Canucks practice scuffle about more than just frustration

Earlier this week, we wrote about Wednesday's brief but heated physical exchange between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller. First reported by Jeff Paterson of Rink Wide: Vancouver, the teammates chopped at each other at the end of a battle drill, Miller then administered a quick cross check and finally they shared a few choice words, before going their separate ways.

As you'd imagine and/or expect, this brief but highly charged moment led to an overload of media coverage and numerous suggestions about why it happened. For our part, we believed it was mostly just a heat-of-the-moment incident, mixed in with Pettersson's frustration at his poor run of form getting to him and manifesting itself by way of the scuffle with Miller.

However, we did also have a theory about why the incident involved Miller specifically: " ... as one of the leaders on the team, you can make the feasible case that Miller was just simply trying to light a fire under his teammate, to help him find a way out of the funk he's currently in."

Well, it turns out we might have been onto something - in a manner of speaking. Giving due credit to Rob Williams of the Daily Hive, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman spent a decent amount of time discussing Pettersson's struggles with Kyle Bukauskas, on Friday's edition of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast.

A calculated move to inspire Pettersson

Friedman talked about how the four-time NHL All-Star needs to take his game to another level -- including being tougher -- with him believing the scuffle actually part of a calculated process by the Canucks. As the highly respected NHL journalist said: "They didn’t want it to be up to (Jim) Rutherford or (Patrik) Allvin or (Rick) Tocchet to do it. They really believe in their leadership group. I think they said, ‘You guys are the ones that are going to have to do it.’ Miller’s obviously taking that very literally… I think (Quinn) Hughes is involved too."

To stress, this is Friedman's belief rather than outright saying what's going on, but for someone so well-connected and excellent at his job, his opinion carries a lot of weight. He went on to add: "I think the Canucks see this as it might be better for Pettersson if it comes from his teammates as opposed to the coach or the (general manager). I think what the Canucks have said to their leadership group is ‘Elias needs to get to another level. You all see it. And we want you guys to get him there.’ And I think they all see it, they understand it, and they’re trying to push him there."

As a final note, Friedman also acknowledged Pettersson probably doesn't like this 'tough love' approach, but that the Canucks hope he understands why they're doing it. To that, we would say we don't care how he feels, and that he just needs to suck it up.

Pettersson can't demand or expect any sympathy

Our reasoning for this seemingly harsh response is two-fold. First, that the 25-year-old is the Canucks' highest-paid player after signing an eight-year, $92.8 million deal, so he's being more than amply compensated.

Which brings us to the second part, which is that more should be expected when you're earning the most money on the team. And just 34 points in your past 52 games -- regular season and playoffs combined -- is quite simply not going to cut it.

Now we did recently write about the potential psychological reasons for Pettersson's ongoing struggles. These possibilities included him just not caring anymore, because he'd finally received his big pay day.

However, we quickly dismissed this theory, asking why the 2017 fifth round draft pick would now risk his reputation, particularly after everything he'd done to get to this point of his career? Further, the scuffle with Miller seems to indicate he does still give a damn.

The question now is, will the tough love approach of Miller and the Canucks indeed light a fire underneath Pettersson, and motivate him to start playing better? The organisation certainly hopes so, given just how much money they have invested in the Sweden native.

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