The Canucks’ No. 1 centre was impactful Saturday. And his post-game demeanour said everything.
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If you’re looking for Elias Pettersson’s return to superstar form, the clues shown to the media after Saturday’s 2-1 Canucks win over the Maple Leafs are very, very positive.
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Not only did Pettersson play a strong, confident game — my goodness that pass to Hronek — but his post-game demeanour spoke volumes. This was a night-and-day shift from the deeply unhappy, deeply oppositional figure we’d been dealing with over the past 12 months.
In September, early in training camp, I’d jokingly said “happy new year” to him and he’d snapped “happy new year?!” Then there were the multiple attempts by reporters to sidle up to him and see if they could smooth the waters, as one does when a player is struggling. He was resistant to all overtures.
That all appears to be gone.
The cloud that was hanging over him disappeared on Saturday night. Not only did he do a scrum with the TV cameras post-game, but he also happily spoke with multiple reporters one-on-one, taking at least another five minutes beyond the scrum to answer any and all questions thrown his way in the moment.
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He was laughing and joking. Gave serious consideration to his answers. There was no desire to be anywhere else.
It’s one night, but this is the player we used to see in the room. Here’s hoping it carries forward.
A good time for a break
Even after this week’s mostly-good play, Rick Tocchet sees a team that can use a break.
And the players are going to do their best to make the most of it. For example: Carson Soucy and his wife, Shyla, are carting their twins — they’re 16 months old now — down to Arizona for a few days to visit with friends and family.
“We’ll see how that flight goes,” he said with a slightly-terrified laugh.
Obviously three (two?) of Tocchet’s stars are off to the 4-Nations tournament, but that should be a fun experience, even if the players don’t get a break.
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But for the players who are getting a break, Tocchet sees a very positive opportunity.
“I do think his team needs a little bit of a reset, in the sense of just getting away. I think we just need to get away from hockey,” he said.
It’s been a challenging season emotionally for his team. Relations internally were clearly difficult. The performance on-ice was inconsistent.
But there is a sense of a new dawn here. And the team is going into the break on a high. They’ve shown their new edition has some promise.
That’s a good way to head into a little holiday.
The Hughes question
“I was coaching the game,” Tocchet quipped after the game on the Quinn Hughes situation. He’d said before the game that Hughes’s status was almost an hourly situation, so it was with a bit of levity that he was asked about it again afterwards.
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It had 5.5 hours, it was pointed out.
It’s not clear what will happen with the Canucks’ captain. He’s obviously feeling alright, since he was pictured welcoming Prince Harry to the arena — the Duke of Sussex dropped the puck in a ceremonial pre-game faceoff honouring the Invictus Games — and he was in his workout clothes post-game, another good sign.
Perhaps Team USA will name him anyway, but hold him out from Thursday’s game vs. Finland and save him for Saturday’s big game vs. Canada.
We’ll see.
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