Canucks’ rookie sensation Elias Pettersson is the real deal
Canucks rookie reminiscent of past greats, but in a completely unique package
Don’t know what’s more exciting: Elias Pettersson or Apollo Creed’s son fighting Ivan Drago’s son in the latest Rocky movie.
While we ponder that — and wonder if Clubber Lang has any offspring — here are the Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports.
It’s now official: Elias Pettersson is a trending topic in the NHL.
We know this because, following The Alien’s five-point performance against Colorado on Friday night, emails flew around TSN clarifying the correct pronunciation of Pettersson’s last name.
The boys in Toronto now know it’s PETT-er-sson and, yes, we will be listening.
As for the larger story around the boy wonder, we’d like to call your attention to a play he made on Friday night.
With under a minute left, Pettersson took the puck in space near centre ice and saw four Avalanche defenders stretched across the blue line. Instead of carrying the puck in or forcing a pass through traffic, he executed a perfectly weighted dump which allowed Canucks forecheckers Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat to apply pressure behind the Avalanche net.
OK, goalie Philipp Grubauer and Gabriel Landeskog helped by mishandling the puck for a split second, allowing Boeser to poke it free and Horvat to find Pettersson for the game-tying goal.
But the larger point is the decision Pettersson made to initiate the sequence. It was the right play, a veteran play, and it offered the highest rate of potential success.
The five points? That was OK, too.
Through the first nine games of his NHL career, the most impressive thing about Pettersson isn’t his production or his hockey sense or his shot. It’s the totality of his game. He passes it like Henrik Sedin or Nick Backstrom, back checks and works away from the puck like Peter Forsberg and shoots it like an elite goal scorer.
The biggest problem with Pettersson is managing expectations. You keep reminding yourself he’s just about to turn 20, that this thing can still go a number of ways. But you also believe what your eyes tell you. He’s an elite talent who can impact the game any number of ways; a No. 1 centre who makes everyone around him better.
As for who he is, that’s a good question. At times he reminds you of Forsberg. At times he reminds you of Backstrom with a goal-scoring dimension. The whole package reminds you of Pavel Datsyuk.
He’s like a great band. You can hear the influences and spot similarities to other artists. But what they offer is uniquely their own.
On a related note, in the last three weeks the Canucks have watched the Panthers’ Michael Matheson deliver a hit that knocked Pettersson out for six games, the Golden Knights’ Thomas Hyka knock Sven Baertschi out for five games and counting, the Blackhawks’ Brandon Manning knock Troy Stecher out of a game and the Avs’ Matt Calvert deliver a cross-check to Boeser’s back.
Not going to spend a lot of time on this one. If the Canucks aren’t concerned about the liberties being taken with their skilled players, they should be. Hockey has changed a lot in the last 25 years but it hasn’t changed that much.
The Seahawks were exposed by a good Chargers team on Sunday in a 25-17 loss. This one wasn’t that close.
The larger take-away from the NFL on Sunday concerns the Kansas City Chiefs, who are starting to draw comparisons to the great offensive teams in NFL history.
The Chiefs’ have an edge over, say, the Air Coryell Chargers or any of Peyton Manning’s teams in Indianapolis, and his name is Patrick Mahomes. He is a mobile quarterback who is as dangerous out of the pocket as in it. I’m not sure there’s a more exciting player in any North American team sport.
Got a thoughtful email from a reader expressing dismay the CFL would hold next week’s playoff games on Remembrance Day. I understand scheduling and everything it entails. I also understand the reader’s point of view.
And finally, before Saturday night’s meeting with the Calgary Stampeders, the Lions talked about the importance of re-establishing momentum and sending a message to the rest of the CFL. Yes, the Stampeders were playing for first place in the West but this game still had meaning for the Lions.
Predictably, the Lions downplayed their performance after their embarrassing 26-9 loss. As for its deeper meaning, we’ll find out next weekend in Hamilton.
“Man we would have liked to have sent Wally (Buono) out with a win,” said Bryan Burnham. “But we’re going to make some noise in the playoffs for him. We’re playing for something bigger now and we’re 0-0.”
OK, you can give them that. The problem is the Lions used up all their mulligans this season and, in their last two outings, they’ve been beat on both lines of scrimmage and their special teams have been dominated.
Unfortunately, that’s supposed to be the strength of this team.
The quarterbacking, meanwhile, has been an issue for most of the season and Travis Lulay is coming off two dreadful outings against the Roughriders and Stamps. You’d like to see this team send Buono off the right way.
It just doesn’t seem they’re capable of doing it.