A day after Vancouver Canucks president Jim Rutherford’s explosive comments about the relationship between star forwards J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson, the team itself is on defence.
After a lightly-attended optional morning skate, Miller was asked about Rutherford’s comments and Miller had little to say.
“I’m not commenting on this,” he told The Tennessean’s Alex Daugherty, who asked if he had any reaction to Rutheford’s comments, as well as if he had any comment on his relationship with Pettersson.
On Tuesday, Rutherford confirmed what has been reported before: the rift is long-standing, but they’d been working on the relationship. Now, though, it appears totally broken despite recent denials proffered by both Miller and Pettersson.
“I felt like for a long time that there was a solution here because everybody has worked on it, including the parties involved,” Rutherford told the Globe and Mail’s Gary Mason. “But it only gets resolved for a short period of time and then it festers again and so it certainly appears like there’s not a good solution that would keep this group together.”
“We’ve had those conversations and I think the parties understand that and I think they’ve tried,” Rutherford added. “As you know, sometimes emotions get deep and as much as people try sometimes you can’t get over it. It certainly appears that’s what’s going on here.”
Canucks coach Rick Tocchet spoke with a few reporters before the Canucks hit the ice in Nashville on Wednesday morning, but had little to say. It was surely not an accident that Tocchet’s availability began while Nashville coach Andrew Brunette was still speaking with the media.
Pettersson did not hit the ice for the skate and according to Daugherty, was not available for an interview.
