Kesler shares his thoughts on Miller-Pettersson Vancouver Canucks drama
The feud between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller has been the dominant storyline of this Vancouver Canucks season.
The drama between the two players bubbled over publicly and eventually led to the Canucks trading Miller to the New York Rangers.
The fallout from the drama has followed this team around all year long. Everyone from former teammates to coaches to media members have chipped in their two cents and it’s been a dark cloud hanging over this group.
When asked his opinion recently, former Canucks star Ryan Kesler proposed an old-school solution to the problem.
“Back in the day, we used to do helmets and gloves, locker box,” joked Kesler on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast. “I got my face punched in a couple of times.”
Kesler then switched to a more serious tone, noting the unprecedented nature of the extremely publicized disagreement between the two stars.
“I definitely haven’t seen anything that’s been that public before. There are rifts in the locker room throughout the year, but nothing to that scale. I’ve met both of them, I don’t know them personally… I’ve heard versions of stories, but I don’t even know what happened.”
The Miller-Pettersson drama has been a contributing factor in the Canucks decline since last year. This team nearly made the Western Conference Final last spring and now is struggling to crack the second Wild Card spot.
“It’s a tough one; you have two of your star players who allegedly can’t get along. They go toe-to-toe basically, and then it gets out in the media, and I know that Vancouver market, they definitely love the drama, which is fine; it’s a hockey market, and you’ve got to have something to talk about. That definitely grew, and I think it really hurt their team this year. I watched them play Anaheim when I was in California, and they don’t look like the same team they did last year.”
When at the peak of their powers, the combination of Miller and Pettersson down the middle gave the Canucks some of the league’s best centre depth. There’s no doubt that management tried to mend things and keep both, but it just ended up not being possible.
“That would be my first thought: let’s get these two guys in a room, let’s take them out, let’s go have drinks with them,” continued Kesler. “It might make things worse, but maybe that’s what we need. Maybe we just need a sucker punch, and we’re good the next day.”
“I’m guessing they exhausted all options because I’m guessing they did not want to trade J.T. Miller… and they probably didn’t want to trade Petey either.”
Since the trade, Miller has been playing great for his new team, while Pettersson still struggles to find his game in Vancouver.
With the trade deadline fast approaching on Friday, the Canucks could be making more moves soon. Still, when this season is looked back upon in the future, it’s the Miller-Pettersson storyline that will define it.