A few years back, CanucksArmy managing editor David Quadrelli asked this author to write a piece tentatively titled “<a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/brief-history-brock-boeser-catch-break">A Brief History of Brock Boeser Not Being Able to Catch a Break</a>.”
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The misfortunes haven’t exactly slowed down since then, either.
Now, if this author were a lazier one, and Quads were a less honest editor, we could probably get away with just constantly republishing that same article, adding a new paragraph or two each time Boeser experienced something negative.
But that’s not what this article is going to be, aside from a very quick recap of the Lemony Snicket-esque series of events that have occurred over the years.
Boeser has, of course, dealt with a number of off-ice tragedies both before and after joining the Vancouver Canucks, and we won’t dwell on those here. There’s plenty of on-ice stuff to go over, anyway.
Following a brief audition in 2017, Boeser’s official rookie season kicked off in 2017/18 with…a foot contusion. That would prove pretty minor in the saga of Boeser injuries, as would the bone bruise he’d also suffer to his feet a few months later.
That rookie campaign famously ended in a violent collision with Cal Clutterbuck that sent Boeser flying into an open gate, resulting in a literal broken back – or, to be more technical, a non-displaced back fracture. His first season, and his chances at claiming the Calder Trophy, were over.
Boeser’s sophomore season was plagued by an early groin injury that had him in and out of the lineup, but once he got over that, he stayed relatively healthy through the end of the year. That would prove a bit of a rarity for him.
Many have talked about Boeser’s current “upper-body injury” likely being his first concussion, but if that ends up being the diagnosis, it’s not his first. Boeser entered concussion protocol in the 2019 preseason after a dirty hit from Chris Tierney, but recovered in time to play in the 2019/20 season opener.
That same year saw Boeser suffer a rib injury in February that was meant to spell the end of Boeser’s season. Instead, he battled back and made it into the lineup by March 10, 2020. Does that date sound familiar to anyone? It was the last game the Canucks played before the COVID-19 pandemic hit full force and the rest of the schedule was postponed.
A stint of good luck followed, at least by Boeser’s standards. He played through the Bubble Playoffs without injury or incident, then stayed healthy through most of the shortened 2020/21 campaign, even leading the Canucks in scoring for the first time. But it was a short stint.
The 2021/22 season saw Boeser suffer a preseason ailment, a lengthy bout with COVID, and an undisclosed upper-body injury that kept him out for weeks and allowed him to return only after the Canucks had fallen out of contention.
Then the 2022/23 season started off with a preseason hand injury, Boeser’s fifth September or October injury in his six NHL seasons. That’s the point at which we wrote that article, but not the point at which the misfortune ended.
That hand injury wound up being a complicated one, with Boeser getting surgery in September 2022, returning in late October, and then exiting the lineup again until into November for further recovery. A lengthy December 2022 illness followed.
By then all the injuries and absences appeared to be taking their toll. Though Boeser would wind up dressing for 74 games in the 2022/23 season, he only scored 18 goals and 55 points – not terrible results, but far from the scoring potential he once showed.
But here’s where we transition from that old article into the new one. Because while those injuries may have taken their toll in the short term, they had not left him a diminished hockey player. No, for Boeser, the best was yet to come, and it would come in the wake of all this.
Boeser’s 2023/24 season started about as hot as possible with a four-goal effort against the Edmonton Oilers, and it didn’t slow down all that much from there.
Boeser would play in every game but one in the regular season, dressing for 81 games. Having previously been cut short while on pace for 30 goals on multiple occasions, this time Boeser soared past the milestone and right on to the 40-goal mark. He added 33 assists for a career-high 73 points, helping the Canucks return to the playoffs, where Boeser didn’t miss a beat.
Through two rounds, Boeser put up seven goals and 12 points in 12 playoff games, including some truly clutch moments.
Then, without warning, that old Boeser curse came calling. Heading into Game 7 of Round Two against the Edmonton Oilers, it was announced that Boeser was suffering from a blood clotting issue and would have to exit the lineup. The mysterious ailment wound up taking a good chunk of the offseason to recover from, and treatment and prevention remain ongoing.
While Boeser’s unreal success in 2023/24 might have won him back plenty of naysayers, there were still those who thought that, surely, this would have to slow Boeser back down. He didn’t get anywhere near a full or normal offseason, he would have to adjust to new medication, and a bit of a step back to start 2024/25 was, if not outright expected, then definitely understandable.
But this is Brock Boeser we’re talking about. By this point, he’s perseverance personified.
Boeser came out almost as hot to start this current season as he did last one, and by Game #12 of the regular season he was leading the team in goals with six and tied for the scoring lead with 11 points.
Then Tanner Jeannot of the Los Angeles Kings delivered a cheap and cowardly headshot to an unsuspecting Boeser and <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/vancouver-canucks-tocchet-says-boeser-day-to-day-upper-body-injury">took him out of the lineup</a> for the umpteenth time in his career.
As of this writing, we’ve yet to hear the word ‘concussion’ officially from the Canucks, but the conclusion does seem pretty obvious. And, as is always the case with head injuries, there is ample reason for concern.
But that concern shouldn’t extend beyond the general health and well-being of Boeser. As far as his eventual on-ice returns go, there’s far less reason to worry.
See, Boeser doesn’t just bounce back from these things. No, he’s a little more than just resilient. When Boeser suffers an injury, he tends to come back even stronger than before.
He matched his rookie output as a sophomore and increased his defensive capabilities coming off a broken back.
He returned to action in 2020 one day before the pandemic shut down the league, and he didn’t let that slow him down. He simply returned to go PPG in the playoffs.
He came back from that rib injury in 2020/21 to lead the team in scoring, looking better than ever as he did.
Then, after a worn-down 2022/23 campaign, Boeser finally put it all together in 2023/24, transforming himself into the star forward that he always had the potential to become.
Then, blood clots. Then, a return to the exact same scoring pace of the prior year, without missing a beat.
Now, a likely concussion, and perhaps a serious one at that.
So, we don’t know when ‘next’ will come for Boeser at this point. But we have a pretty good idea of what it will look like when it does, and that’s a Boeser that is somehow even better than before.
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&nbsp;

A few years back, CanucksArmy managing editor David Quadrelli asked this author to write a piece tentatively titled “<a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/brief-history-brock-boeser-catch-break">A Brief History of Brock Boeser Not Being Able to Catch a Break</a>.”
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&nbsp;

The misfortunes haven’t exactly slowed down since then, either.

Now, if this author were a lazier one, and Quads were a less honest editor, we could probably get away with just constantly republishing that same article, adding a new paragraph or two each time Boeser experienced something negative.

But that’s not what this article is going to be, aside from a very quick recap of the Lemony Snicket-esque series of events that have occurred over the years.

Boeser has, of course, dealt with a number of off-ice tragedies both before and after joining the Vancouver Canucks, and we won’t dwell on those here. There’s plenty of on-ice stuff to go over, anyway.

Following a brief audition in 2017, Boeser’s official rookie season kicked off in 2017/18 with…a foot contusion. That would prove pretty minor in the saga of Boeser injuries, as would the bone bruise he’d also suffer to his feet a few months later.

That rookie campaign famously ended in a violent collision with Cal Clutterbuck that sent Boeser flying into an open gate, resulting in a literal broken back – or, to be more technical, a non-displaced back fracture. His first season, and his chances at claiming the Calder Trophy, were over.

Boeser’s sophomore season was plagued by an early groin injury that had him in and out of the lineup, but once he got over that, he stayed relatively healthy through the end of the year. That would prove a bit of a rarity for him.

Many have talked about Boeser’s current “upper-body injury” likely being his first concussion, but if that ends up being the diagnosis, it’s not his first. Boeser entered concussion protocol in the 2019 preseason after a dirty hit from Chris Tierney, but recovered in time to play in the 2019/20 season opener.

That same year saw Boeser suffer a rib injury in February that was meant to spell the end of Boeser’s season. Instead, he battled back and made it into the lineup by March 10, 2020. Does that date sound familiar to anyone? It was the last game the Canucks played before the COVID-19 pandemic hit full force and the rest of the schedule was postponed.

A stint of good luck followed, at least by Boeser’s standards. He played through the Bubble Playoffs without injury or incident, then stayed healthy through most of the shortened 2020/21 campaign, even leading the Canucks in scoring for the first time. But it was a short stint.

The 2021/22 season saw Boeser suffer a preseason ailment, a lengthy bout with COVID, and an undisclosed upper-body injury that kept him out for weeks and allowed him to return only after the Canucks had fallen out of contention.

Then the 2022/23 season started off with a preseason hand injury, Boeser’s fifth September or October injury in his six NHL seasons. That’s the point at which we wrote that article, but not the point at which the misfortune ended.

That hand injury wound up being a complicated one, with Boeser getting surgery in September 2022, returning in late October, and then exiting the lineup again until into November for further recovery. A lengthy December 2022 illness followed.

By then all the injuries and absences appeared to be taking their toll. Though Boeser would wind up dressing for 74 games in the 2022/23 season, he only scored 18 goals and 55 points – not terrible results, but far from the scoring potential he once showed.

But here’s where we transition from that old article into the new one. Because while those injuries may have taken their toll in the short term, they had not left him a diminished hockey player. No, for Boeser, the best was yet to come, and it would come in the wake of all this.

Boeser’s 2023/24 season started about as hot as possible with a four-goal effort against the Edmonton Oilers, and it didn’t slow down all that much from there.

Boeser would play in every game but one in the regular season, dressing for 81 games. Having previously been cut short while on pace for 30 goals on multiple occasions, this time Boeser soared past the milestone and right on to the 40-goal mark. He added 33 assists for a career-high 73 points, helping the Canucks return to the playoffs, where Boeser didn’t miss a beat.

Through two rounds, Boeser put up seven goals and 12 points in 12 playoff games, including some truly clutch moments.

Then, without warning, that old Boeser curse came calling. Heading into Game 7 of Round Two against the Edmonton Oilers, it was announced that Boeser was suffering from a blood clotting issue and would have to exit the lineup. The mysterious ailment wound up taking a good chunk of the offseason to recover from, and treatment and prevention remain ongoing.

While Boeser’s unreal success in 2023/24 might have won him back plenty of naysayers, there were still those who thought that, surely, this would have to slow Boeser back down. He didn’t get anywhere near a full or normal offseason, he would have to adjust to new medication, and a bit of a step back to start 2024/25 was, if not outright expected, then definitely understandable.

But this is Brock Boeser we’re talking about. By this point, he’s perseverance personified.

Boeser came out almost as hot to start this current season as he did last one, and by Game #12 of the regular season he was leading the team in goals with six and tied for the scoring lead with 11 points.

Then Tanner Jeannot of the Los Angeles Kings delivered a cheap and cowardly headshot to an unsuspecting Boeser and <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/vancouver-canucks-tocchet-says-boeser-day-to-day-upper-body-injury">took him out of the lineup</a> for the umpteenth time in his career.

As of this writing, we’ve yet to hear the word ‘concussion’ officially from the Canucks, but the conclusion does seem pretty obvious. And, as is always the case with head injuries, there is ample reason for concern.

But that concern shouldn’t extend beyond the general health and well-being of Boeser. As far as his eventual on-ice returns go, there’s far less reason to worry.

See, Boeser doesn’t just bounce back from these things. No, he’s a little more than just resilient. When Boeser suffers an injury, he tends to come back even stronger than before.

He matched his rookie output as a sophomore and increased his defensive capabilities coming off a broken back.

He returned to action in 2020 one day before the pandemic shut down the league, and he didn’t let that slow him down. He simply returned to go PPG in the playoffs.

He came back from that rib injury in 2020/21 to lead the team in scoring, looking better than ever as he did.

Then, after a worn-down 2022/23 campaign, Boeser finally put it all together in 2023/24, transforming himself into the star forward that he always had the potential to become.

Then, blood clots. Then, a return to the exact same scoring pace of the prior year, without missing a beat.

Now, a likely concussion, and perhaps a serious one at that.

So, we don’t know when ‘next’ will come for Boeser at this point. But we have a pretty good idea of what it will look like when it does, and that’s a Boeser that is somehow even better than before.

Sponsored by bet365
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The flipside of Brock Boeser’s constant misfortune is the knowledge that he will overcome

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