Having ‘flipped the page’ on tough few years, Canucks’ Boeser motivated for camp

VANCOUVER – Struggling mentally and emotionally for most of the last two seasons, Brock Boeser said Wednesday he feels better than he has in years and is happy about starting another season for the Vancouver Canucks.

Now, he just needs his physical health to match his mental well-being.

Grief over the loss of his father, Duke, 16 months ago was not linear for Boeser, who admitted to Sportsnet at the end of last season – after he publicly rescinded the trade request he put to Canucks management in December – that at one point he resented hockey.

“It was a long year; I went through some stuff,” he told us in April. “I’m trying to explain this right. It’s hard for people to understand the aftereffects of what I went through. Unless you really go through this, you can’t understand what it’s like dealing with a (dying) family member. I really blamed hockey for not being home with my dad. That was a big challenge I worked through this year. And with my hand injury, then the trade rumors, and I wasn’t playing good — it just all was a lot.”

But Boeser reached a turning point last spring and told reporters Wednesday after skating with teammates at the University of B.C. that he found peace at home in Minnesota over the summer and has “flipped the page” on the last couple of years.

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“Last year was definitely a hurdle mentally,” Boeser said. “It was a little different, obviously. You’re still dealing with, you know, that loss of my dad. You don’t come to peace at first and you sit there and wonder, you know, why certain things happen. But I think I’ve come to that peace. So in that regards, it’s a lot better. I feel a lot better mentally. I feel really motivated right now and I’m really excited to get camp going.”

This is excellent news for both Boeser and the Canucks, whose general manager, Patrik Allvin, found the right winger’s three-year, $20-million-US contract to be immovable last winter.

Although the longest-tenured Canuck, Boeser is still only 26 years old and should be capable of matching or exceeding his prime offensive years. But his best season – 29 goals and 55 points in 62 games – remains his rookie year from 2017-18.

Even if his heart and mind are willing to finally score 30 goals in the National Hockey League, Boeser’s body must cooperate, which is why these five weeks before the start of the regular season are critically important for the former Calder Trophy runner up.

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Starting with serious back and wrist injuries that ended his rookie campaign, Boeser has struggled for physical health since then. This challenge has been highlighted at training camps past.

Last season, Boeser broke a bone in his hand on the final day of camp in Whistler, underwent surgery and spent the pre-season trying to get healthy. He made the Canucks’ opening-night lineup but wasn’t 100 per cent, then failed to score in his first six games before missing another six due to an infection in his hand. He didn’t score an NHL goal until Nov. 18, had just four in his first 23 games and finished his most challenging season as a professional with 18 goals and 55 points in 74 games.

The previous pre-season, Boeser sustained a groin injury that cost him the start of the regular campaign. He scored just four times in his first 22 games. In 2019, the last autumn training camp before the pandemic, Boeser missed the start of camp due to a contract impasse, then suffered whiplash when hit from behind in the pre-season.

It’s not coincidental that his best two NHL seasons, his rookie year and the pandemic-shortened 2021 season when Boeser had 23 goals and 49 points in 56 games, came with full training camps and full health.

“It’s just so frustrating,” Boeser said of his false starts. “Like, you work so hard in the summer and try and come in the best shape possible. Even last camp, I felt so good and then you can’t skate for a week. You get behind the eight ball and then you’re trying to catch up, and you’re not skating with your teammates to get that chemistry, so it does suck.

“I’ve thought about that. I feel great now. You know, I see people all the time in Minnesota, weekly, to make sure I’m feeling good and make sure nothing gets behind. Overall, I feel really good. My wrist feels good. I’m just making sure I take care of my body so nothing happens.”

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He is among the majority of Canuck veterans who answered coach Rick Tocchet’s call to report back to Vancouver early and prepare as a group for training camp, which opens in Victoria on Sept. 21. Training groups are skating daily at UBC under the supervision of Canucks skills coach Yogi Svejkovsky.

“Toc talked about coming in in the best shape you can be in,” Boeser said. “His camp, too, he’s going to push us hard and that’s what we need — to push hard and kind of set the goal and expectations right off the bat. If we can have a really good camp, a really hard camp, and push the limits for every guy. . . I think that will really set us up nicely for the start of the season. We all know that you can’t go 0-5-2 to start the season (like the Canucks did last year). We need to come out and have a good first road trip and then go from there.”

A key difference this year, Boeser agreed, is that there is harmony from top-to-bottom in the Canucks organization. Bruce Boudreau, who was replaced by Tocchet in January, coached the Canucks through training camp and the pre-season last fall on an expiring contract that had been inherited by Allvin and hockey-operations president Jim Rutherford.

Uncertainty about Boudreau’s future contributed, along with injuries like Boeser’s, to a poor camp and pre-season.

“That’s a good point,” Boeser said Wednesday. “There have been a lot of things, you know, I guess distractions, you could call them, internally, externally, whatever it is. There’s always noise you hear. I feel like this year. . . we’ve got Toc, we’ve got the (new players) they wanted to get this summer. So, there’s really no excuses now.”

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