Canucks: Bruce Boudreau’s belief system allowed Elias Pettersson to blossom


‘He’s a shy person… But there’s a real fire that makes him want to be the best. That’s really going to be evident in the upcoming years.’ — Bruce Boudreau on Elias Pettersson

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Bruce Boudreau is big on the power of positive thinking.

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The affable Vancouver Canucks’ coach believes he’ll be granted a contract extension because of continuing discussions and a willingness on both sides to get something done.

“I told Patrik (Allvin) and Jim (Rutherford) that I want to coach here next year,” he said of convincing the club’s general manager and the president of hockey operations, respectively. “We’re just talking right now. I think they want me back and I know I want to be back, so it should work out.”

Boudreau also believes improved special teams are a catalyst to playing in May next season and that an emerging younger core is the foundation for future franchise greatness. He also believes Elias Pettersson is a star with superstar potential.

That’s a lot of belief.

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It goes beyond the manner in which Boudreau is wired to win. It’s how he reaches players on different levels and provides new opportunities to grow their games. Pettersson is a prime example of ‘The Boudreau Effect’ of pushing the right buttons to coax the Canucks to a remarkable 32-15-10 run.

The slick 23-year-old Swede was a mess when Boudreau took command of the bench Dec. 6. He had four goals in the season’s first 25 games, wasn’t playing on instinct or engaging the opposition. A contract holdout and missing training camp didn’t help and he looked lost. Coming off of a hyper-extended wrist injury that cost him the final 30 games of last season probably didn’t help either.

“No, that wasn’t the reason for the slow start,” said Pettersson. “I was caught up a bit with the new contract and missing training camp and expectations were raised. I still felt it (wrist) but it wasn’t an excuse. I wasn’t confident and that was the biggest issue.”

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So, what did Boudreau do?

He looked to the penalty kill that was functioning at a historic NHL low of 62.6 per cent as an ignition point. He thought Pettersson could rely on stick-reading smarts to intercept passing plays and create odd-man rushes. It paid off in a number of ways.

The Canucks functioned at an amazing 80.5 per cent clip on the PK under Boudreau and the penalty kill added another dimension for Pettersson. His effectiveness transitioned to piling up 68 career-high points (32-36), including 26 points (14-12) in his final 20 games.

“I’m not the biggest out there, but I’m always going to play with my heart and try to do my best,” Pettersson said of the PK. “I like to think what their PP is thinking and where they want to put the puck next. I always like trying to anticipate and read where the next play is going.

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“That’s why I’m pretty aggressive and I’m happy I got that opportunity. With Bruce, when he came in, he was just a positive influence and was taking his time with me and just being happy with me all the time. It definitely helped me turn around my season.”

For Boudreau, the Pettersson plan wasn’t that complex.

“It was simple,” he recalled. “I kept telling him you’re a great player and you just do things that come natural to you. We will take care of the rest. He’s an offensive guy, and when he’s not scoring, he sort of cheats on the offensive side of the puck a bit.

“We wanted him to feel comfortable and you could see how good a player he was — whether finding guys because he’s such a good passer — and just the hockey sense, which made him good on the penalty kill.”

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It wasn’t a conscious plan. It was about opportunity.

“I always revert back to me being a player,” added Boudreau. “I knew what I could and couldn’t do, and always asked players what they could do to help the team. He (Pettersson) said he thought he could kill penalties. I’m always one to put the ball in their court. Quinn Hughes was the same way.

“When you watched Pettersson, it seemed like every other game he’d get a partial breakaway. He knows all the breakouts on the power play, so when he saw them forming, he would take chances to break plays up.”

There’s also reading the player and the person, and Boudreau knows that getting the mind and body in sync is harder than it looks. If anything is bugging a player off the ice, it often shows up on the ice.

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“I got to know him pretty well and he’s a shy person,” said the coach. “He’s quiet, but there’s a real fire that makes him want to be the best. That’s really going to be evident in the upcoming years for him because the way I have finished this year.”

Maybe Pettersson put it best about clearing performance and confidence hurdles.

“I turned it around, got experience from it and learned how to deal with the toughest part of my hockey career so far,” he said. “I like to think of it as a positive that I’ve gone through it and to not have a bad stretch like that.

“But if I do, I know how to get out of it.”

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