Mastodon
@Vancouver Canucks

Thomas Drance on the Canucks loss to the Kings and the Elias Pettersson situation



Thomas Drance from The Athletic joined the guys and recapped the Canucks loss last night, why he’s not panicking and the latest with Elias Pettersson.

12 Comments

  1. Given how refs swallow their whistles in the post-season, 5 on 5 success is key to doing well in the playoffs

  2. There is no question in my mind that Elias Pettersson is an elite talent, but I am concerned over him for a couple of reasons: 1) there always seem to be something that is bothering him and those distractions would affect his play – is there someone from the organization who is helping him with the head game that is required to be the franchise player of the team that has all the spotlight, both good and bad? 2) a 12-million+ contract would almost certainly cripple the Canucks and their abilities to have other important pieces assembled to have a sustainable contending team. Is a 12-million-dollar, sometimes inconsistent Pettersson better than two 6-million dollar players who are mentally tough as nails and can endure the ups and downs of a long playoff run?

  3. Coincidence that the team has gone into the tank since the Lindholm trade? Maybe Kuzmenko wasn't up to par on the ice but his infectious personality kept the boys loose before games and between periods. But now that chemistry gone? Also, the loss of Joshua has been immense I reckon.

  4. Drance is right, it's the skating: fatigue -> not being dynamic -> easily shutdown by opponents
    If you don't skate in the DZ, you get hemmed in and there is no threat of transition (opponent can prepare for every attack).
    If you don't skate in the OZ, every pass and attack plan is stifled.

  5. The loss against Philly in the first half of the season was their worst game of the year (except Demko who played well in that losing cause). Shut down Mikheyev for the season if he's injured, give Demko a game or two off, and start using some game management to give players like Hughes a rest because he isn't playing like Hughes anymore.

  6. Drancer is nothing if not a contrarian. I think he'd be happy trading Petey for Necas and Peace simply because it'd be unpopular.

Write A Comment