Boeser raising the bar for rookies
In honour of a cold, wet weekend in Vancouver, here are the equally dreary Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports.
In the Canucks’ 4-3 overtime
■ loss to St. Louis on Saturday night, Brock Boeser directed nine shots at the net, scored a goal and was the only Canuck to produce anything of substance when the game was on the line in the third period.
For all that, his most impressive moment might have come in the defensive zone when he cut off Vladimir Tarasenko’s path to the net in the third period after the Blues’ sniper had walked around the Canucks’ defence.
Boeser is now in the thick of the Calder conversation and, barring injury, figures to stay there the rest of the season. But the larger development is what he represents to the Canucks, a 20-year-old star in the making, a foundational piece who offers the promise of better times ahead.
Think of the Sedins as rookies. Think of Ryan Kesler. Boeser is light years ahead of where they were at a comparable stage.
You sense he might have to add an extra half-step to his game and get a little stronger, but in terms of skill and hockey sense, he’s already at an elite level.
He is, in short, the best Canucks’ rookie since Pavel Bure. Don’t know what the finished version of Boeser will be. Do know you’ll want to be around for the journey.
Then there’s Jake Virtanen,
■ the most-talked about two-goal forward in hockey.
Saturday night, Virtanen misread a play at the Canucks’ blueline late in the second period which led to the Blues’ second goal. It was also his second shift of the period after he’d put in a solid opening 20 minutes with the Sedin twins.
Sorry, don’t get it.
On the night, Virtanen played 11 shifts for a total of 9:12 of ice time.
Derek Dorsett had 23 shifts and 15:02.
Sam Gagner, you ask? Twentythree shifts and 16:15.
If you believe ice time is based on merit, Virtanen is clearly held to a different standard than any other Canucks forward. But to what end?
This isn’t a marginal prospect. This was the sixth player taken in his draft year; a player who, in his own way, could be as important as Boeser. The talent is raw and unrefined, to be sure, but it’s there, and it’s the organization’s responsibility to develop that talent.
At some point, the Canucks have to determine what they have in Virtanen, and they can’t do that based on 10 minutes a game. Play the kid. If you still don’t like what you see, there are options.
The Blues sit in first place in
■ the West, largely because they lead the conference with 70 goals in their first 21 games. Of those 70 goals, 21 have come from defenceman, including two against the Canucks.
The Canucks’ blue-line, just so you know, has produced three goals this season, two of them by Chris Tanev, who’s been out of the lineup the last five games. Last year, the blue-line combined for 22 goals.
“It’s too hard to produce offence in today’s game with three forwards and the defence
playing a supporting role,” said Blues head coach Mike Yeo. “We encourage our guys to be active and the forwards do a good job of reading off them.”
By way of instruction, Blues defenceman Alex Pietrangelo started the play that led to the tying goal in the third period with an aggressive forecheck on Derrick Pouliot. The goal was scored by, you guessed it, Blues defenceman Joel Edmundson.
Your agent fulfilled a dream
■ on Saturday night when he met Bill Goldthorpe, the former minor-league tough guy who was the real-life inspiration for Slap Shot’s Ogie Oglethorpe.
Goldthorpe was also wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with a photo which appears in my book on the WHA, The Rebel League. The book is still available on Amazon and, you know, Christmas is coming.
Hey, my kids have to eat, too. Christmas came early for the
■
CFL in the Eastern final. They got a thrilling game in front of 24,929 fans in Toronto. They got the Argos in the Grey Cup. If that wasn’t enough, there was the unveiling of Canadian quarterback Brandon Bridge, a potential game-changing star for the league.
The next question: Does Riders’ head coach Chris Jones have the stones to commit to Bridge as his starter next year? As of this writing, the choice would seem to come down to Bridge, a young, charismatic and productive QB, or 38-year-old Kevin Glenn.
I know. Tough one there, but I’d lean toward Bridge.
At a luncheon in Montreal on
■
Friday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman crowed that the league will generate between $4.5 billion and $5 billion in revenues this season. Just wonder what he’ll be saying two years from now, when both the league and the players can opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement.
You may be aware there is a track record there.
And finally. MLS released an
■ interesting set of numbers last week that underscored both the successes and challenges of the league.
The good news? Attendance is up to an average of 22,000 per game, the seventh-highest total for any league in the world.
The not-so-good news? They still can’t draw flies for TV games.
ESPN reported an average audience of 272,000 for its nationally televised game. The Leafs’ regional broadcasts, by way of comparison, generate audiences of over 500,000.
How is this going to change? Millennials have embraced MLS. But millennials aren’t keen TV viewers.
Throw in the league’s bizarre schedule — how can they hope to create momentum when they take three weeks off before their conference finals? — the league’s inability to develop its own stars and the United States’ epic failure in World Cup qualifying and it’s hard to see where that TV audience will grow.
Yet, MLS is undeterred. There will be 23 teams in the league next year and the plan is to grow to 28 in the near future.
If that seems like a lot, it is. Bigger isn’t better and more teams doesn’t address MLS’s issues.
Expansion has to come from a solid base, not shifting sands. The game needs a foundation in North America before it starts adding teams like McDonald’s franchises.
Anything else reeks of avarice and over-ambition.