Brock Boeser has no shortage of motivating forces driving him this National Hockey League season. He wants to help the Vancouver Canucks build on the success they enjoyed a year ago. He wants to prove last season’s career-best 40-goal campaign wasn’t any kind of outlier. It’s a contract year, so the winger knows another big season will yield a sizable deal as a pending unrestricted free agent.
And there’s also the idea of making a charge to land a spot on Team USA for February’s 4 Nations Face-Off – the NHL/NHLPA best-on-best tournament featuring the US, Canada, Sweden and Finland.
“Yeah, of course. I definitely have a chance,” Boeser said of earning a coveted roster spot. “I’m not going to let it affect me, but I think it’s just extra motivation to play better and prove the type of winger I am in the NHL.”
Boeser knows he is by no means a lock to make a deep and talented American team, but feels his body of work last season has certainly put him on the radar. Of all US-born players in the league, only Auston Matthews scored more goals than Boeser last season.
With two goals on opening night against Calgary, Boeser is off to another quick start this season and hopes that propels him to a point that USA Hockey executives simply can’t ignore.
The first six players for each of the four participating countries were announced in June. USA Hockey went with Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, Matthew Tkachuk, Adam Fox, Charlie McAvoy and Canucks captain Quinn Hughes. Final rosters have to be named by the end of November, so Boeser has 20-games or so to make his mark.
And he figures riding shotgun with Canucks teammate JT Miller – who will surely be a part of the US team – can only help his case. The more the USA Hockey brass watches Miller, the more they’ll see Boeser, too.
“We all assume he’s going to be on that team and we play together so I think that’s also a nice opportunity for me, too,” Boeser explains.
While he’s rounded out his game and become more of a complete player in recent years, Boeser would likely have to have the kind of start to this season that would leave absolutely no doubt that he belongs on Team USA. Most projected rosters have him just missing the mark.
In bidding for a spot on the American team, Boeser is battling with the likes of Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor, New York Rangers Chris Kreider and Vincent Trocheck, Montreal’s Cole Caufield, Detroit’s Alex DeBrincat and Minnesota’s Matt Boldy. Some really good players will be left off the roster.
Making the challenge even greater is the fact that the American team may opt to take additional centremen and shift them to the wing for a short-form tournament like this one.
Boeser is a natural goal-scorer who has rounded out his play away from the puck, but he doesn’t take face-offs and he doesn’t kill penalties. Some of those intangibles may work against him when final roster spots are determined. Still, he wants to play his way onto the team and is a believer that eligible players throughout the NHL will embrace the tournament when it arrives later this season.
For the Burnsville, MN native, it would be the first chance to wear the stars and stripes in international competition since the 2016 World Juniors.
“For sure, we haven’t seen it in a while, plus any opportunity to represent your country is something big, especially when you’re playing in the National Hockey League it means a lot more,” he says. “It’s definitely something that’s in the back of my mind that I think about to push me a little bit harder.”
So every goal Brock Boeser scores in the early going this season likely carries a little more weight than in previous years. He’s doing what he can to help the Vancouver Canucks, but also doing his best to help his case to crack a remarkably competitive Team USA for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
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