The Canucks’ Elias Pettersson needs to get his confidence back

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For a good part of the regular season, discussions centring on Canucks star Elias Pettersson often had to do with his future with the organization.

Pettersson would become a restricted free agent when the season ended. When asked about a new contract, he was often coy, saying he was happy to wait until the year was over to focus on a new deal. This made the team’s followers and new management nervous. No one was sure what the quiet, stoic Swede was truly thinking.

Many interpreted his coolness toward his contract situation as a reflection of how he viewed his team and city: indifferently. The idea of trading him in the off-season if the team couldn’t get his name on a new contract seemed a real possibility.

But then March 3 came, and Pettersson was sitting at a news conference with general manager Patrik Allvin announcing an eight-year deal worth US$92.8-million. He was now one of the essential cogs around which this team would be built for future success. Teammates all said the uncertainty around his contract had been weighing on Pettersson. Now behind him, he seemed like a changed man, they said, skating with a smile on his face once again.

Pettersson is certainly not playing with a smile on his face these days. The Canucks are tied with the Nashville Predators one game each in their first-round playoff series. While the injury to all-star goalie Thatcher Demko was the big storyline before the second game, the play of Pettersson following a 4-1 loss was all anyone was talking about after it was over.

In some respects, his desultory effort should not be a huge surprise. Rather, it could be viewed as a continuation of the indifferent play that has marked his game since the all-star break. Before that, Pettersson had 64 points in 49 games. He had 14 goals in the team’s 13 games in January. But then he had just seven through February, March and April. After the all-star break he managed just 25 points in the remaining 33 games of the regular season. He finished 19th in league scoring with 89 points, 14 behind teammate J.T. Miller. Defenceman Quinn Hughes had three more points than Pettersson.

In other words, Pettersson’s play had tailed off before the playoffs began. What we’re seeing is a player who is not competing with full confidence. Something is amiss.

Coach Rick Tocchet believes it’s just the pressure of the playoffs.

“He’s a young kid,” said Tocchet of his 25-year-old star. “This is his first kind of taste of the pressure-playoff thing and, you know, this is good for him. He’s got to learn. He’s got to dust himself off and be ready for Game 3.”

Of course, this isn’t Pettersson’s first taste of playoff hockey. He played in “the bubble” during the 2020 postseason, racking up 18 points in 17 games. But that was to empty stands. Playing in front of the rabid, playoff-starved insanity that is Rogers Arena in Vancouver is another thing entirely. Pettersson seems to be wilting under the intensity of the moment.

In Game 2 (after a very quiet Game 1) he tried a few times to make less-than-optimum passes when he had great chances to score. On another occasion he whiffed on a one-timer when he had half an open net. His teammate, Miller, might have been talking about Pettersson when he said after Game 2: “We just can’t waiver, can’t start trying to make pretty plays, pretty passes.”

Other times Pettersson sent blind passes to opposition players. He failed to get the puck out of his end when he should have, leading to a Predators goal. His body language during and after the game was not great. He looks like a young player who is down on himself, not one who is raring to get back into the action to prove himself. But he needs to. Unless Pettersson starts playing better, a lot better, Vancouver won’t go far in these playoffs. He didn’t hit the net once in nine attempts on Tuesday and was a minus-three.

Now, it’s not as though the Canucks have played terrible. Far from it. They just need to do a better job of getting the puck to the net. Remarkably, Vancouver threw 84 shots (a franchise postseason record) in the direction of Nashville goalie Juuse Saros in Game 2, yet he was only forced to make 18 saves. Some missed the net completely while an incredible 34 shots were blocked by Preds players.

It increasingly looks as though Demko will not play in this series, which means the team’s fate rests on the shoulders of backup Casey DeSmith, who played well this season and in his playoff start on Tuesday. He’s certainly a good enough goalie to win in the postseason.

The Stanley Cup playoffs are all about overcoming adversity. The Canucks are facing it now. So is Elias Pettersson. We’ll soon see what they’re made of.