Veteran Vanek sings praises of rookie Boeser
Veteran is clicking with Boeser, helping young centre improve his playmaking ability
In the state of hockey, there are no state secrets.
Play well enough from an early age in Minnesota and everybody knows your name and your game.
Thomas Vanek played two seasons at the University of Minnesota and two more with the Wild. He heard about that Brock Boeser kid from nearby Burnsville, who already owned an NHL-calibre shot.
“I heard of him when he was in high school,” Vanek said Friday. “Just like Casey Mittelstadt, these are generational players and you hear about guys like Brock. Last summer was the first chance I had to skate with him and see what he’s all about.”
While Mittelstadt, an Eden Prairie, Minn. native, has untapped potential as the eighth overall 2017 draft pick by the Buffalo Sabres, Boeser made a quick impression on Vanek last summer.
“His shot was something that stood out to me and how he can get it off from different angles,” said the Vancouver Canucks’ veteran winger. “It’s like Patrik Laine and how he gets it off and it’s not something you can teach — you either have it or you don’t.”
What Boeser has is the attention of the entire NHL. It’s why Vanek is eager to play mentor to a humble and hard-working 20-year-old Calder Memorial Trophy contender.
Boeser not only leads all rookies and the Canucks in goals (21) and points (38), only two players under the age of 21 in the last 30 seasons have scored more goals through their first 44 career games.
Alex Ovechkin had 32 goals in 2005-06, Eric Lindros had 28 in 1992-93 and Boeser has 25, including the four he collected last spring.
If that isn’t enough, only three players in the NHL had more goals than Boeser entering play Friday. Nikita Kucherov and Ovechkin had 24 apiece and Anders Lee had 23.
Boeser is also first in rookie power play goals and power play points.
“A guy like Brock, you don’t have to teach him much,” Vanek said. “He’s a sponge and a quick learner. I remember when I first started. I had great leaders in Chris Drury and Mike Grier (Buffalo).
“Playing in the NHL was a dream and once I got there, I wanted to improve. I wanted to see what other guys did — like Chris becoming a Stanley Cup champion (Colorado) — and what it takes and that helped me a lot.
“It’s why it’s fun for me to help the young guys.”
What’s helping Boeser is adding another dimension to his wellrounded game.
In the opening minutes of Thursday’s 5-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, Boeser drove hard down the right wall. He then stopped quickly, spun and fed a back pass to Ben Hutton in the high slot. The defenceman then spotted an open Vanek and it took an acrobatic Anton Forsberg paddle save to stop the sequence.
Boeser then showed positional smarts by getting to the far post in the second period and put a Sam Gagner feed off the post. And he was almost too pass-happy before starting the sequence on the club’s second goal, and before initiating the third.
Boeser would score and finish with the second four-point night of his young career.
“It’s only going to get harder for him,” Vanek warned. “People are going to slowly figure out that he’s a good player and shade him a little bit more. But he’s going to have that element of pulling up and making that pass across that can be so dangerous because it’s going to find open guys, no matter who plays with him.
“He knows how to get open and where to get open. He’ll be fine. He enjoys the game and he enjoys scoring goals. He can hold his shot for a second or two and even with the goalies in position, he still finds a way to get it by.”
Boeser combined with Vanek and Gagner for 12 points Thursday, highlighted by Vanek’s third five-point outing of his career.
The 33-year-old Vanek has 12 goals and the pending unrestricted free agent will command interest at the trade deadline. That doesn’t surprise Boeser.
“Since I was a little kid, I remember when he played at UM and I was just six and I watched him growing up,” he said. “Getting to know him in the summer, we just built off that. We’re similar players and he sees that and feels he can help me a lot.
“Both he and Gagner are great playmakers, but it’s also how we communicate and how hard we work. You need to be mentally ready for every game and sometimes guys are tired or mentally just not there. I’m trying to show up every game mentally prepared.”
Striking a versatile offensive balance will make Boeser even more of a threat, but don’t expect him to go away from what got him here — that release — on Saturday against the Los Angeles Kings.
“It depends on the play and what’s open,” he said. “There are times when you can draw guys to you — and Vanek does it so well — and pass to a guy for a wide-open net.
“I’ll still take a shot if I have it, but playmaking can definitely help.”
Bitter cold enveloping much of Canada has reduced the number of skiers on the slopes during the key Christmas holiday season, blunting industry optimism boosted by good early snow conditions and strong foreign visitor interest due to the weak Canadian dollar.
As Environment Canada issued extreme cold alerts for parts of B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, the Mont Orford ski area east of Montreal announced it would close for the day on Thursday to ensure guest safety. The cold snap is expected to last all weekend.
At Mont Tremblant to the north of Montreal, the slopes were active with vacation package buyers, many from the United States, according to Annique Aird, vicepresident of sales and marketing.
“It turned cold here the last few days which is making it more challenging but people are dressing well and still skiing. The upside is the really blue sky days,” she said.
She said the resort is seeing fewer day visitors due to the cold.
The picture was less optimistic at Mount St. Louis Moonstone, about 145 kilometres north of Toronto, which has no on-site accommodation and relies on day skiers to fill its slopes, with about 30 per cent of its annual visits during the Christmas season.
“The 27th, 28th and 29th should be the busiest days of the Christmas holidays and our attendance so far has been about half of what we normally have,” said general manager Robert Huter.
He added the cold means skiers are missing out on “unbelievable snow conditions for this time of year.”
In most ski regions in the West, temperatures were also in the minus 20s C.
Some hills were changing the way they offer services such as ski lessons, with more frequent breaks to warm up, because of the cold but Christopher Nicolson, CEO of the Canada West Ski Areas Association, said he hadn’t heard of any closings.
He said people who pre-booked their vacations for the holidays will come anyway but the cold will discourage local skiers.
“I think overall the industry is quite optimistic we’re going to have a good year,” he said, pointing out the low value of the Canadian dollar versus the U.S. greenback is diverting more international guests to Canada and keeping Canadians at home.
The dollar is trading at around 80 cents US, up from about 74 cents US a year ago. It was at par about five years ago.
The exchange rate is giving Canada a big advantage over U.S. resorts, and an early shortage of snow in the Western U.S. is exaggerating the trend, said Mike Colbourn, president of SnoCountry.com, an American site that tracks snow conditions at resorts throughout North America.
“When you’re planning your destination ski vacation, and you’re looking east and you’re looking west, it’s a compelling argument to go to these world-class resorts (in Canada) if you’re watching your dollars,” he said.
He said many U.S. resorts are offering discounts to better compete with their Canadian rivals.
Yves Juneau, CEO of the Quebec Ski Areas Association, said the number of U.S. visitors to Quebec ski resorts last year rose 32 per cent to 242,000, the highest in at least three seasons, and the trend is continuing this year.
He said the cold weather is hurting Quebec hills, with some reporting as much as 80 per cent fewer skiers than normal.
Some ski resorts have also been closing early or cutting back on night skiing under an arrangement with Hydro- Québec to reduce electricity usage during times of high demand, a situation also linked to the extreme cold weather.
“It’s really significant. For us, the Christmas season is a portion of the year we can’t miss,” said Juneau. “Fortunately, we had a strong season start so that gave us a bit of a cushion.”
The cold weather isn’t affecting all of Canada’s major ski resorts.
At Whistler-Blackcomb, 120 kilometres north of Vancouver, the forecast Friday was for a high of minus 8 C, with 15 centimetres of new snow.
“We’re getting hammered with snow right now and have seen 30 centimetres in two days,” said spokesman Marc Riddell. “Around 96- to 97-per cent of our terrain is open.”
He said snow conditions allowed the resort to open a week early this year but wouldn’t comment on attendance.
It’s really significant. For us, the Christmas season is a portion of the year we can’t miss.