In a complete surprise, the late fall reports of Vancouver’s American striker by JT Miller and the club’s Swedish star by Elias Pettersson from bad relationships.
Although Vancouver as a collective regained its glory last season, there have already been whispers about the cool differences between the team’s hardest attacking stars.
On the other hand, how much drama the stalemate turned into towards Christmas surprised many. It has been widely reported that the club’s management, among other things, has made it clear that it is ready to trigger the situation with a player trade if necessary, if the players do not get even a basic working relationship established.
It’s not looking good right now.
For example, Miller played late last week in the games against Utah and Ottawa, making incomprehensible mistakes. Miller extended turnovers, deflected passes and left the defense half-way through the game, resulting in a two-game losing streak.
Pettersson had started to finally find his top shot during Miller’s recent personal retreat, but even that will be a distant memory by Christmas.
Pettersson scored 2+8 in seven matches before Miller’s return. The balance of the six games following the return of the Yankee striker was 0+0, and -5.
The two stars’ very different personalities don’t seem to fit in the same dressing room. Miller has been described as a loud and straightforward person, who has woken up Pettersson in difficult moments, apparently with the means of the old alliance.
Pettersson, on the other hand, is known as a modern-day artist who knows his own worth and for whom tough love does not work.
The fact that a hockey team’s locker room is splashed with plaster is not new, but this level of public drama is.
The dispute between Miller and Pettersson is being discussed in both traditional and social media at the moment around the clock every day. Vancouver hasn’t been able to wash the dirty laundry behind the scenes, which is a huge PR fail.
Even the head coach during the Ottawa match Rick Tocchet and the captain Quinn Hughes quite frankly admitted to the media that there is a conflict at hand that requires an immediate reaction.
Crisis communications fiasco
What was strange, however, was that after the Ottawa match, a visibly frustrated Pettersson denied everything.
The Swede wondered with bright eyes how the media can still come up with “this kind of shit”. Just a moment later, the center forward lost his temper for good, rolled his eyes at the question and left the place.
Miller also assured the media a day later that everything was fine. He stated that he could pick up Pettersson and give him a joint interview.
So the parties to the brawl are still poker-facedly denying the altercation, which the coaching staff and the captain have talked about publicly.
– There are always these in hockey teams. Crashes will happen because the stakes are high. Winning is interesting, own points are interesting, playing time and who gets to play with whom. There are these and sometimes they escalate properly, ‘s ice hockey expert Ismo Lehkonen says.
In his own coaching career, Lehkonen has coached, among others, the SM league and Mest.
– I’ve been in situations where a fight has started in the booth and the matter has been resolved that way.
The situation is also special for the reason that just a couple of years ago, Miller and Pettersson were both part of a hot lottery chain, where the two of them won hard Brock Boeser. Such a peculiarity was recently seen that head coach Rick Tocchet also separated the duo in the power play.
The solution can be considered special, to say the least, because it involves two of the team’s superior attackers.
– Such a solution only increases competition. There is always one less. Then it starts to get annoying when the other gets a hundred seconds of superiority and you only get twenty. This is going to be a sandbox game now, Lehkonen insists.
The personalities and values of the coaching management also bring their own spice to the situation. Tocchet and Miller, as American personalities of the old alliance, are from a completely different tree than Pettersson.
– From the outside, it looks like it now has one (Pettersson) on the outside arc. If that situation is not resolved, is there any other option but to put someone up for sale.
Profitability in decline
All of the above outdoor hockey soap opera is becoming a major distraction for the team. Vancouver, which started the season well in terms of results, has started to slip in terms of results as well.
– There is definitely a distraction. All eyes now turn to GM (Patrick Allvin). That’s why he is paid heavily to clear up such situations.
Lehkonen also expects clearer action from Tocchet.
– The boys should now sit in the coach’s booth with time and figure out how to get out of this now. Now it’s about the well-being of the team and the success of this season. Do the dudes want to piss on those cereals or does someone really have to go somewhere else. Grown guys really, Lehkonen says.