is basically no production at all?

 

[JianYang]

His regular season point totals didn't reflect his play; he hasn't been good all season. He put up a ton of points earlier in the season when the Canucks went on their run of early season dominance, just from the nature of being on the ice at the same time as Hughes. He was a passenger for the majority of their games.

Carry that play over to the playoffs where you're only playing the best teams in the league, the checking is tighter and the pace is faster... and this is the result.

While many canucks fans were rejoicing at the contract extension, I was thinking about how the temperature is going to be turned up now.

He's a great player when he's clicking on all cylinders, but I think people have glossed over the amount of times where he just doesn't seem to be engaged or is aloof. In a Canadian market, theres no place to hide and he's going to get grilled alot more about it now.

I'm interested to see how he reacts to this new expectation as the contract plays out.

 

[Lawzy]

I dunno. When Tocchet said last week, "we don't lie here" and then basically goes "Petey's not injured"....uh, seems like a big tell there. No team is going to come out and say what injury a player has.

Yes, Petey's confidence is definitely shaken. But what he also needs are linemates that can actually make a play. Or like, pass a puck. Petey's looked good on the few shifts he's found himself in the OZ without his scrub linemates. The series-winning goal against Nashville is a hilarious example. He gets one shift with Suter and Boeser and they create a goal. He's never going to get a point setting up Mikheyev and his 0% shooting. He's really never going to receive a pass in a scoring position from any of Mikheyev, Lafferty, or Hoglander.

The Mackinnon comparable is funny. He's also very mercurial. Gets very visibly frustrated and gives up on plays often, shrugging his shoulder and lolligagging on the backcheck to complain to the ref. Once he gets frustrated he'll repeatedly make dumb plays. Despite the win and getting two points in G5, Mackinnon was awful. Truly looked terrible. But he plays with vastly superior linemates so he'll still get his cookies.

I swear he had one shift with Suter and Boeser on Tuesday and looked fantastic as well, lol.

Mikheyev has 12 points and a single goal in his last 59 games. Petey has definitely been struggling but I don't know how you expect him to do anything with Mikheyev? Bring back Hog and put Pod on the other wing, IMO.

 

[bossram]

Looks like he's high.


He could talk about what he thinks the problem is and how he's trying to fix it. It's not that difficult.

"Hi guys, let me give you my 13 step program to become a new person..."

Just get real dude. There is zero value trying to derive anything from these interview answers. He's always been a muted interview, this isn't that unusual. You want a PowerPoint presentation too?

 

[tfwnogf]

I swear he had one shift with Suter and Boeser on Tuesday and looked fantastic as well, lol.

Mikheyev has 12 points and a single goal in his last 59 games. Petey has definitely been struggling but I don't know how you expect him to do anything with Mikheyev? Bring back Hog and put Pod on the other wing, IMO.

Oilers still produced with Connor Brown in the lineup, having crap linemates isn't much of an excuse.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Why doesn’t it count? You all plugged in with the players and they’ve communicated this to you? So Tampa’s cup doesn’t count. What a dumb comment.

That’s correct. Their second cup also doesn’t count but that’s for a different reason.

 

[McFlyingV]

He dominated the SHL playoffs (the third best league in the world) as a 19 year old. I doubt that it's the ''physical'' part of the NHL playoffs he can't handle.

Why doesn't it count? Do you really think that he's intimidated by packed arenas 6 seasons into his NHL career or do you think that teams didn't try their hardest in the bubble?

SHL playoffs are nothing like the NHL playoffs.

 

[bossram]

I swear he had one shift with Suter and Boeser on Tuesday and looked fantastic as well, lol.

Mikheyev has 12 points and a single goal in his last 59 games. Petey has definitely been struggling but I don't know how you expect him to do anything with Mikheyev? Bring back Hog and put Pod on the other wing, IMO.

Yep. He still needs to put more oomph out there and play better. But like, there is going to be no production from Petey playing with these guys. They're fundamentally bad offensive players and can't think or play the game on his level, or really execute any kind of positive offensive sequence at this level. What is he actually supposed to do with them?

There is a reason no other team utilizes their top players like this. They know because they are so important to the team, they try to maximize what they can provide by giving them better assets to work with.

If you want Petey to basically be a safe-ish, defensive 3C, then sure, this is what you can do. I don't know why they invested so much in the player if that's how they're going to utilize him.

 

[Three On Zero]

He dominated the SHL playoffs (the third best league in the world) as a 19 year old. I doubt that it's the ''physical'' part of the NHL playoffs he can't handle.

Why doesn't it count? Do you really think that he's intimidated by packed arenas 6 seasons into his NHL career or do you think that teams didn't try their hardest in the bubble?

McDavid’s rocket win doesn’t count either in 22/23, why you ask?

Because it’s just a silly of an argument to claim that as it is to say the previous playoffs don’t count

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

He had a 5 month break between the end of the regular season and the playoffs. 2020 was not a typical playoff experience where you go into it with the wear and tear of an 82 game regular season.

People forget that the quality of hockey the first 2-3 rounds resembled that of pre-season hockey. It was nice to watch hockey at the time but it was f***ing ugly to watch in hindsight. There was nearly zero desire to hit and slow guys seemed to thrive in the bubble.