VANCOUVER – First rule about goal scoring: don’t talk about goal scoring.
After scoring 29 times as a rookie, Brock Boeser spoke openly for years about trying to become a 30-goal scorer in the National Hockey League.
“This is the year,” he said before last season. Then he scored 18 goals in 74 games in easily the worst season of his six-plus with the Vancouver Canucks.
And that was the end of Boeser’s predictions for the media. Whatever his personal objectives were for this season, you couldn’t bribe a number out of him.
He will tell you his weight, shoe size, golf handicap, stick flex and the biggest fish he caught last summer. If he trusts you, he’ll tell you his phone number, maybe even his credit card number. But Brock Boeser will not tell you how many goals he hopes to score this season.
“Absolutely not,” the 26-year-old Minnesotan reiterated Tuesday after, ho-hum, another hat trick in the Canucks’ supremely impressive 4-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
But Boeser did reveal one thing after the cameras turned off post-game in the Canucks dressing room: in his dreams, he never expected to have 21 goals in the first 29 games this season.
“No, I mean, not after last year,” he told Sportsnet. “It’s just, like, if I focus too much on scoring — like if I focus on the chances I had the last couple of games and missed — I feel that I get away from my game. I keep reminding myself each day, I’ve got to keep sticking to the details and playing to our structure and then you’ll get looks.”
Now a hat trick ahead of his entire output of goals from last season, it was a profoundly different Boeser — happier and fitter and more self-aware — who reported to training camp this fall after two years of emotional turmoil that preceded and followed the death of his father.
“It’s good to see,” Canuck goalie Thatcher Demko told reporters. “Brock and I are really tight. We’ve been really good friends for pretty much our whole career. It’s awesome to see. I know how much work he’s put in, physically, mentally, spiritually, trying to get to his full potential. And obviously we’ve seen him take huge steps in that direction, so it’s awesome.”
The Canucks have taken huge steps, too.
After slogging through a heavy four-week schedule with inconsistent results to match their inconsistent play, the Canucks have suddenly rediscovered the disciplined structure and consistent intensity that allowed them to surprise the league with a 10-2-1 start. Elite talent at the top of the lineup and deeper talent than expected at the bottom had a lot to do with that torrid first month, too.
Just as it did Tuesday when Boeser scored three times, Quinn Hughes had three assists, J.T. Miller had a pair of helpers while going head-to-head against the Brayden Point line, and Demko stopped 28 of 29 Tampa shots that included a two point-blank, backdoor saves against Steve Stamkos during a Lightning power play.
But amid their longest homestand of the season so far (Tuesday was the fourth game of five), the Canucks have been able to both practise and rest, and have re-set themselves under coach Rick Tocchet.
They’ve won three straight games for the first time since Nov. 9, doing so with strong defensive efforts against teams that usually are difficult for them: Minnesota, Carolina and Tampa.
The Florida Panthers visit Rogers Arena for Roberto Luongo Night on Thursday.
When the Canucks play to their strengths, they are difficult to beat. It really is about them, not their opponents.
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“I think we have to have that mindset,” Boeser explained. “We’re a hard team to play against when we we do those little things right that we always talk about. I think that gives us offence, too. So, we just kind of make sure we’re doing that each and every night.”
Boeser is tied for the NHL goal-scoring lead with Toronto Maple Leaf Auston Matthews, the two-time winner of the Rocket Richard Trophy.
With 15 goals and 42 points in 29 games, Miller is alone in second in league scoring, five points behind Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov, who went pointless in Vancouver as the Lightning were shut out over the final 58½ minutes.
Hughes is tied for third in scoring at 39 points, three more than any other defenceman.
And the Canucks are 19-9-1, first in scoring and fourth in goals-against.
The team’s transformation this season has matched Boeser’s.
He scored his first goal against the Lightning on a low-slot rebound from Miller’s shot, hammered the second past goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy from 40 feet on a one-timer beautiful teed up by Hughes, and scored the third into an empty net.
“I’m thinking about our team structure, the way we need to play,” Boeser said. “The bigger picture is winning and getting to the playoffs, and I think that’s where my mindset is at. And then whatever comes along with it. . . I know I need to produce and our line needs to produce, and we hold each other accountable.
“I don’t know, I just feel like deep down I knew I was capable of scoring a lot of goals in this league. Mentally, the last couple of years, it was just kind of a barrier. It feels like I’m past that now.”
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
