Perhaps like their shooting percentage, the harmony and good vibes of the Vancouver Canucks were due for regression this year. Still clinging to the second Western Conference wild card spot but with a tough remaining schedule and a new batch of injuries, the Canucks are neither good enough to contend (as they were last year) nor bad enough to write off (as they were for several years before that). The on-ice product is such a slog that the only entertainment the team now provides is in the form of a purported rift between their two top centers, Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller.
The simplest version of this story goes that Pettersson is passive and disengaged while Miller is intense and abrasive to the point of bullying, and because of this, they do not get along. “Petey and my relationship has come a long way. We're still working at it. We're completely different people, you know what I mean?” Miller told Sportsnet's Iain MacIntyre last February. If you’re at all familiar with hockey media’s latent Don Cherry mindset, you can guess that they tend to read the Swedish Pettersson as aloof and effete, while J.T. Miller, who gets caught swearing on the on-ice microphone roughly 15 times a season, plays his foil, the classic American red-ass who cares a lot.
As a fan, I have found this a weird and crazy-making story to follow. But there is also something instructive in it—not as a story of locker-room chemistry, but of the dumb codes and euphemisms trafficked in by hockey media and taken seriously by front offices. Let us see how the beef sausage is made.
OCT. 23
Canucks reporter Jeff Paterson observes “a brief but testy exchange” between Miller and Pettersson at practice. To this point in the season, both have disappointed. Miller missed most of the preseason with an injury and his defensive play continues to slide. Pettersson, in the first year of a $92 million extension, looks sluggish and tentative, which has in the past been a sign that he is playing through injury.
NOV. 19
The day after he is benched for almost the entire third period of a game against the Predators, Miller takes an indefinite leave from the team for “personal reasons.”
DEC. 11
In Miller’s 10-game absence, Pettersson has scored 15 points, breaking out of his early-season slump. After an overtime loss to the Blues in which Pettersson had a goal and an assist, Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet speaks to the media.
FARHAN LALJI, reporter, TSN: With J.T. Miller due back soon, what can you say about the way Petey has elevated his game in J.T.'s absence?
TOCCHET: Yeah, I mean, that's what you expect him to do, right? He's done a good job. Producing. I don't know what else to say. You guys are obsessed with Petey, huh? It's Petey, Petey, Petey, every game.
LALJI: You get paid a lot, you're always going to be part of the story.
TOCCHET: I know, but every game ... I know you want me to say the wrong thing, that's why. I’m not falling for that trap anymore.
DEC. 18
In the four games since Miller rejoined the team, Pettersson has scored zero points. Curiously the two of them have also not played on the same power play unit, which leads fans to wonder whether their relationship has deteriorated so much that they cannot even be on the ice together. On the TSN OverDrive radio show, former Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau is asked whether the rift is something Vancouver needs to address.
BOUDREAU, sighing: Well, the easy thing would be to say yes, it is a problem, and I knew they had a little bit of a problem between them before I got there, but I thought that was all straightened out.
DEC. 19
Rick Dhaliwal, a decently sourced-up insider-type Vancouver radio guy, insists the rift is real on the show he co-hosts with Don Taylor, Donnie and Dhali.
DHALI: The first thing I want to say is this, Donnie. This isn’t a media fabrication. Stop with "the media is making this stuff up." You can go back to [former Canucks head coach] Travis Green and you can go back to Bruce Boudreau, Don, and if you gave them—what’s that thing called? Truth…
DONNIE: Serum.
DHALI: Serum. They’ll tell you the truth. And Bruce Boudreau said on a Toronto radio station, yes, there was issues when he was coaching the Vancouver Canucks, Miller and Pettersson. So just stop, this isn’t the media making it up. Just stop that right now. Second of all, this management team knows about it. The owner knows about it. The players know about it. The agents know about it. So just stop. It’s not the media making up crap. Just stop with that portion of it. And it's picking up on social media 'cause you know the troll accounts—the same five, six guys run by the same five, six guys are heating it up now. And they're loving every minute of it. So the trolls that hate Miller are out there doing what they do best—
DONNIE: "Hate Miller"?
DHALI: Well, they love Pettersson, they hate Miller. They're getting up in the morning, they're loving this stuff! But here's what I'll say, Donnie. You can't win in hockey, Don, with your two highest paid players not liking each other. Every guy in that dressing room better be pulling on that rope the same way or else it doesn't work. And if you don't like the guy after hours, Donnie, you don't have to go to beers with the guy after the game. But man, oh man, when you put that jersey on, you better be prepared to play for every guy in that dressing room or it's not going to work.
DEC. 21
At morning skate, Pettersson and Miller are reunited on the first power play unit. The media speaks to Canucks captain Quinn Hughes, who becomes the first person in the organization to acknowledge the rift.
HUGHES: Everybody knows what the reports are out there, but I think that everyone expects a lot from each other. There’s times I get upset with Millsy, there’s times I get upset with Petey, there’s times I get upset with [defenseman Filip] Hronek. That doesn’t mean I don’t love those guys and vice versa. I’m going to make some bad plays; they’re going to make a play where I wish they saw me here or saw me there, but over the course of playing together for six years, I think those things are normal. They’re going to happen.
Shortly afterward, Tocchet speaks with the media.
REPORTER: When teammates are having a hard time getting along, what can the coach do?
TOCCHET: How come you didn’t ask for Petey and Millsy today? No, seriously, how come you didn’t ask to talk to them?
Various reporters murmur that they will ask for them postgame.
TOCCHET: Listen, it’s all about the crest. As long as I coach, it’s always about the crest. It’s not about the name on the back and you’re going to have arguments, you’re going to have fights. I’ve been fortunate to be in the Stanley Cup three times—two as a coach, one as a player—and there’s always been something that has galvanized the team or something like that. Whether people are bickering and complaining, it happens all the time. And it’s my job to make sure that guys have a voice and you move on from certain stuff. But you also gotta be mature too. It’s not—you know, you don’t have to play PlayStation together. You don’t have to go to dinner together. But if it’s your turn to go to the net, go to the net. That’s really what it comes down to.
That night, the Canucks fall to the Sens in overtime, as Miller loses his man on the game-winning goal. As promised, reporters request to speak to Miller and Pettersson after the game, but only Pettersson meets with the media.
PETTERSSON: That’s still going on? Well, it’s the same answer. It’s good. I don’t know why people still try and make shit up, excuse my language, but that’s my response there.
PATRICK JOHNSTON, reporter, The Province: So it hasn’t been distracting you?
PETTERSSON, rolling his eyes: Oh my god. Next question.
Pettersson leaves. It is not actually clear on video that there are no more questions, so it sort of looks like he has left the scrum in anger, but reporters confirm later that he has left because there are no more questions. Johnston writes that Pettersson shouted “Read the room!” at him as he left. On Hockey Night in Canada that night, Elliotte Friedman discusses the rift, whose existence has now been sort of confirmed by Hughes and Tocchet but denied by Pettersson.
FRIEDMAN: I think it’s not new to people who follow the Canucks that [Miller] and Pettersson have a unique relationship, to say the least. But three things have kind of brought it again into the forefront right now. Number one, the Canucks had thought this was solved last year. The team had a great year, the two players had a great year, and they thought they had moved past this. Obviously, that wasn’t the case. Number two, it’s bled into the way they’ve played on the ice, and that can’t happen. You can’t have it affect the way the team and the players are playing. And number three, and this is probably the most important one, it has started to take its toll on the other people in the organization. The players, the coaching staff, and the hockey operations department.
DEC. 22
Pettersson is still without a point. Reporters speak to Miller at practice and ask him about the rift.
REPORTER: Are you bothered by the reporting about you and Petey?
MILLER: I’m not—listen, you guys, in a sense, the outer world have created this thing. Like, this isn’t a thing. So, am I bothered? No. But you guys are just wasting your time.
ANOTHER REPORTER: How tired are you of hearing of it?
MILLER: I don’t care. You guys want to talk about it, you guys want to ask me, ask me all you want. I can bring up Petey and we can do the interview together if that would make you guys happy.
DEC. 23
Pettersson finally gets a point. Two of them—both goals. But in this home game against the Sharks, he also crashes into the boards and leaves with a shoulder injury early in the third period.
DEC. 30
The story of the rift has mostly lost steam over the NHL’s holiday break when Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre publishes an interview with Canucks GM Patrik Allvin. In the interview, MacIntyre asks Allvin to evaluate the team’s performance in 2024 and the two of them discuss the pressure Pettersson might be feeling since signing the extension.
MACINTYRE: You do have an out on that contract because Pettersson’s trade protection doesn’t start until next season. But is moving your 26-year-old star actually possible?
ALLVIN: Well, you know Jim's history. [Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford is notorious for making lots of trades.] We want to build a team that sets us up for long-term success. Building around the long-term deals with Miller and Petey, having Quinn and Demko locked up, Filip Hronek and Jake DeBrusk, I mean, those are big pieces. Petey has shown up to this point that he is an extremely talented, quality player that could and should be a No. 1 centre. I believe in him. I believe that he's capable. (But) he needs to mature and understand that there are certain expectations and it does not get easier. And you need to face the music when things don't go well. Is it (a trade) possible? I guess I would say anything is possible.
JAN. 1
Brad Richardson, who played 17 games with the Canucks as a waiver pickup late in the 2021–22 season, goes on a podcast to talk about the rift.
RICHARDSON: Let me tell you this, and I’ll be honest, super honest with you, and I was in that dressing room with those guys. I love J.T., love him. He’s a fuckin’ animal. But I even told him, "You’re too hard on this kid. You’re too hard on him. You’re saying exactly what I think, but he’s a kid that doesn’t take—when you’re on him, on him, he’s going to shut it down." I told him, like, "Hey, you’re going to lose this guy if you keep doing it." That’s what I said to him. And hey, J.T.—he’s the man. But there is a lot of tension, and something’s gonna give, I guarantee you.
JAN. 2
In his Toronto Star column, Nick Kypreos writes, “It’s sounding like the Vancouver Canucks are leaning toward a major roster change as it becomes clearer to management that the current roster—specifically feuding stars J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson—cannot co-exist.” The same day, Elliotte Friedman joins Matt Marchese and Mike Futa on Sportsnet’s The FAN Hockey Show.
I CANNOT TELL THE HOSTS’ VOICES APART, SORRY: Which is more likely, the Vancouver Canucks trade one of J.T. Miller or Elias Pettersson, or the Montreal Canadiens make the playoffs?
FRIEDMAN: [Long preamble about Montreal’s playoff chances and the Eastern Conference wild card race] I believe everybody knows that Vancouver is open to listening. I believe that they have already, on both players, and will continue to do so. But I still think that Vancouver’s preference is that the two of them both, for lack of a better term, grow up and figure it out. Because they realize these are hard trades to win. But I think the difference now, as I said a couple weeks ago on Hockey Night is that the stress of it all and the fact it’s still a thing has begun to spill over elsewhere onto the organization. It’s clearly bothering Tocchet that this is still a thing. I believe it’s bothering Hughes that it’s still a thing and now it’s just spread where everyone has to deal with it.
This is basically everything that is dumb about this sport and this team. That anyone would even entertain this debate—whether to trade the quiet 26-year-old who is still a Selke-caliber defensive center when snakebitten or the loud 31-year-old who is definitely not—is dumb, but in character for hockey media. That the Canucks' party line appears to actually be two different party lines is dumb, but in character for the Canucks, who once brought you the surreal scene of Bruce Boudreau talking about his impending firing. That we are talking about all of this and not the front office's failure to add any defensive depth in the offseason is dumb and, I suspect, the point.
