I want to throw a bunch of Brock Boeser numbers at you, but let’s start with the most important one: 20. Boeser is still just 20 years old and is just 27 games into his NHL career. He’s only going to get better in the years to come.
With two goals against the Flyers, Boeser now has 9 goals and 19 points in 18 games this season. He’s now one point behind Clayton Keller in the rookie scoring race and tied with Matthew Barzal. He’s played five fewer games than Keller and two fewer than Barzal.
In terms of scoring rate, he’s up there among the best forwards in the NHL. His 3.05 points-per-hour at 5-on-5 is 21st in the NHL, not far behind Claude Giroux, John Tavares, and Sean Monahan. He’s one of the best in the league on the power play, with his 8.47 points-per-hour good for ninth in the NHL just behind Mark Scheifele.
Boeser is on pace for 40 goals and 83 points, which is crazy. Heading into the season, I set my expectations at 20 goals and 50 points, with an upper range of 30 goals and 60 points. But Boeser shows no signs of slowing down, putting up points with calm consistency and efficiency. I stopped waiting for the other shoe to drop when I watched this game.
- The Flyers were all over the Canucks to start this game and only a combination of Jacob Markstrom and some good luck kept them from opening up a sizeable lead early. The Flyers missed a couple seemingly open nets and one Shayne Gostisbehere shot rang the crossbar, but Markstrom also made 31 saves on 32 shots in the first two periods. Like Johann Sebastian Bach testing an organ, Markstrom pulled out all the stops.
- Despite Markstrom’s best efforts, the Flyers still opened the scoring off a won faceoff and some casual interference. Valtteri Filppula used his spare consonants to win the faceoff, then Travis Konecny moved the puck back to Ivan Provorov at the point. After doing so, Konecny shouted, “This pick is for getting picked ahead of me!” and leaned into Boeser, preventing him from getting to Provorov, who flung the puck on net and saw it deflect in off Alex Biega’s arm. Apparently Konecny is a fan of puns. Who knew?
- The Canucks responded less than two minutes later. After a couple failed clearing attempts, Jake Virtanen finally sent the puck out to neutral ice, where Henrik Sedin sent his brother in on a breakaway. Daniel made a nifty move to the forehand and called a double-bank shot, putting the puck off the post, off Michael Neuvirth’s pad, and in.
- Oddly enough, Virtanen’s initial failure to get the puck out of the zone might have helped Daniel get the goal. When Virtanen couldn’t get the puck out at first, Gostisbehere stepped up to the Canucks blue line, anticipating that the Flyers would win the puck battle along the boards. Instead, Virtanen got ahold of it and chipped it out to Henrik, who one-handed the puck to Daniel, wide open because of Gostisbehere’s gamble.
- 19 seconds later, the Canucks took the lead. After an icing call, the Flyers won the faceoff and rushed up ice. Alex Edler knocked down a pass at his own blue line and his partner, Derrick Pouliot, quickly sent the puck ahead to Boeser, who was wide open because the Flyers were trying to get a line change in after the icing. Boeser ripped the puck like a strong man rips phone books, sending the shot just over Neuvirth’s right pad and inside the far post.
- Early in the second period, Boeser scored again, giving the Canucks a 3-1 lead. Breaking up the ice on the power play, Henrik and Daniel got Neuvirth moving with some nice passing off the rush, with the last pass going to Boeser coming up the middle. Boeser went under the bar like he was competing in a drinking competition with Marion Ravenwood.
- Suddenly the Canucks have an effective power play. The Canucks are 5-for-12 in their last four games, starting with the game against the Kings when they first put Boeser and Horvat with the Sedins on the first unit. But it’s not just the first unit scoring, as Sven Baertschi added a power play goal from the second unit. Sam Gagner’s one-timer from the point created a rebound that Thomas Vanek couldn’t shove home, but Loui Eriksson quickly moved it to Baertschi at the backdoor for the finish.
- Like murder, that was all she wrote for Neuvirth in this game, as Brian Elliott came in to replace him. Elliott didn’t allow a goal against for the rest of the game, but it mattered about as much something with the same mass but opposite electric charge.
- Side note: Jessica Fletcher was definitely committing most of the murders on Murder, She Wrote, right? There’s no way one woman just happens to be around for that many murders. She must have secretly been a serial killer, with her expertise as a mystery writer allowing her to pin the blame on a series of stooges. I know I’m not alone in thinking this.
- The Canucks didn’t give up much in the first half of the third period, with the Flyers not getting a shot until nearly nine minutes in. Unfortunately, they scored on their second shot of the period a minute later when the Canucks got a bit too casual on a line change. Erik Gudbranson got caught in no man’s land, neither taking a man nor taking away a passing lane, while Brandon Sutter couldn’t get off the bench quickly enough as Horvat went off, leaving Jakub Voracek wide open to blast a one-timer past a screened Markstrom.
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That was as close as the Flyers would come. Markstrom shut the door for the final 10 minutes of the third period. Then, with the Flyers net empty, Sam Gagner gave up a chance at an empty net goal to give Loui Eriksson his first goal of the season. Eriksson looked incredibly grateful to break his goose egg, probably because now he can make a goose egg omelette. Delicious.
