Canucks brush off drama at practice as team searches for solution to Pettersson's struggles

VANCOUVER – During a two-versus-two battle drill near the end of the Vancouver Canucks’ practice on Friday, six-foot-seven defencemen Vincent Desharnais, protecting the front of the net, drove Elias Pettersson into the ice from behind. And hardly anyone noticed.

Or maybe everyone did, but they were just emotionally and mentally worn out by the preceding 48 hours after a brief clash at practice between Pettersson and J.T. Miller turned into the Battle of Thermopylae in Canucks Nation – or at least Bret Hart vs Stone Cold Steve Austin.

That exchange on Wednesday spawned fresh media conjecture about the relationship between the Canucks’ best two forwards (and alternate captains), further dissection of Pettersson’s game, as he struggles at the start of this season like he did at the end of the last one and, on Friday, a hydrogen bomb, dropped by Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman that the Canucks organization had enlisted Pettersson’s own teammates, close friends among them, in a plan to make the 25-year-old tougher.

“I think it was felt that as great as he is, they needed him to be tougher,” Friedman told co-host Kyle Bukauskas on their 32 Thoughts podcast. “I don't know if meaner is the right word, but tougher. Now, some people are not wired that way. But I think they felt he was wired that way, and is wired that way, but they had to encourage him to get there. And what I also believe... is that they didn't want it to be up to (management or coaches) to do it. They felt they really believe in their leadership group. And I think they said, 'You guys are the ones that are going to have to do it.’ And, you know, Miller is obviously taking that very literally.”

It is worth noting here that these three days of drama have occurred after three straight wins for the Canucks, who will be honouring defenceman Tyler Myers’ for his 1,000 National Hockey League games when they open a homestand Saturday at Rogers Arena against Sidney Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins.

It can rain for days on the West Coast, so the sun never fools us for long.

The next bone-chilling storm is surely never far beyond the horizon, moving in from the Pacific to soak us again.

And when Mother Nature fails, we just make it rain on ourselves. And then complain about getting wet.

“Why wouldn't you want to play here?” winger Conor Garland asked earnestly. “Hard (market) makes it seem like it's not fun, and it's a really fun place to play. I think the reward is high, the risk is high. If you're bad, you hear about it. If you're good, you hear about it. But you're never as bad as they say and never as good as they say. It's fun having a passionate fan base. You know, you're a big team. People follow you. People root for you or against you. It's polarizing. It's fun to be a part of.”

Well, perhaps, not for everyone.

Certainly, Pettersson doesn’t seem to be having much fun these days, and certainly not when he is asked to answer questions about himself. If you’re looking for Q+As, at least there’s an ‘A’ on his jersey.

But let’s remember also that most of what has been discussed and debated the last three days wouldn’t have occurred had Pettersson, say, three goals and eight points in the Canucks’ first six games instead of just three assists.

And lest you think we’re identifying something as rudimentary as scoring as proof of Pettersson’s substandard play, the centre has registered just nine shots on target in his six games, ranks 10th among Canuck forwards in expected goals (44 per cent at five-on-five), generally is in the bottom half of the team’s analytics ledger, and continues to seek his first even-strength goal since last March 19, which was 32 games ago.

Coach Rick Tocchet has already abandoned the long-planned union between Pettersson and new winger Jake DeBrusk on Vancouver’s second line.

During the four-game road trip that concluded with a 6-3 win Tuesday against the Chicago Blackhawks – to be fair, it was Pettersson’s best game so far – Tocchet deployed Garland, a play-driving dynamo, alongside Pettersson and Nils Hoglander with the explicit objective to “get Petey going.”

Canucks management pressed Pettersson into an eight-year extension last March that makes him the NHL’s fifth-highest-paid player by average salary ($11.6 million), and you can argue whether someone carrying a $92.8-million contract should need others to get him going.

But the Canucks are definitely trying.

“I think what it comes down to is he has to start to move his feet more than ever,” Tocchet told Sportsnet on Friday. “That's his biggest thing. I don't know if it's a physical or mental thing, but for him, he knows it. When you watch video of him or watch the game, he gets in trouble when he stops skating. The biggest thing for us is to work with him and make sure he understands. Move your feet, move your feet. And then everything will become natural.”

We’re not sure about teammates bullying Pettersson, but we know Tocchet and his coaching staff are taking a more active role in pushing the player.

“We have a plan,” the head coach said. “There's going to be some times where I'm going to ask him to go on 20 minutes early (on practice days) to work with certain coaches, or after practice to work with certain coaches. Not every day; I don't want to burn him out. But there's going to be some times where he's going to have to work on his game, and we've got to lead the charge when it comes to that.”

Another way of looking at it: they’re not leaving it up to Pettersson.

“I’ll keep my comments with him in private, between me and him,” Pettersson said Friday when asked about Tocchet. “We’ve talked about what I can do more – move my feet, work hard, etcetera.”

What does Pettersson think of his game?

“Players in today's game, I guess, they are compared to how many points they score (to determine) if you're playing good or not,” he said. “I can create a lot of chances and not get points. In some eyes, that's not playing well. Sure, I could have some more points. I've created chances, I’ve had good chances to score, I had a crossbar. You never know what chances you're going to get, so you try to work hard and make plays and see what happens.”

Pettersson described his clash with Miller, so polar opposite in many ways, as “two guys working hard in practice.”

Miller declined Friday to even discuss it with reporters.

“It's nothing, right?” Garland said. “Me and Dakota (Joshua) went at it (last season). I've gone at it with millions of guys. It means nothing, so it's just funny that people talk about it. But I guess it’s cool... people care and when stuff like that happens, it makes a story. It's cooler than when I was in Arizona and nobody heard about it.

“The only thing I told Petey was, ‘In two weeks, this is all gone and we're talking about how well you're playing. And then you've just got to stay even keel on that side of it.’ That's how it is in this market. Just play.”