It’s the first period, opening night and Elias Pettersson explodes like buckshot through centre ice.

Laying rubber in his wake, Pettersson gathers and settles a rolling puck with some slick dangling and then looks just about unstoppable, like whitewater crashing down a British Columbia canyon, as he rips a shot short side, off the bar and out.

The Canucks bench lights up, and for all the incredible things Pettersson has done since, his ridiculous opening shot is still the play most of his teammates pick when asked about the first time they thought to themselves “holy hell, this kid is amazing.”

Appreciating the moment, the Rogers Arena crowd erupts in what was among the greatest “welcome to Vancouver” greetings any professional athlete has had here.

Coyly smiling, Pettersson nods his head sitting on the bench and it’s all so endearing as he soaks it in.

Having not seen him shoot a puck like that all preseason, Canucks head coach Travis Green approaches Pettersson, leans down with a grin and says: “What took you so long?”

Not missing a beat, Pettersson tilts his head toward his coach and replies: “I was just saving it for the season, coach.”

The rest of the bench loses it, laughing.

The Canucks rode the Pettersson energy to a win in that opener.

Since, Pettersson hasn’t just altered the outcome of one game, he has changed the perception of his team, the way teammates think of themselves and, really, everything about the Canucks and their fans.

Several statistical models indicate there may not be a player in the NHL more important to his team than Pettersson has been to the Canucks this season. When he’s on the ice, his team has scored 70 percent of the goals and there are only three other players in the league who can claim the same.

The Canucks control goals at nearly a 33 percent better rate with Pettersson than without him. It’s the biggest difference any player in the NHL makes.

Consider this. When Pettersson is on the Canucks power play Vancouver has outscored opponents 20-to-1. When he’s not, the Canucks power play goal differential is 6-to-5.

Let that sink in for a breath. The Canucks power play is just a plus-one on the season when Pettersson isn’t on it.

Based on micro-stats data tracked by The Athletic’s Harman Dayal, Pettersson’s 14.1 carry-in zone entries per hour would rank him second in the league. No other Canuck has a rate higher than eight per hour.

Also, Pettersson’s zone exit rate of 13.9 per hour would slot him sixth if compared to last year’s group, wedged between Patrick Kane and Nicklas Backstrom (Connor McDavid was 11th).

In other words, he’s an elite player carrying the puck into the offensive zone and he’s regularly starting those rushes deep in his own end.

If the season ended right now, and you just had data and not the standings to pore over, Pettersson would be in the running for MVP consideration if not an obvious first choice.

The fans in Vancouver have responded in an unprecedented way. Of all the Canucks jerseys sold this season, 50 percent of them have had “Pettersson” emblazoned on the back.

His teammates understand why. These are elite athletes who have spent most of their lives playing and watching hockey and every one one of them has seen Pettersson make a play which they can’t really believe.

“It happens once a game, at least,” Jake Virtanen said. “The whole bench, at least once a game says ‘Holy shit’ to themselves when Petey makes a move.

“I’m not even kidding. I’m dead serious.”

There have been astonishing dekes, breathtaking goals, ferocious pokechecks and backchecks so crackling teammates say they can’t forget them.

Imagine seeing a backcheck so impressive it’s the first thing you tell your friends and family about when describing one of the games most gifted young offensive players.

But there’s so much more. There have been dozens of subtle plays you’ve never taken note of, ones which never made any highlight package, ones only Pettersson’s teammates can understand.

“I remember this one play, we were on the power play and he was caught at the blueline along the boards and there were two guys on top of him,” Troy Stecher said. “In my head I’m thinking ‘Get rid of it. Get rid of it. Get rid of it.’

“He didn’t. He pulled the puck in close and just faced the D-man down. He looked at him and the D-man just backed off.

“I asked him about it after the game. I said ‘Yo, man, I panicked. I thought that was going to be a breakaway the other way. What did you do?’

“He said ‘I just stared at him in the eye.’

“I asked ‘Why?’

“He said ‘If I stare at the puck, they’re both going to jump me. If I stare at him in the eye, he’s going to pause and I’m going to be able to make a play.’

“It does make sense, because as a defenceman, once he turns his eyes away from me, I’m jumping him.”

It’s that kind of interaction with Pettersson which has become commonplace in the Canucks dressing room.

“He’s a student of the game, he’s always learning. But he teaches guys too,” Stecher said. “You can go ask him questions. Maybe it’s not so much the older guys but for us in that younger age group, it’s easy for us to communicate.

“I’m always asking him situational questions.”

Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images

Talk to any of the younger players on the Canucks about Pettersson and you quickly understand the type of impact it can have when your team has a player like him on it.

“He’s a special player,” Bo Horvat said. “Just seeing what he does on the ice, it does push the young guys.

“Even myself. He pushes me to be better. You see a player in his first year doing what he’s been doing and this is what goes through your head ‘Why can’t I be like that?’

“He doesn’t even realize he’s doing it but he pushes his teammates to be better.”

It means even when he’s not playing and on injured reserve, he’s having an impact.

Of all Pettersson’s relationships in Vancouver, the most fascinating is the dynamic between him and his demanding head coach. Green has long appreciated the exceptional talent Pettersson possesses. He was the one who made the decision to start this season with Pettersson at centre, a position he hadn’t played in years. It seems like an act of faith few other coaches would have shown to a European rookie, especially if you heard all of the analysts who kept saying Pettersson would need to start his NHL career on the wing.

Pettersson, of course, has rewarded his coach and done it by being as hungry in the defensive zone as he is when hunting for goals.

“He doesn’t just want to be good,” Green said. “The story of Steve Yzerman is well known. For years, everyone has talked about how he finally got it; how he was this unbelievable player who finally got it and when he did all he wanted to do was win.

“A lot of young guys want success. They want to score and they want to play well. (Pettersson) has that but he really wants to win too and he understands that part of it and what it takes already.

“He understands it means backchecking hard. And it means sacrifice. I’ve had talks with him and when I come over to him, he already knows exactly what I’m coming to him about.

“I don’t have to yell. He just gets it. And that’s one of the things you have to ask about your young players. Do they keep making the same mistake?

“He doesn’t.”

They call him The Alien, but Pettersson is obviously part human. He’s been hurt twice and his second injury took him off the ice as he was playing the best hockey of his season.

Pettersson’s hat trick performance against the Ottawa Senators is his Mona Lisa, so far, and the night he will be measured against for the rest of the year. It wasn’t just the three goals, though they were terrific. It was the mesmerizing end-to-end rushes, a backcheck Jacob Markstrom would later say was among the greatest he’s ever seen and the best 3-on-3 overtime shift a Canuck has ever had, one which finished with Pettersson’s seventh game-winning goal of the season.

It looked, in a word, magical.

Green had a feeling Pettersson’s season was building to a performance like that.

“You can have a great game but it doesn’t always happen for you,” Green said. “I walked out of the New Jersey game (one the Canucks lost 4-0) with him and I said to him ‘Man, you were fucking awesome. You can have games like that and lose. Just know you were really good tonight and be ready to play Ottawa.’

“He’s had five-point nights but those weren’t his best games. For me, it was Ottawa. He took another step. It started in the New Jersey game.

“It’s exciting. And he’s a good kid.

“Great young players adapt. They figure it out and take another step and I think he’s done that.”

Everyone seems to have a favourite Pettersson moment and his career isn’t even four months old.

“The first ‘wow’ he gave me was in development camp in my last year of that camp (summer 2017),” Brock Boeser said. “We were doing shootouts and he did the exact same move in camp that he did on Pekka Rinne this year on a penalty shot.

“That was the first time I thought ‘Wow, this guy is legit.'”

For Stecher, it was that first goal on opening night.

“When I think about him, I think of that long reach and his ability to stickhandle around guys and embarrass them,” Stecher said. “But his shot is crazy.

“You look at him and he’s 170-something pounds and it doesn’t matter if it’s a slapshot or a wrist shot, he just crushes it.

“His first goal against Calgary, he doesn’t lose stride and he cocks it way back. It looked like he was going to pass it and the next thing I know, he slingshots it into the net.

“I’ve never seen anything like that.”

And Vancouver has never seen anything like Pettersson.

“He makes us so much better,” Antoine Roussel said. “It’s like any team that has a player like that.

“Your team’s success depends on players like him.

“I still can’t believe his shot. He obviously has a great shot, but his whole game is about reading plays. His timing on everything seems perfect. His shot is always timed perfectly so that’s how he gets off a bomb.

“His snap shots are right on. His passes are almost always bang-on too.

“How about the overtime in Ottawa? He had three Grade-A scoring chances back-to-back-to-back. I’ve never seen anything quite like that.

“You knew he was going to be pissed if we lost that game.

“What impresses me the most is that he wants to be the best. He wants to play against the best players. And he wants to win.

“It’s with guys like that you win with.”

It’s with guys like him that allows a city to dream of better days too.

(Top photo illustration by Georgia Twiss)