The Vancouver Canucks are in a bit of a slump at the moment, with Thursday night's 3-1 loss in Vegas making it just two wins in their past seven games. Sure they're still in a playoff spot as of Friday morning, but the fact remains they've been struggling for positive results of late.
At the heart of these struggles, are reports that the ongoing rift between J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson is worse than ever. So much so, that it got to the point where Canucks coach Rick Tocchet thought it best to separate two of his best offensive weapons on the power play.
On an individual basis, the duo have each received criticism for unnecessary mistakes in the past two games; Miller versus Utah and Pettersson against the Golden Knights. As you'd expect, there are plenty of people taking sides in the dispute.
Among those who side with Miller, they believe the best thing to do is trade Pettersson, bring in a quality defenceman and save some money on his expensive long-term extension. For those defending Pettersson, they point towards his excellent play while Miller was on his personal leave of absence, highlighted by producing 15 points in 10 games.
Boudreau takes a smart approach to the situation
One person who won't pick sides though, is former Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau. He was only in charge in Vancouver for just over a year, but it was long enough to form a good bond with both Miller and Pettersson individually.
As per Noah Strang of the Daily Hive, Boudreau spoke about the situation on TSN's OverDrive. He said:
"The easy (thing) would be to say yes, it is a problem and I knew they had a little bit of a problem between them before I got there, but I thought that was all straightened out."
Certainly you can understand why Boudreau would have this perspective given how the Canucks played last season, finishing with the third-most points in franchise history. However, talk of the rift came back this season, not helped by news of a brief but heated physical exchange between Miller and Pettersson during practice.
Now, things have only gotten worse, or at least that's the perception from the outside. While Pettersson wasn't named specifically, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman recently claimed the reason for Miller's personal leave of absence was due to tension with teammates.
Plausible deniability Mister President
In respect of the perception from the outside, Boudreau is taking the approach of plausible deniability, a la the character Albert Nimzicki in Independence Day. As Boudreau said:
"I’m hoping that it’s not a situation. I haven’t phoned anybody and I don’t want to. People have been asking me to phone and get the nitty-gritty going here. I don’t want to phone and I don’t want to find out whether they’re having a problem with each other because I think they’re both great players."
The 69-year-old doesn't owe the Canucks organisation anything after the way they treated him, but it speaks volumes about the man that he doesn't want there to be any issues in Vancouver. He said:
"It shouldn’t be happening. I’m one of those guys that wants to dig my head in the sand right now and not know if they hate each other… I like both the guys a lot and I don’t want to see one’s being a real butthead to the other one."
In respect of who's to blame, it is our humble opinion that there is fault on both sides and it's up to them to find some common ground. Even allowing for Miller previously saying he and Pettersson are polar opposites when it comes to their respective personalities, they owe it to their teammates to hash things out; particularly with both being alternate captains and as such needing to lead by example.
Ultimately, how this all plays out remains to be seen, but as things stand fans will understandably be worried that this rift could tear the team apart. It can only be hoped the other players are taking Boudreau's approach in not picking sides, otherwise this could further contribute towards ruining what is/was looking like a promising season.