Back injury ends Boeser’s season
Sniper’s quest to break Bure’s scoring record for rookie Canucks comes up short
VANCOUVER — Brock Boeser could have bailed on the play that ended his season Monday.
The Vancouver Canucks’ standout rookie wouldn’t be sidelined four to six weeks with a soft-tissue injury — and a small nonstructural, non-displaced fracture of the transverse process in his lower back — if he had done what so many first-year players do. Especially in the dying seconds of regulation time.
Boeser could have cheated on the backcheck. He could have seen Cal Clutterbuck chugging down the wing and waved his stick at the New York Islanders’ winger, or simply stepped aside for a line change. But he didn’t. With 27.1 seconds remaining, Boeser did exactly what coach Travis Green expects from his players. Boeser tried to get into position to curtail Clutterbuck’s progress. And in the process, Boeser was levelled and his tailbone caught the partially opened gate at the Canucks’ bench. He was sprawled on the ice before grabbing his lower back in agony.
“I didn’t see the hit,” his teammate and roommate Troy Stecher said Tuesday. “I did a buttonhook because you could hear the collision and the whistle. You just kind of see him laying there and you panic for him. It was scary.
“It was definitely difficult because we were heading to overtime, but the whole atmosphere in the building kind of died. As soon as I got my gear off, I went and checked on him. I texted his mom so she understood he was in good hands.”
Had that gate not been ajar, Boeser would have dusted himself off and played in overtime instead of being reduced to healing and playing X-Box. He was sore and slowly shuffling around his home on Tuesday and was trying to keep his spirits up.
“He’s a pro — he takes his job seriously,” Stecher said. “He’s always trying to improve and it’s something he did at North Dakota and it’s just who he is. As his roommate, I went to the hospital, but what people don’t see is Taney [Chris Tanev] and [Michael] Del Zotto are there at 2 a.m. to make sure a teammate is fine.”
That’s the effect the 21-year-old Boeser has had on young players and the 37-yearold Henrik and Daniel Sedin. Hard working, humble, honest, respectful and minus any hint of an ego, Boeser is the latest poster boy for everything that’s right about a transitioning franchise.
Boeser finished his first season with 29 goals in 62 games, five short of the franchise record of 34 goals established by Pavel Bure in the 1991-92 season. Boeser was a good bet to break the mark until Monday’s mishap.
“Last night [Monday], he was joking about wanting to hit 30 [goals] and he’s pretty frustrated about that, but there’s a lot to be proud of,” Stecher said. “Not often a rookie is going to come in and lead your team in points. And I know this is the NHL, but he did that in college, too, [60 points in 42 games].
“He just has the ability to find ways to score goals and be an impact player. It takes a special talent to do that and he’s a special talent.”
Earlier this season, Henrik Sedin called Boeser “the most natural goal scorer I’ve ever played with.”
It set off a Twitter storm of comparables, but the captain saw something from the outset in Boeser.
And because Boeser sacrificed himself on the fateful play that ended his season, it only added to Sedin’s appreciation level.
“You’ve seen it throughout the year,” he said. “He’s not afraid to make plays anywhere on the ice. That’s what you want to see and I believe that’s always been his game. This city and this franchise knows what they have now — a really good player who can be a star in this league for a long time.”
The captain also lamented the loss of a good addition to the power play that took off in Los Angeles on Nov. 14 when Bo Horvat and Boeser were added to the first unit. The Canucks were operating at 14.1 per cent efficiency are are now at 21.7 and ranked sixth. Boeser leads all rookies with 10 power-play goals and 23 points.
“It was the same kind of feeling we had six or seven years ago,” Sedin said.
“And there’s nothing magic about it. We just had a good feeling when we stepped on the ice.” Daniel Sedin echoed all of the above. “Brock is a guy who the fans in this city should be really excited about — he is the real deal,” he said. “He has been extremely good and teams were focusing in on him and it wasn’t like he was flying under the radar. Really impressive.” Maybe Green put it best about Boeser. “He has been a big bright spot to our season with the All-Star Game and the goal scoring and how he has conducted himself,” he said. “It’s admirable. He’s not a cocky kid, he just goes about his business.”
OVERTIME — Daniel Sedin said the league should look at removing doors from benches for safety purposes. “I don’t know why they’re there — most guys jump over the boards. As long as they’re going to be opened and closed, there’s going to be a risk. Throughout the year, there are a lot of close calls.”
Henrik Sedin wasn’t so sure. “I’m old — I need doors, maybe one,” he said. “You rarely see these things happen. It’s bad luck. Teams are usually good at keeping doors closed when the puck is around.”