Tocchet: Pettersson among Canucks' 'passengers'
Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet singled out Elias Pettersson following Tuesday's 3-2 loss in Game 4 to the Edmonton Oilers.
"He needs to get going," Tocchet said, per The Athletic's Thomas Drance. "I don't know what else to say."
Pettersson has managed just one goal and three assists in 10 games so far this postseason. He's been held to just one point in the series.
The star Swede is not the only Canucks player who needs to elevate their game, though, according to the Jack Adams Award finalist. Tocchet had some harsh words for several other unnamed players who he believes aren't carrying their weight.
"We need five or six guys to get going here. I mean, this is the Stanley Cup Playoffs," he said. "There's some guys, I don't know if they (knew) it was the playoffs. We can't play with 12 guys."
Tocchet added: "You can't win if you have five, six, or seven passengers. It's playoff hockey. One of those guys can be the hero for us next game, but they've got to step it up."
The rest of the Canucks' core is performing as expected in the postseason, as Brock Boeser, J.T. Miller, and Quinn Hughes are all producing above or near a point-per-game clip.
The Canucks have been outscored 2-1 while Pettersson has been on the ice at five-on-five in Round 2 and have controlled 44.1% of the expected goals, per Natural Stat Trick.
Pettersson ranked third on the Canucks with 89 points in 82 games during the regular season.
The series sits at 2-2 heading back to Vancouver for Game 5 on Thursday.