Canucks Need Elias Pettersson to Step Up His Game in the Playoffs
TSN: Hockey Analyst Frankie Corrado joined Jay Onrait last week on SportsCenter as he broke down the one burning question facing the seven Canadian teams. Moving to the Western Conference, Corrado believes the biggest question facing the Vancouver Canucks is Elias Pettersson and if he can put the noise to the side and produce his best hockey in the playoffs.
** NHLRumors.com transcriptions
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Jay Onrait: “As for the Vancouver Canucks, they lose Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov to their hated rivals, the Boston Bruins. So they do steal away Jake DeBrusk from the Boston Bruins to add some depth, and they re-signed Filip Hronek. What’s the biggest question for Rick Tocchet as he looks at his roster?”
Frankie Corrado: “Can Elias Pettersson play like a superstar? Can he play like a player who gets paid $11.6 million? And it’s funny right now, if you look at the Canucks roster, you see Pettersson down the middle, you see Miller down the middle. And if you’re thinking who’s number one and who’s number two, you can basically flip a coin right now.
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You know, the salary would tell you that Pettersson is the number one center, but with the way that things went last year, J.T. Miller was that number one guy. The Canucks want to be competitive in the Pacific, and I mean that with the Edmonton Oilers, you’re going to be going head-to-head against Connor McDavid.
And that means Elias Pettersson has a lot of responsibility to be close to that 95-100 point range and bear that load and that’ll be a question for Rick Tocchet as far as, how can Pettersson get his game to that level, keep it at that level and especially keep it at that level of come playoff time because that’s when they’re going to need him to be at playing at that $11.6 million level the most.”
Onrait: “Well, that was going to be my follow-up to Frankie, watching Pettersson in the playoffs last year at any point to just say to yourself, is this just a terrific regular season player and maybe someone who isn’t built for the playoffs necessarily?”
Corrado: “No, I don’t think that Jay. I think that you know when we’ve seen Pettersson struggle in the past, and we don’t know this for sure, but you hear rumblings, there could be the wrist issue, or it could be something that’s lingering with his skating, and it feels like when those questions seem to arise, his play tapers off quite a bit.
And those things are going to happen to every player. They happen to the best players in the world. But there’s some guys that are able to get through that and played through that and not let it affect them as much. So for Pettersson, I think it becomes a little bit of a question of you’re not always going to feel 100%, but you still have to find a way to produce and play at the level that they pay you and expect you to, and he’s you know, call it for what he is he’s he’s a very unique talent.
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He’s not the fastest player, but man, is he shifty? You know, he’s got a great shot, he’s got great hands when he’s playing with confidence there’s not a lot of players that can play the the way that he plays, but he’s gonna have to have that confidence more often than not, and I’m sure Rick Tocchet is banking on him having that confidence this year.”