The Vancouver Canucks went 2-1-2 in the absence of Elias Pettersson. And as Sportsnet’s John Shannon points out, the Canucks are 5-4-2 in games without number 40 in the lineup. The Canucks held down the fort modestly in Pettersson’s absence, but a healthy Pettersson surely makes the Canucks’ lineup more deadly than without.
In his first game back on Sunday afternoon, Pettersson deflected a shot from Brock Boeser, finding the Red Wings net, past goaltender Jonathan Bernier.
After an all-around rough second period for the Canucks, one where they failed to vacate their own end of the ice for the majority of the period, the boys in blue found themselves down by a goal heading into the third period, heavily out-shot.