VANCOUVER – Despite losing five of their last six games while bumping down the playoff ladder, the Vancouver Canucks did not practise on Monday, which was good for everyone except Brock Boeser.
The Canucks’ first-line winger, who fractured a rib cartilage in a Feb. 8 game against the Calgary Flames, made a surprise return to the ice with teammates for the morning skate before Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
From the time he was hurt in what appeared to be a fairly innocuous tussle with Andrew Mangiapane, the Canucks set Boeser’s recovery timeline as follows: re-evaluated in one week, re-evaluated in three weeks, out for the regular season, and we’ll see.
Clearly, they didn’t know with this injury how long their 23-year-old scorer would be out. But they always planned that he would play again before the playoffs because general manager Jim Benning told Sportsnet at last month’s trade deadline that he needed to leave enough room under the salary cap to bring Boeser back from the injured list.
Skating with the team on March 8, one month after the injury, appears to represent a best-case scenario for Boeser, who hasn’t scored as much as expected this season but with 45 points in 56 games continues to be a key driver of offence.
Anyone who has had injured ribs knows even breathing can be painful, and Boeser’s cartilage will be torqued by shooting and tested in puck battles. Ideally, he could use at least a couple of full practices – not just morning skates that are typically devoid of battle drills – to work his way up to playing condition.
But practices are going to be rare this month for the Canucks, who have 16 games in March and on Tuesday start a stretch of four games in six nights. Back-to-back road games in Arizona and Colorado are sandwiched between home games against the New York Islanders and Winnipeg Jets, one of the many teams the Canucks are battling in the Western Conference wild-card race.
Good luck finding practise time. Boeser skated on his own several times before Sunday, and he may get only another morning skate or two before he is playing.
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ANOTHER LOTTO TICKET
With Vancouver being a Canadian hockey market, the second question about Boeser’s potential return is with whom does he play? This leads to question No. 3: Who comes out of the lineup?
Boeser should be re-united with first-liners Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller on the 6-40-9 line even though his replacement, Tyler Toffoli, has been outstanding in the nine games since his trade from the Los Angeles Kings. Toffoli has eight points with the Canucks but was blanked Sunday when he merely shot one puck off the post, deflected another off the cross bar and led the Canucks with five shots against the Blue Jackets.
But Toffoli’s 200-foot game has been nearly as impressive as his offensive skills. The 27-year-old is a good, smart, experienced professional who understands both ends of the ice, which is what you’d expect from a Stanley Cup winner who was taught in L.A. by former coach Darryl Sutter.
Toffoli can easily slide down to play with Tanner Pearson, his close friend and old teammate, and Bo Horvat, who still gets most of the heavy-lifting in matchups against the opposition’s top line. Toffoli is more suited to this role than Boeser, who is in his third season and still building his game.
Toffoli on the second line would also bump Loui Eriksson to a role commensurate with his ability at this stage of his career – or right out of the lineup. It’s either Eriksson or Zack MacEwen, the minor-league call-up who has been providing much-needed energy and physicality and, in Friday’s 6-3 win against the Colorado Avalanche, even scored a couple of goals.
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SICK OF THE MEDIA
Not only are the Canucks one of the NHL’s early responders to the coronavirus scare, banning media members from their dressing room, but they’ve decided it would be safest for everyone if no reporter came within a six-foot radius of any player. Formal press conferences, where players look like they’re in a police lineup except seated, will work fine for games like Sunday.
But reporters and communications staff are still trying to figure how the team is going to be covered on a practice day, when the number of players requested could be in double digits, and no one wants to conduct a one-on-one interview across a crowded press conference room, possibly waiting for 30 or 40 minutes until it’s their turn.
Shockingly, stories are often required even when NHL practices are cancelled, which is why reporters increasingly “bank” interviews to use later.
We know NHL teams get sick of media, and no one blames the Canucks for trying not to be sickened by 20 or 30 reporters and camera people, too, especially with something as serious as the coronavirus. All team officials need to do now is figure out how to police a six-foot radius between players and the other 2.5 million people in Vancouver – and everywhere else the team travels that is inhabited by humans.
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IN THE BATTLE
While the Canucks teeter in the standings, coaches and management aren’t nearly as panicky as the fan base because they hoped when the season began that the team would be in this precise position, learning to battle nightly to make the playoffs and staying in the fight until the end.
It didn’t get much attention before the Colorado game, but this is what coach Travis Green said after the morning skate on Friday: “I don’t love that we haven’t got points in our last four games. But we’re going through some adversity, and that’s OK. We’re going through some pressure, and that’s alright as well. I know when we get there (to the playoffs), we’re going to be so much better for it.
“When you’re going through this adversity, going through this pressure, you’ve got to have honesty with your group. Your players have to be honest with themselves, (and) they’ve got to believe in themselves as well. You’ve got to love the pressure. We want guys that love playing in these types of games.”
They’ll especially love the guys who win them.
