Canucks’ Elias Pettersson takes aim at making tough trip memorable


Pettersson sports a 17.1 shooting percentage, a figure that hasn’t been this high since the slick Swede’s 2018-19 rocketing rookie season of 19.4 per cent

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You see it in the body language. You hear it in the tone.

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Elias Pettersson is finally in a good place physically and mentally, and the Vancouver Canucks center knows he can be a difference-maker on a difficult and crucial road trip with stops in Minnesota on Thursday and Calgary on Saturday.

Pettersson is sporting a 17.1 shooting percentage, tops among club forwards, a figure that hasn’t been this high since the slick Swede’s rookie 2018-19 season in which he went 19.4 per cent en route to claiming the Calder Trophy.

And if you think confidence, or a lack of it, is just a convenient crutch to summarize his success or failure, then you don’t know Pettersson.

His standard is higher than he lets on because he has always preached and demonstrated a team-first approach. Check him out hustling on the back check to break up scoring attempts. Watch a devotion to being deployed on the vastly improved penalty kill that leads to intercepting passes and springing away on two-on-one advantages.

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Be at peace with Pettersson’s performance. He certainly is.

“It mostly comes from within myself,” said the 23-year-old forward. “I feel good and have confidence to not be hesitant about anything. But the team is also playing good and it’s easy to look at me because I’m scoring and getting more points lately.”


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Vancouver Canucks at Minnesota Wild

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Pettersson’s run of 21 points (11-10) in his last 15 games and 26 points (16-20) in the previous 26 outings is proof of a well-balanced and consistent game. He’s one shy goal of hitting a career-high 30 and one heavy and accurate one-timer from being that guy who can pull the trigger and find the target.

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Pettersson could have scored several times Tuesday in a 4-3 shootout loss to Ottawa, and a night where he had more shots miss the net (four) than find it (two) is rare. He missed two power-play chances by a hair and flubbed another.

An important example of Pettersson embracing Bruce Boudreau’s call to play in the dirty areas and score greasy goals at a time of year when time and space are at a premium, was demonstrated Monday during a 6-2 romp over Dallas.

After being dropped by a heavy Ryan Suter check behind the net, he got up, established position at side of the net, took a Sheldon Dries feed and jammed home a backhander short side. It took stamina and skill.

“They all count,” said Pettersson with a chuckle. “I got knocked over and Dries made a great play and I just tapped it in. We’ve always talked about taking pucks to the net and having guys around the net and it showed it right there.

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“It doesn’t matter who I play with. I can only focus on myself and everything is a mindset. If I do my best and put in the hard work, good things will happen.”

Moving back to the middle to replace the injured Bo Horvat, after having success at right wing, shows Pettersson’s versatility and accepting the challenge to improve his face-off success rate of just 43.4 per cent.

“I’ll get better there, too,” I promised.

Hard to argue with that commitment.

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