Brock Boeser returned for the Vancouver Canucks against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Tuesday.
The forward missed seven games with an upper-body injury sustained Nov. 7 when he took a hit from Los Angeles Kings forward Tanner Jeannot, who was assessed a match penalty for an illegal check to the head and suspended for three games by the NHL Department of Player Safety. Boeser resumed skating Nov. 19 and three days later practiced with teammates in a noncontact jersey before joining them in Boston on Monday.
“He’ll play today,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said after the morning skate. “He came to me yesterday. He wants to play. Those situations, when you’re medically cleared, then it’s the player’s decision I always think. And a guy like Brock, he wants to play every game. He’s played a lot of hockey for us over the years. It’s good to have a guy like that in the lineup.
“... You’re playing a Bruins team that’s playing really tight; I think they’ve only let in one goal, I think, in the last couple of games. Always known as a good, structured defensive team that plays a team game. So, when you can add a guy like a Brock Boeser, who doesn’t need a lot of chances to score, it helps when you play a team that’s really tight, plays tight defensively.”
Boeser is in a five-way tie for the Canucks lead with six goals in 12 games and his 11 points are seventh. He was playing on the top line and power-play unit after setting NHL career highs of 40 goals and 73 points in 81 games last season. The 27-year-old has 395 points (185 goals, 210 assists) in 491 NHL games, all with Vancouver, which selected him in the first round (No. 23) of the 2015 NHL Draft.
"Felt great," Boeser said after practicing fully Monday. "Anytime you get to go back out there with your teammates and be able to skate full contact, it's a nice little treat. … It was my first full-contact practice, so we'll see how the rest of the day goes and if all good, then hopefully I'm in [Tuesday]."
The Canucks are without Boeser's usual top-line center, J.T. Miller, who has missed two games since taking a personal leave of absence and is not on a six-game road trip that started with a 4-3 win at the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. Boeser skated on a line with Danton Heinen and Teddy Blueger on Monday and said after he isn't overly concerned about conditioning.
"It's always hard to mimic game shape but they've bagged me a few times and pushed me really hard," Boeser said. "I've been working hard, and I've been feeling better and better out there and it's just really hard to judge until you step in that first game, and just got to make sure you keep short shifts and control it that way."
NHL.com senior writer Amalie Benjamin contributed to this report
