I don't know. That doesn't really add up though, If he was injured, you would have expected him to have sat the last game like all the other injured players.
Plus, this is the second time in his career he's had an multi-month period of time where he has played terribly the first one being a couple of years ago. And during the first time, his play was excused by many on account of an undisclosed injury but all the while the team and Petterson continued to deny that he had any injury.
Agreed that his even strength linemates are not very good. But Pettersson also looks bad on the powerplay where he plays with the teams best players.
If it's an injury with a 6-12 week recovery time frame or something like that then sitting the last game wouldn't make much of a difference. He doesn't move, shoot, or attack with the puck like he normally does. Watching him on the ice loosely reminds me of fat Boeser in previous years who just couldn't move his body in pace with his brain. I could be convinced that just the hesitance to attack is "lack of confidence" or some other enigmatic reason but not the rest, I'll be shocked if it comes out he's healthy.
With the other slump, there's enough context now in hindsight to automatically dismiss about 75% of it. I'm still not sure what to make of the remainder but I don't think its related to what we're seeing now.
I really cant think of any injury that coudn't be made worse by playing through it.
bruises and stuff sure no prob
but anything structural or torn it'd be easy to make it more severe
Hockey players are dumb when it comes to injuries and in general can't think past their desire to play the next game.
I always think of Henrik Sedin getting told he broke a bone in his finger and he can either wait a few weeks for it to heal or get the fingertip amputated and not have to miss any games, and he promptly tells them to chop it off.
But Mikheyev last season playing through his ACL tear for literally no reason at all last season works too.
