Elias Petterson, and how his televised mugging applies to the Canadiens

Last year prior to the start of the season, I wrote a position paper on Victor Mete, arguing that a frail teenager whose presence on the roster won't materially affect the fortunes of the Grand Club shouldn't be exposed to the risk and the toxicity of the NHL, that one further year of physical growth, of strength training, of maturation can do wonders for the life-expectancy and skill development of a prospect.

This is largely how I feel this year, in reference to Jesperi Kotkaniemi.  We first saw him at the Prospect Development Camp and later at the Rookie Camp, and he proved to be a nice kid who still needed to improve his game and to put some meat on his bones.  Since then, he's improved every game he's played, he's held his own, he's not been embarrassed, but I'm going to shudder anytime he goes in the corner or is anywhere near a Bruin. 

The Mike Matheson wrestling move on Elias Petterson is exactly what I feared would happen to Victor Mete last season, and what can happen to Jesperi this season.  The League has changed, sure, small guys can now thrive yada yada yada, but in the end, there's still boards and corners and crosschecking in the NHL.  Nick Kypreos and Don Cherry and Mike Milbury still hold court prominently.  Just because Matt Cooke or Colton Orr aren't around anymore, doesn't mean that a slender teenager is now bulletproof.

Mike Matheson obviously is no goon, and his check wasn't egregious, but it was a little bit angry, it was within that mile-wide grey area that board battles offer players.  His extra propulsion of Elias down to the ice, when the puck was no longer in the area, that would have been penalized in the NFL as a roughing the passer move, as "giving him the business".  In the NHL, it's a 'hockey play', and veterans are coming out of the woodwork to expiate the crime, to argue that they saw and endured way worse back in the day.  As if we should look back to the NHL's sordid history for guidance on how to proceed.

Send Jeppu back to Finland.  He's not physically ready for the pounding that is coming his way, inevitably, one of these days.  It doesn't need to be from Dave Schultz, it will come from another team's version of Jordie Benn, an overmatched plodder who now only has one way to stick in the NHL, with toughness and grit and 'being hard to play against', and the Kypreos-sainted "let them know you're there" approach.  Otherwise, Jesperi is going to get a truncheon in the mouth, and it'll wreck him, and we'll wallow in our sorrow.