\u201cThe energy was fantastic. It was a great couple of games to put on for the fans that showed up, and we\u2019re looking forward to playing at home because it\u2019s been tons of fun, and they\u2019re super loud,\u201d said Patterson about playing in front of the Abbotsford fans for the first time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Patterson says the coaches and his veteran teammates have been fantastic this season and have helped him get extra work in before and after practice.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to work with them as much as I can until they get annoyed with me,\u201d said Patterson with a laugh.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Abbotsford Captain Chase Wouters has been a tremendous help early on this season, and Patterson says that he and fellow Canucks’ draft pick Braeden Cootes are trying to take away as much information as possible from Wouters.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWatty is such a great centreman who wins a lot of draws. Braeden and I are both working on different things but doing it together, so we\u2019re even picking each other\u2019s brains to figure out what works and what doesn\u2019t. We\u2019ve been finding different techniques and stuff like that. I\u2019m just having a lot of fun learning so much; it is awesome,\u201d said Patterson.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Patterson has played fourth-line centre in each game this season, but Abbotsford Head Coach Ryan Papaioannou wants you to know that this ain\u2019t your grandpa\u2019s fourth line; this one can contribute.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody has the right to carry pucks and make plays, and it\u2019s something we\u2019re trying to instill in them. We don\u2019t want guys that are on the so-called fourth line to play like they\u2019re on the fourth line. Make plays, score goals.\u201d said Papaioannou.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Patterson is excited that his head coach wants everyone in the lineup to play with confidence and creativity in the offensive zone.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t want us to shy away from making plays, and that\u2019s been great to have that confidence from your head coach,\u201d said Patterson. \u201cYou have to be strong defensively and still be responsible, but it\u2019s nice to have confidence to be able to make plays and have some fun with creating plays in the offensive zone.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Patterson is also developing as a penalty killer in the AHL. He killed penalties at times in the OHL and takes pride in frustrating the opposition\u2019s top players.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m willing to do whatever I can to help the team win, and wherever the coaches see me fit, that\u2019s where I want to play,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we can have a really strong PK, that gets them frustrated, that\u2019s fun to do.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though it\u2019s early in the season, Patterson is enjoying living like a pro and said the few weeks of experience he got at the end of last season helped him feel more comfortable this year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old Patterson is one of many young players making an impact in the Abbotsford Canucks’ lineup, and he hopes to keep growing and developing his game at the pro level as the season goes on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe energy was fantastic. It was a great couple of games to put on for the fans that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5128],"tags":[894,5,4,893,27,5313],"class_list":["post-694080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver-canucks","tag-canucks","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-vancouver","tag-vancouver-canucks","tag-vancouvercanucks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117494506157750384","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}