To reach 100 points for the first time in his NHL career, Elias Pettersson was productive in a number of ways. Here is a breakdown of how the Vancouver Canucks forward hit the century mark.
There is no road map to reach 100 points in the National Hockey League. Every journey is different with its own straightaways and speed bumps. And it's a path few Vancouver Canucks have travelled in the franchise's 53 years of existence. On Tuesday night at Honda Center in Anaheim, Elias Pettersson became just the sixth member to join the exclusive ranks of the Canucks 100-point club. He arrived in style delivering a goal-mouth feed to Brock Boeser on a first period power play.
This is a comprehensive breakdown of how Pettersson accumulated his 100 points.
Pettersson scored 38 goals and 62 assists. Of those, 37 were primary helpers while the other 25 were of the secondary variety. To the surprise of no one that has watched the Canucks closely this season, Andrei Kuzmenko scored the most goals set-up by Pettersson (23) but thirteen other teammates were also on the finishing end of scoring plays in which Pettersson was involved: JT Miller (12), Bo Horvat (7), Ilya Mikheyev (5), Anthony Beauvillier (4), Brock Boeser (3), Quinn Hughes (2) with singles by Conor Garland, Curtis Lazar, Nils Hoglander, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Tyler Myers, Jack Rathbone and Lane Pederson.
The slick Swede used the volume approach garnering 15 of his points on three separate five-point nights. The first came against Anaheim in November, followed by another against Seattle just days before Christmas and he accomplished the feat again in February against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Ducks, as it turns out, have been the friendliest of Pettersson's opponents this season yielding 10 of his 100 points.
Perhaps the hockey world should have known Pettersson was ready for a big season when he scored the Canucks first goal just 109 seconds into their October 12th opener in Edmonton. From there, he was relentless.
Over the six months that followed, Pettersson racked up 66 even strength points, 25 on the power play and chipped in nine points while short-handed. His most productive month in goals, assists and points was March when he registered 8+12=20.
As for his preferred night to maul opponents, Thursdays seemed to sit well with Pettersson who accumulated 27 of his points this season on Thursday nights.
Petterson has proven to be an equal opportunist when it comes to home and road production. He registered 49 of his points at Rogers Arena while picking up 51 away from home.
In reaching the century mark, at 24-years and 150 days Pettersson became the second-youngest Canuck player to hit the milestone (Pavel Bure did it twice at 21 and 22).
It stands to reason, that the majority of any high scorer's points come in victories. And Pettersson is no exception. With the Canucks winning 3-2 in Anaheim on Tuesday night (and Pettersson adding a second assist on the night on JT Miller's game winner), he amassed 68 points in helping the Canucks win hockey games this season while 33 of his points came in a losing effort.
No matter how you slice it, it requires plenty of skill with doses of durability and good fortune to reach triple digits. Elias Pettersson has etched his spot in Vancouver Canucks history. The question now is how many more 100-point seasons does he have in him? It should be fun to find out.