The city of Vancouver is holding its breath hoping for the best for Elias Pettersson one day after he left the Canucks’ game against the Montreal Canadiens after getting tangled with Jesperi Kotkaniemi.
Already ruled out for Saturday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team is waiting for the full results from an MRI on his right knee.
“I’m walking fine. I feel better today than yesterday, so that’s good,” Pettersson told Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos.
“I think we both just fell down and I maybe fell on his leg. I’m not sure what happened,” Kotkaniemi said. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. I said this morning that he’s a good player, so everyone in the League wants that he’s on the ice, so so do I.”
While some Canucks fans were seeking blood having now watched their stud youngster get injured for the second time this season, his teammates and head coach Travis Green didn’t see anything malicious in the play.
“I think it was just two guys in a bit of a battle,” said forward Brandon Sutter. “Looked like Petey tried to get body position to try and hold him up and kind of got tangled and went down. It was kind of an awkward fall and it’s unfortunate. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious.”
“I’ve watched it a lot of times. First of all, it’s not a dirty play by their player at all,” Green said afterward. "[Pettersson] gets hooked a little bit. Petey actually pushes back on him, leans back and probably tries to give a little bit of a reverse hit, and two young guys fall to the ice. It’s not a penalty.”
Pettersson, who was named to the Pacific Division All-Star team this week, leads all rookies with 22 goals and 42 points
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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.