As we watched Elias Pettersson roll in the Swedish Elite League last year, it gave Canucks fans something that’s been in short supply recently: Hope. And as he’s begun his NHL career, it appeared that we were indeed getting what we thought, hoped and prayed for. Pettersson is an elite talent, and alongside Brock Boeser poised to be the leaders of a new core, and filling the void left by the Sedins.
What we also knew was that at some point we’d have to deal with someone taking a run at him. To be honest, I thought it was going to happen in that rematch against the Flames, that they would try and get some tit for tat retribution for Eric Gudbranson’s hit on Calgary rookie Dillon Dube on opening night (and making Travis Hamonic regret his slavish devotion to a stupid ‘code’).