Boeser out ‘week-to-week’ with groin injury
Canucks will ‘have to find a way to win without him’ in the lineup, says teammate Horvat
BUFFALO — Brock Boeser now knows exactly what he’s dealing with.
The Canucks’ right-winger, who suffered a groin injury Oct. 18 in Winnipeg and had been trying to play through discomfort, hasn’t played on this six-game road trip and won’t be playing for some time.
“He saw a specialist and got some irritation in his adductors (muscles) and he’ll be out for the rest of the road trip,” coach Travis Green said Saturday, before the Canucks dropped a 4-3 shootout decision to the Buffalo Sabres.
“We’re going to call it weekto-week. He’s working out and he’s going to be fine.”
Green labelled it “good news” because the Canucks — and Boeser — now know what caused the 2017-18 Calder Trophy finalist to sit out games Oct. 24 and Oct. 25 in Las Vegas and Arizona before playing four more.
And that’s when Boeser aggravated what was thought to be a groin ailment following an encouraging four-point (2-2) outing Nov. 2 against Colorado at Rogers Arena.
However, Boeser had soreness following that game, didn’t practise the next day at UBC and only took a brief pre-practice twirl in Detroit on Nov. 5. He hasn’t been on the ice since.
An adductor muscle strain is an acute injury to the groin muscles on the medial aspect (inside) of the thigh. Although several different muscles can be injured, the most common are the Adductor Longus, Medius, Magnus and the Gracilis.
The Adductor Longus Muscle belongs to a group of the hip adductor muscles and is located in the inner part of the thigh. The function is to control the movement inward and to the sides of the thigh bone.
Bo Horvat seconded Green’s view in that at least there can be a plan for full recovery because the ailment has been properly assessed.
“To know he’s been lingering with pain, and to get an answer now, it’s a little bit more satisfying that we know something is wrong and let it heal and come back stronger,” said the Canucks’ centre.
“I’ve never had it. You get sore groins all the time, but if Brock could play, he’d play.”
Those who don’t get a full summer of off-season training can be susceptible to strains early in the NHL season. Boeser’s rookie season ended March 5 with a back injury and he wasn’t up to full skating speed — and completely over a bothersome wrist — until July when he competed and dominated the Minnesota-based Da Beauty League.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have full summers of training and it is tough when you don’t have a full summer to get your full strength,” added Horvat.
“And when you come back into the heat of things, you have to take that into consideration. It’s going to suck to lose him, but we have to find a way to win without him.”
Boeser added eight pounds in the off-season and there was speculation that it might have contributed to a slow start and just one goal in his first five games.
“It’s more weight and I didn’t do anything differently,” Boeser said before the regular-season started. “Same training and same amount of skating that I did last year.
“I didn’t even weigh myself until the end of summer and realized I was up seven or eight pounds. I thought that was pretty impressive.”