It’s pretty difficult to dislike a player as wholesome as Brock Boeser. But the Nashville Predators and their fanbase have got to be getting close by now.

This past Monday’s game between the Predators and the Vancouver Canucks featured the Canucks once again snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, and once again, Boeser played a major role in it by scoring the overtime winner with little more than a second remaining on the clock. It was a great accomplishment, to be sure, but it wasn’t exactly a unique one. That’s because Boeser has made a real habit of coming up clutch against the Predators for essentially the entire span of his career.

Boeser began his time in the NHL with a nine-game audition at the end of the 2016-17 campaign, but did not play Nashville until November 30, 2017, the following season. It didn’t take him any longer than that first game, however, to establish what would become this trend. On that night, a 20-year-old Boeser scored two goals, including one with 4:52 remaining in the third period to put the Canucks up by one. A Loui Eriksson empty net later (into the right net this time) and Boeser’s goal would stand up as the winner.

The late, timely scoring would continue. The next season, on December 13, 2018, Boeser played his sixth game against the Predators, and notched his sixth point. This time, it was an even later goal, with 4:05 remaining in the third period, and it brought the Canucks within one. Bo Horvat would tie the game shortly thereafter, but the Canucks would drop the decision in overtime.

Boeser’s Nashville-smashing tour continued off and on from there and through the years. On November 21, 2019, he scored the game-winner against the Predators in a wild 6-3 contest.

Due to the pandemic and the schedule changes that ensued thereafter, it would be almost two full years after that before Boeser faced the Predators again. But he scored against the Preds again on November 5, 2021, albeit in a losing effort.

He’d play them again on January 18, 2022, and score yet another third period game-winner in a 3-1 victory.

Oddly enough, Boeser went dry against the Predators after that – at least as far as the regular season, and goal-scoring in specific, are concerned. From early 2022 right up until this past Monday, Boeser went nine games against the Predators without a goal, and had gone four games without a point prior to Monday.

That said, Boeser’s overall regular season record against Nashville remains excellent. Through 20 games across nine seasons, Boeser has eight goals and ten assists for 18 points. Three of those eight goals have been third period game-winners.

But Boeser’s regular season clutch-ness against the Predators pales in comparison to his playoff clutch-ness against the Predators.

The Canucks and Predators have only faced off in the postseason once during Boeser’s career, that being the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. That series saw Boeser score four goals and two assists for a perfect six points in six games, which is a fine record, even on the surface. But it’s the details of some of those goals that really add the important context.

Boeser was fairly quiet in Game 1, though he did get the assist on Pius Suter’s tying goal early in the third period en route to victory. And he was even quieter in Game 2 as the Canucks fell 4-1.

But Boeser’s first goal of that playoff season arrived in Game 3, and it was a second period winner that put the Canucks up by 2-0 in what would become a 2-1 win.

Boeser would follow that up with easily the clutch-est performance of his career to date. In Game 4, the Canucks went down 3-1 on a Filip Forsberg goal 12 seconds into the third period. And then Boeser took over. He scored with 2:49 left to bring the Canucks within one, and then tied it up with just eight seconds remaining. Elias Lindholm would proceed to win it for Vancouver in overtime, bringing them within one win of closing out the series.

The Canucks then dropped Game 5 in what turned out to be little more than a setup for a dramatic Game 6. That game turned out to be a real goaltending battle, with neither side scoring a goal until late in the third period. Which, as we’ve now established, is Boeser Time. And this time around, it was Boeser in the role of the helper, providing the primary assist on Suter’s series-winning goal with just 1:39 remaining in the third period.

So, when Boeser scored that literally last-second winner against the Predators in overtime on Monday, was it amazing? Yes. Was it a great accomplishment? For sure. Was it clutch? You bet it was.

But was it surprising? Not really. Throughout the years, personally seeing to the defeat of the Nashville Predators has kind of been Boeser’s ‘thing.’ And if you think that’s clear from our Vancouver-laden perspective, imagine how it looks from the Nashville end of things. They must have let out a collective fanbase groan when they – once again – dropped a late decision to the Canucks, with – once again – Boeser being the primary culprit.

Boeser, of course, has scored plenty of other goals against plenty of other teams, with many of them being game-winners and several of those arriving in dramatic fashion. But his personal record against the Predators still stands out as the very best of Boeser.