Canucks open preseason tonight
No leaks on lineup as Vancouver prepares to host Edmonton Oilers
WHISTLER — Brock Boeser can’t wait to play for the Vancouver Canucks again, even if it’s in a exhibition game.
The right-winger’s highlight-reel-worthy goals were a rare bright spot in an otherwise dismal campaign for the Canucks last season before a lower-back fracture cut short his rookie year.
Boeser had 29 goals and 26 assists in 62 games, as Vancouver finished second-last in the Pacific Division with a 31-40-11 record.
The 21-year-old said he isn’t thinking about how many goals he’ll put up this year, but he is eager to build on his success.
“I think the key for me is just to show up to the first preseason game and hopefully start right where I left off last year,” he said Monday after the Canucks wrapped up a four-day training camp in Whistler.
“I’m going to go into the game and not worry about injury or anything like that and just focus on the way I play, taking it shift-by-shift, putting in all the effort I can.”
What Boeser will have to show this season is that he can replicate his first-year performance, said Canucks head coach Travis Green.
“To be consistent and to do it year after year is what the great goal-scorers do. And I know that, in his mind, that’s what he wants to do,” Green said of Boeser.
“He doesn’t have to prove anything to me. It’s proving it to himself and his teammates. And that happens over time,” added Green.
Just when fans will get their first glimpse of Boeser this year remains unclear.
Green said he plans to keep two groups for the team’s seven exhibition games and has a “roadmap” in mind, but he stayed tight-lipped Monday about possible lineups.
Asked when 19-year-old Swedish centre Elias Pettersson will make his debut, Green was curt. “Soon,” he said. Canucks fans have anxiously awaited Pettersson’s arrival, especially after the teen notched 56 points in Sweden last season, leading that entire league in scoring.
The fifth-overall pick from the NHL’s 2017 draft joined the Canucks’ other prospects in Penticton for a showcase before moving on to the main camp in Whistler.
Pettersson described his first NHL training camp as difficult but fun.
“I knew it was going to be tough because I saw on Twitter from last season. But after the first practice, I knew it was going to be tough, all three or four days,” he said.
Now the centre is looking forward to getting a chance to show what he can do.
“I have opportunity to show hopefully I can play good in the games,” Pettersson said. “I will take those (exhibition) games and try to make the most of it.”
The Canucks had ample opportunity to see what games might be like at training camp, where they scrimmaged three days in a row.
“Guys are trying to make the team and not just make the team, but fighting for ice-time, special-teams time,” Green said. “Every day you’ve got to go to work and give your best.” It was also a chance for the coaching staff to experiment with different lines.
Pettersson skated with fellow Swedish prospect Jonathan Dahlen on his left wing and Nikolay Goldobin on his right for most of camp. Others were switched around. Getting a chance to skate with different guys is good because it creates versatility, said Bo Horvat, who lined up with Boeser last season.
“There’s going to be points in the season where teams are going to hone in on us and you go through little slumps and stuff like that,” said the 23-year-old centre. “So to get chemistry with everybody on the team is going to be important.”
Horvat is going into his fifth season with the Canucks, and said he’s optimistic after a fast-paced, competitive training camp.
“I find the speed and the skill even in scrimmages and practices has been really high,” he said. “So it’s looking bright for sure.”
The Canucks host the Edmonton Oilers in their exhibition opener tonight, 7:30 p.m. at Rogers Arena. The Canucks are also home to the Calgary Flames on Wednesday and the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday, with those two games starting at 7 p.m.