TSN 1040's Rob Fai, host of TSN Radio Vancouver is clearly among those in Canucks Nation who are frustrated with the early season struggles of the team, who are off to a Scotia North Division-worst 1-3-0 start through 4 games heading into Wednesday evenings game against the 2-0-1 Montreal Canadiens.
During a segment on Tuesday, Fai focused in on the play of one of the Canucks' youngest, brightest star players in Elias Pettersson, wanting to know just one thing. "Where is Elias Pettersson?"
"He's been Teflon since he arrived, but I don't know what you need to do to get more out of Elias Pettersson right now," Fai pondered. "He's always been off-limits. He's been the untouchable Canuck because he's that damn good. You say anything bad about Pettersson, you say anything bad about Hughes and it's off-limits.. can't do it," he continued.
"You can talk about any other player in this organization that you want, but those two guys have been off-limits - but WHERE is EP40?!"
Fai was fired up, but wasn't done there. He also had something to say about the young Canuck's social media usage during the offseason, as if that has something to do with Pettersson's current slump.
"He spent the whole off-season sitting around on Instagram, trying to show you how cool he is in all his fresh gear.. WHERE IS HE?!"
Now, granted, the local media demands a lot of the organization's star players in any market, and when they don't perform, they're always expected to answer for it - but in this case, the Canucks are just 4 games into the season, enduring rigorous COVID-19 protocols, with no fan energy to feed off of, coming off of a lengthy layoff. I think you have to give Pettersson and company a little bit of a leash to find it here early on.
Thankfully, a former Canuck has come to Pettersson's defense on Twitter, and had a question of his own for Fai and TSN Radio Vancouver.
"The hardest part listening to this is all the fans are dying for some of the players to show some personality. We finally have someone that does and now he gets criticized for it. I don't get it... What do you actually want?" said former Canucks netminder Eddie Lack, via Twitter.
"He's building his brand," Lack continued in the thread. "Nothing wrong with that. I'm sure he has people helping him. There's enough hours in the day to practice, [play] hockey, play some video games and upload a few photos."
Pettersson, 22, has amassed 55 goals and 133 points through 143 career NHL games. With just one assist to show for his efforts through 4 games in 2020-21, there's still plenty of time for the young Swede to turn his season around - perhaps as soon as Wednesday's matchup against the Habs in Vancouver.
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