Elliotte Friedman and HNIC Panel Discuss the Tension Between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller in Vancouver
The Vancouver Canucks have been dealing with plenty of drama behind the scenes, and now it appears that it's effecting the locker room in a negative way.
This season has been full of drama in Vancouver, with J.T. Miller's recent absence paving the way for many conspiracy theories with the Canucks, with the biggest of all being a rift between he and Elias Pettersson in Vancouver's locker room.
During his latest Saturday headlines segment on Sportsnet, Elliotte Friedman revealed some information about the situation, shedding light on what many around the league have speculated on for quite some time.
1. The Canucks had thought this was solved last year, the team had a great year, the two players had a great year, and they thought they had moved past this. Obviously that wasn't the case.
2. It's bled into the way they've played on the ice and that can't happen. You can't have it effect the way the team and the players are playing.
3. This is probably the most important one, this has started to take its toll on other people in the organization, the players, the coaching staff and the hockey operations department.
I think in a perfect world, the clear number one choice is that Pettersson and Miller remain long-term... nobody expects you to play playstation together as Rick Tocchet said, but they do expect you to have a professional working relationship.
This was recently brought up by former Coach Bruce Boudreau as well, who claimed that this was an issue during his time with the team, showing that for a number of years now, these two simply haven't gotten along.
This was also discussed on the Sportsnet panel, with the prevailing opinion being that these two simply need to put their issues aside and be professional enough on a team that's looking to make a run at the Stanley Cup.
Ultimately, this should be a team that's rolling in 2024/25 with so much talent, but this side story has taken the attention away from everyone in the organization, and until it gets sorted out, this will continue to be an issue in Vancouver.
