Brock Boeser's almost hat trick in Game 3 shows a pattern of sustained success for the Vancouver Canucks winger.
Brock Boeser's almost hat trick in Game 3 shows a pattern of sustained success for the Vancouver Canucks winger.
Anyone who is even close to considering themselves a Canucks fan definitely heard the buzz about Brock Boeser on October 11th, 2023. The forward, returning to Vancouver for his eighth season with the club, was said to have swapped training regimens over the off-season. After a difficult few years, the fanbase was desperate to see their hopes renewed for the current longest-tenured Canucks skater.
That night, Boeser potted four goals to help propel his team to an 8–1 victory against the Edmonton Oilers. We didn’t know it then, but this game would become an important point of narrative in the months leading up to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
As Canucks fans are now coming off the high of an almost hat-trick performance by Boeser against the Edmonton Oilers (again) in game 3, it’s clear that our hopes for Boeser were achieved. His success spanned throughout the season, but there were certain matchups that saw the goal-scoring forward thrive. That four-goal performance back in October encapsulates one thing — his dominance over the Edmonton Oilers throughout the 2023-2024 season.
October 11th, 2023: Regular Season, Game 1
Stat-line: 4 goals, 0 assists, 4 points
Boeser had a phenomenal start to the regular season, posting a natural hat-trick (plus another goal) in his first game. It was this game, in particular, that seemed to set off a chain of events for the Edmonton Oilers that eventually resulted in the firing of their former Head Coach, Jay Woodcroft. Boeser’s third goal of the game ended up chasing Jack Campbell from the net, marking the start of a lacklustre season for the Oilers’ goaltender.
I don’t think there’s much else that needs to be said about Boeser’s performance in this game (he did score four goals, after all), but this particular shift is indicative of how his hard work has paid off. He pounced at the puck along the boards, beating Oilers defenceman Cody Ceci to it and sending it back to Quinn Hughes. This particular puck retrieval started a rush into Edmonton’s zone that eventually ended with Boeser putting the puck in the back of the net.
October 14th, 2023: Regular Season, Game 2
Stat-line: 0 goals, 1 assist, 1 point
The Canucks’ second contest against the Oilers came just three days after their season opener and with a lot less of an offensive flair than the first. There were no four-goal explosions from Boeser, but realistically, that didn’t matter. Vancouver still won the game 4–3, with the game-winning goal coming from Sam Lafferty.
This game’s first goal came off the powerplay. With Boeser sneaking behind Edmonton defender Mattias Ekholm, powerplay quarterback Quinn Hughes sent a shot towards the net that Andrei Kuzmenko ultimately tipped in. On the second goal, Boeser sent a crisp pass over to Tyler Myers, who shot it up to Nils Höglander. Höglander passed it back up to Boeser, who wired a hard shot on the net for the former to tip in.
November 6th, 2023: Regular Season, Game 3
Stat-line: 2 goals, 0 assists, 2 points
Vancouver and Edmonton’s third matchup of the 2023-2024 regular season saw the Canucks thump the Oilers in a 6–2 victory. Boeser netted two powerplay goals, the first of which came after J.T. Miller threw a shot at the net. The puck bounced off of a net-front Boeser who, after collecting it, tipped it past Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner. His second goal of this game came from the same spot, emerging from a tic-tac-toe play from Hughes to Elias Pettersson to Boeser to the back of the net. His powerplay position in front of the goalie near the net paid off in dividends.
At this point in the season, Boeser had tallied ten goals, six of which were scored against the Oilers.
April 13th, 2024: Regular Season, Game 4
Stat-line: 0 goals, 0 assists, 0 points
At this point in the season, the Oilers had replaced Jay Woodcroft with Kris Knoblauch, resuming their winning ways. The idea of a Canucks vs. Oilers playoff matchup was becoming more and more likely. For this game, Vancouver was without starting goalie Thatcher Demko and had been riding backup Casey DeSmith for the past month. For what may have seemed like forever to Oilers fans, this was the first game that Boeser didn’t completely light Edmonton up.
May 8th, 2024: Playoffs Round 2, Game 1
Stat-line: 0 goals, 1 assist, 1 point
In a game that saw the lead change drastically through the third period, Boeser notched one assist off of a J.T. Miller goal. His domination of the Oilers in this game comes not from offensive production but from the defensive stifling of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Starting the season on a line with J.T. Miller and Phil Di Giuseppe, Boeser showed vast defensive improvements from previous seasons. Now, still stapled to Miller, he’s taken on a role in helping his center shut down some of the highest offensively-powered lines in the league. Game 1 of this series saw the defensive efforts of the Canucks holding McDavid to zero shots through all three periods.
May 10th, 2024: Playoffs Round 2, Game 2
Stat-line: 1 goal, 0 assists, 1 point
In a game that saw Vancouver lose in overtime and saw Edmonton win their first against the Canucks in all parts of the 2023-2024 season, Boeser scored his fifth goal of this year’s playoffs. The goal came off a faceoff win in Edmonton’s zone, which the scoring winger tipped in from around the hash marks. This game, if anything, would only be a warm-up for Boeser’s most crucial game against the Oilers yet.
May 12th, 2024: Playoffs Round 2, Game 3
Stat-line: 2 goals, 1 assist, 3 points
This game had everybody fooled into thinking that Boeser had gotten yet another natural hat trick against Edmonton. Instead, his first goal was awarded to Elias Lindholm, the only other goal scorer for the Canucks in this game (he also notched two). His second (would-have-been hat-trick goal) came off of a rush. Catching up with Pius Suter, Boeser flew deep into the Oilers’ zone, hovering around Stuart Skinner and picking up the rebound from a Quinn Hughes shot that missed the net. His initial shot attempt came back into Edmonton’s possession, but with a quick takeaway by Suter, Boeser got the puck back and sent it past Skinner.
Boeser has worked hard to get to where he’s at, and it’s both bittersweet and breathtaking to watch him perform the way he has been this season.
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