Foote gives surprising answer about response from Vancouver Canucks' Elias Pettersson
Adam Foote hasn’t often criticized his players this season, but last Saturday was an exception.
The Vancouver Canucks head coach benched Elias Pettersson during a 5-1 loss against the Seattle Kraken on Saturday night.
“He’s got to be better,” Foote said after Saturday’s defeat.
Pettersson echoed that briefly on Monday morning before the Canucks played the Dallas Stars.
“Play better,” when asked what he needed to do to rebound.
Seems simple enough.
Unfortunately, Monday wasn’t much better than last Saturday.
The Canucks lost 6-1 to a depleted Stars team on home ice. Canucks fans sarcastically chanted “we want the Cup” more than once during the game.
By the time the contest was over, Rogers Arena appeared less than half full.
Although Pettersson and the Canucks got spanked, Foote wasn’t doubling down on his criticism from Saturday.
“I thought he came out good,” Foote said when asked about the response from Pettersson. “I thought he came out a lot better.ā
Pettersson, for the record, posted his third straight game with zero shots on goal.
But don’t tell that to Foote, who was having none of the Pettersson criticism on Monday night.
“As the game went on, he’s a part of the team where it just wasn’t rolling our way,” Foote said.
“Whether it was bounces or stick checks, and then you lose [Pierre-Olivier] Joseph, we felt a little bit overwhelmed there.”
There you go. It wasn’t Pettersson’s fault that he had another awfully quiet night. It was, most certainly, the loss of Joseph at the beginning of the third period.
That was it. Surely.
After another shotless game from Pettersson, he’s now gone three straight games without getting a puck on net.
That marks the first time in his 522-game NHL career that he’s gone three straight games without a shot.
Back in the 2022-23 season, when Pettersson electrified Canucks fans with a 102-point season, he went shotless just once in 80 games.
It’s a dreary reminder of just how far he’s fallen in the two years since signing the richest contract in Canucks history.
While some have reported that there are teams that are being aggressive in their pursuit of Pettersson, it’s fair to wonder who would actually give up meaningful assets for him without the Canucks retaining salary.
Heck, it’s fair to wonder if there’s a team willing to give up assets for him at all.
Right now, Pettersson and the Canucks are sinking faster than you can say “trade deadline.”
After the loss on Monday night, the Canucks are on pace for 58 points. The last time they had a total that low was back in the 1998-99 season.
They’re now 3-16-4 in their last 23 games. If they keep that up, they’ll be the worst Canucks team since the early 1970s.