Forward Elias Pettersson says the Vancouver Canucks won't go down without a fight as they aim to overcome a challenging start to the NHL season and qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Canucks, 150/1 to win the Stanley Cup, had two goals from Pettersson on Wednesday in a narrow 4-3 defeat to the St. Louis Blues.
Canucks chasing Wild Card spot
Despite the disappointment, the 23-year-old was in defiant mood post-game, saying the Canucks will continue to chase the two Wild Card spots available from the Western Division until the mathematics mean their task is impossible.
The Canucks (32-28-9) are currently six points behind the Dallas Stars, who hold the closest second Wild Card spot.
Pettersson reached the 20-goal mark against the Blues, and with 27 assists he has a total of 47 points.
Drafted in the first-round, fifth overall of the 2017 NHL draft, the Swede hit the 200-point mark against the Blues (85 goal, 115 assists) in 231 career regular season games.
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The Canucks fired Travis Greene and replaced him with Bruce Boudreau in early December.
Since then, they have had an upturn in form which has seen their play-off hopes rejuvenated, something Pettersson says they won't be giving up on.
Pettersson not about to give up
He said to the media: "It's easy to look at the standings and try to calculate how many points you need but we can't think about 'oh, we need this amount of games'. We've just got to try to win the next game.
"We know how important every game is now and we're not going down without a battle."
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