The Four Nations Faceoff might be the rejuvenation that Canucks centre Elias Pettersson is looking for …
This is a chance for “Petey” to play in a best-on-best scenario in his peer group for the first time since he was a point-a-game player for Sweden at the 2018 World Junior Championship.
Obviously this best-on-best is a whole different animal.
Away from the distractions of the Vancouver market and having had almost two weeks since the J.T. Miller controversy ended with the American centre being dealt to the New York Rangers, it’s the perfect chance for Pettersson to put it all behind him and find his game.
“I’m excited to play for Sweden, play some good hockey, and hopefully get a few wins,” Petey said to open his pre-tournament media availability in Montreal. “It hasn’t been my best season, but that’s in the past, I’m just trying to look forward, ahead, and I’m very excited for this. We had a good game against Toronto and I think I was happy with my game then, so just trying to build on that.”
The Canucks headed into the two-week break off a 2-1 win over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. Pettersson played 18:31, had a nifty, primary assist on the opening goal, and also blocked three shots while monitoring Leafs captain Auston Matthews most of the evening.
“I could tell early on he was into it,” Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet said of Petey after the game. “There was a couple times I yelled his name to go out and one time he hesitated, and I said, ‘no go, get out there, you’ve got him’. I think he needs a little bit of a push, like ‘you’ve got ’em tonight’, and I think that was a big thing for him, so hopefully he builds on it.”
Confidence is everything and it appears Pettersson might be building his back after a creaky first half of the season.
“I just want him to have fun,” Tocchet said of Petey at Four Nations, “I know it’s a serious tournament, everyone wants to win, it’s serious, (but) I want him to go represent his country and go have fun with his countrymen. Just have fun.”
“It’s exciting,” Pettersson stated Tuesday morning, “It’s something I’ve been looking forward to, (to) represent Sweden. Me personally, I’ve never played a best-on-best tournament, so yeah, very excited.”
