Zero points in the first two games of the playoffs.
Now Elias Pettersson is being punished for his efforts.
– He feels mentally weak, says profiler Paul Bissonnette.
The Vancouver Canucks are back in the NHL playoffs after a fantastic regular season. And you can thank Elias Pettersson for a lot. Last year he had his first season over 100 points, when he scored a whopping 102 points in 80 games played, and even though he “only” reached 89 points this year, throughout the season he has been a key player who delivered when needed as most.
Now he is making his very first playoff game in front of an audience. The last time the Canucks were there was covid-19, which meant a bubble without an audience, but so far the Swedish superstar has not lived up to expectations. He signed another monster deal with the Canucks earlier in the season, but two games into the series against Nashville, he still has zero points.
Elias Pettersson also missed a completely open goal in the last game, which the Canucks lost, and now the criticism against Pettersson is starting to intensify, not least from the profile Paul Bissonnette, who is an expert for the television channel TNT.
– Elias Pettersson is simply nowhere to be seen. I don’t want to be too critical of him, but he just feels like a player who is too weak mentally, says Bissonnette in his Spittin’ Chiclets podcast.
“Like Bambi…”
Bissonnette draws comparisons to Nathan MacKinnon, the Colorado Avalanche superstar who has scored more than a point per game in every playoff game since his first in 2018.
– I don’t trust Pettersson to perform. We’re talking about players like Nathan MacKinnon, who has an aura around him, and you know exactly what to expect during the playoffs. But Elias is a 100-point player, to be so vulnerable and to just disappear from matches…
The Vancouver Canucks have already suffered a major setback when goalie star Thatcher Demko is injured, and now Bissonnette believes that Pettersson has to improve if they are to have a chance in the series against Nasvhille.
– You see him struggle behind the goal, and he becomes like Bambi on slippery ice right away. He is very easy to get off balance and take the puck away from. So I ask the question now: Where is Elias Pettersson? And now that Demko is gone, and Petey continues to be invisible, the Canucks are not going to win this series.
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