Petterson knocked out of the game after being slammed to the ice.

Very bad news for Vancouver.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Petterson knocked out of the game after being slammed to the ice.

The Vancouver Canucks have gotten off to a very exciting start to the 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League regular season thanks in large part to all the hype surrounding rookie sensation Elias Pettersson

There was a ton of hype and expectations regarding Pettersson dating as far back as last season and since arriving on the scene the 19 year old center has not disappointed in the least. In fact in spite of all the pressure that was likely on his shoulders Pettersson has likely exceeded the expectations of even his biggest supporters and has frankly been taking the NHL by storm since his debut. 

Over the course of his first 5 games Pettersson has recorded a stunning 5 goals and has added an additional 3 assists for a total of 8 points, again this is a 19 year old kid we are talking about here. To make things even more impressive he has done so while playing arguably the most important position in the NHL. center, and has done so often times while facing the oppositions most elite players whenever he is out on the ice. In spite of all that no team has seemingly yet found a way to slow the young man down, that is at least not until tonight. 

Pettersson once again came out of the game strong on Saturday with his Canucks facing off against the Florida Panthers, scoring a game tying goal in the second period. The Canucks were on the man advantage and down a goal when Pettersson found himself in the slow with the puck on his stick, he wasted little time in beating Panthers goaltender James Reimer. It was a nasty shot that came off Pettersson's stick and it was so clean that even the Panthers' broadcast crew had to stop and marvel and the amazing shot from such a young star in the making. 

Unfortunately though things would turn rather ugly for Pettersson and the Canucks in the third period. Just a little over 5 minutes after the start of the third Pettersson danced around 24 year old Panthers defenseman Mike Matheson, something that Matheson obviously was not very happy about. After being embarrassed by Pettersson Matheson clearly placed a target on the young man's back and went back for some revenge as soon as Pettersson had the puck on his stick again. Matheson delivered a strong, and clean, hit along the boards that knocked Pettersson off balance, but that was when Matheson rally took some liberties. 

With Pettersson already on the way down Matheson clearly put all of his strength into an effort to slam Pettersson into the ground, something that he did in fact do successfully, causing Petterson's head to slam onto the ice. The Canucks rookie was stunned on the play and if I had to guess that was the result of his head impacting the ice, and not merely due to the wind being knocked out of him. Pettersson was slow to get up and would leave the game without returning. 

Although the Canucks did not retaliate during the game, Antoine Roussel has vowed to do just that the next time the two teams face each other at Rogers arena. 

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