By: Trent Leith / November 24, 2023 Anyone who watches Elias Pettersson regularly can tell something is off with the star Swede, but what? Is it an injury? Two injuries? Or is it simply a slump after a hot start? We don’t know, but we can speculate based on what we have seen on a night-to-night basis.
Potential Injury
There is much speculation that Pettersson is dealing with a groin issue. A groin issue would explain why his skating and creativity look off. A groin issue is going to keep a player like Pettersson from reaching his full potential while moving around the ice.
While watching Pettersson, it’s plain to see that his elusive skating just isn’t there. One major criticism of his line in recent games is that it’s too slow. There is not enough north-south movement from Kuzmenko and Pettersson, and a lot of that may boil down to a lack of foot speed and being driven to the perimeter.
There is also speculation that he has another wrist issue, maybe even alongside a potential groin problem. A wrist issue would explain Pettersson’s lack of offence recently. Pettersson has only four points in his last eight games. When you have the offensive chops that Pettersson does, four points in eight games simply isn’t good enough and a lingering injury might be the issue.
In recent games, Pettersson’s offence hasn’t looked like it did to start the season when he was atop the league scoring race. A large reason for that other than any injury speculation is that he simply isn’t shooting nearly as much.
In his first 11 games of the season, Pettersson had 28 shots on net (an average of 2.5 a game) and was averaging 7.79 shots per 60 minutes of time on ice. In the last ten games, Pettersson only had 23 shots on net (an average of 2.09 a game) and only 6.46 shots per 60 minutes in the last 11 games.
If Pettersson is battling an injury, it’s clearly affecting his offensive ability and slowing his battle at the top of the NHL scoring race. The Canucks have a buffer in the standings due to starting the season on fire, but the schedule is already starting to wear on players. Pettersson will never volunteer to take a night off, but if his dip in productivity continues much longer, it might be worth resting the young superstar.
Linemates
Could Pettersson’s slump potentially be affected by his linemates? As we know, Andrei Kuzmenko was a scratch Friday and Saturday night. Kuzmenko has only three goals this season, despite being stapled to Pettersson’s side on the top line every game until his scratch at the 20-game mark.
Kuzmenko hadn’t scored in nine games leading to his first scratch and only had two assists in his previous seven games. Kuzmenko is a one-dimensional player. His strength is offence, and there is nothing wrong with being an offence-only player, especially on a line with strong defensive players like Ilya Mikheyev and Pettersson alongside you. However, when the offence isn’t rolling, Kuzmenko doesn’t bring a lot to the table.
On Pettersson’s other wing we usually have Ilya Mikheyev. Mikheyev’s role on this line isn’t to be an offensive driver, but rather a puck retriever. Mikheyev’s responsibility is to be defensively strong and to be the forechecker and puck retriever, which he has done a reasonable job at. However, when you’re on a top line, you are expected to produce some offence, especially when you share the ice with such talented players.
Mikheyev has more than doubled Kuzmenko’s goal totals, with seven, but like his linemates, his production has dropped off recently. In the last seven games with Pettersson and Kuzmenko, Mikheyev has two goals and one assist.
The top line simply wasn’t producing enough, and that is why Rick Tocchet was forced to mix up the lines Friday night and kept them mixed up Saturday in San Jose
A Simple Slump
We could be entirely overthinking this issue. Pettersson could be as healthy as he claims, so maybe Pettersson is simply in a slump.
It’s easy to forget that players have lives off the ice and sometimes life catches up with you and could affect your on-ice game. Sometimes players simply go through a down period in the season for no real reason people on the outside looking in can quantify.
An 82-game season is a long season and every player will have peaks and valleys over the course of that time frame. By no stretch of the imagination has Pettersson had a bad season. Pettersson is putting up 1.31 points a game and has spent the season at, or near the top of the league scoring race.
If Pettersson is truly healthy, the best thing for him might just be to let him play through the slump. A couple of good bounces to get his confidence back and we could see Dekey Pete once again.
It’s times like this, that it can be beneficial to take a step back for a second and look at the big picture Pettersson has 29 points in 22 games and we are questioning if he is healthy and if something is wrong. He is putting up fantastic numbers, but yes, we know there is another gear that he should be able to find.