Ailing Boeser practises on a line with Goldobin and rookie Pettersson
Boeser, who could help take load off Pettersson’s shoulders, back after avoiding hernia scare
The relief was the definitive injury diagnosis.
The imminent return has captured the imagination.
When Brock Boeser learned from a specialist that an Oct. 18 groin strain, which morphed into an adductor irritation, was not developing into a hernia that would require surgery, the Vancouver Canucks right-winger finally had clarity. In a tense fiveweek period, he played just six of 13 games and while he hoped for the best, it was hard to not fear the worst.
“I didn’t have a hernia and that’s nice to hear. We just kind of dialed it in to what was wrong and what we had to fix,” Boeser said Monday after practising with Elias Pettersson and Nikolay Goldobin in a bid to play Tuesday against Los Angeles. “We took the right steps and I was pretty cautious to make sure we know the root of the problem.
“It’s tough to sit out — I hate sitting out — and just seeing some of those games where I felt I could have helped out to get a couple of more points, it sucked. But I feel we all looked for the positives coming out of this and not have it linger on. I knew it (playing) wouldn’t have benefited me in any way because it could make it worse.
“I feel really good.”
The problem was what to make of Boeser playing two games after the initial tweak, sitting out the following two and ending a run of four straight outings with two spectacular goals and adding two assists Nov. 2 against Colorado. He didn’t skate the next day at UBC and then in a Nov. 5 practice at Detroit to open a six-game sojourn, he took a few pre-practice twirls and called it a day — and a trip.
“It makes it a lot tougher when you have to go out after that (Colorado) game because that was one of the more fun games I’ve had in this building and hopefully we can build off that game,” said Boeser. “Hopefully my confidence is still there.”
It obviously wasn’t during the injury and led to all kinds of speculation.
Was it a trickle-down effect of a March 5 back injury that ended Boeser’s season and curtailed off-season training? Was one part of the body compensating for another to keep the Calder Trophy finalist from showing an explosive stride and that hard and accurate wrist shot and lethal onetimer? He has been limited to four goals this season.
“It was super hard coming back,” he said of the back ailment. “Even in the summer, people maybe thought it was going to be easy. It’s not. Coming back from an injury like that, it’s so traumatic and obviously I did everything I could to get back. I obviously didn’t feel like myself the first few games.”
On Nov. 10, the Canucks announced Boeser was heading back to Vancouver from the road trip to see a specialist because of an adductor irritation. An adductor muscle strain is an acute injury to the groin muscles on the inside of the thigh. Although several different muscles can be injured, the most common are the adductor longus, medium and magnus and the gracilis muscle.
The adductor longus belongs to a group of 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.
Boeser’s return should not only add another evenstrength element, his presence will take pressure off Pettersson to be the go-to shooter on the first power-play unit. That was a tough ask with teams taking time and space away to turn the rookie sniper into more of a playmaker.
“We’ve obviously missed him,” Bo Horvat said of Boeser. “He brings scoring and that threat on the power play. Teams are starting to shade Petey a bit with his onetimer because they watch tape and to have a double threat for Eagle (Alex Edler) to dish the puck — and even a backdoor for me to have the one-time option — is going to be huge for us.”
It should add another dimension Tuesday against the Kings. The Canucks allowed just 22 shots Saturday in a 4-2 win in Los Angeles to end an eight-game losing streak and it’s tempting to think offence first with the expected return of Boeser. But that can’t be the case against a veteran-laden team that has yet to find its way. The league’s worst team was 30th in goal production on a per game basis, had the 28th-ranked power play and is in need of a breakout game.
“We played well defensively and just capitalized on our opportunities,” Horvat said of Saturday’s effort. “That’s what we need to do every single night and what we were missing. It’s a step in the right direction.”
So is getting Boeser back. “He’s a threat, especially on the power play,” said Pettersson. “All the teams know he can shoot, so if they put a guy on him, it will open up other guys on the power play.”
OVERTIME — Darren Archibald cleared waivers and was re-assigned to the AHL.