The Vancouver Canucks will be without star winger Brock Boeser for Monday’s decisive Game 7 against the Edmonton Oilers.
The 27-year-old right-winger is being evaluated and won’t be available for the final game of the second-round Stanley Cup playoff series, head coach Rick Tocchet said Monday morning.
Tocchet declined to speak about the nature of Boeser’s injury, but reports emerged Sunday that he would miss the game due to a non-life-threatening blood clotting issue.
“Obviously he’s had a great year for us. Big part of the team, he’s scored some big goals for us,” the coach said. “It’s a tough one. But next man up. That’s the way you’ve got to approach it, like we have all year.”
Boeser has seven goals and five assists in 12 playoff appearances this year, and recorded career highs in goals (40) and points (73) during the regular-season campaign.
Boeser logged 18 minutes 40 seconds in ice time during Vancouver’s 5-1 loss to Edmonton in Game 6 on Saturday, and did not appear to be dealing with any injuries when he spoke with reporters after the game. He did not practice with the team on Sunday.
A native of Burnsville, Minn., Boeser was picked 23rd overall by Vancouver in the 2015 draft. He’s logged 479 regular-season games for the Canucks, putting up 179 goals and 205 points.
“It’s a very tough situation. You hate to see it,” said teammate Dakota Joshua. “He’s our longest-tenured Canuck. But it just adds all the more fuel in the fire to get this done for him. No one’s cheering us on more than him tonight. And you just don’t want to let him down as well. So we’ll be battling for him out there.”
Tocchet said depth forward Vasily Podkolzin will also come out of the lineup Monday after appearing in Games 5 and 6.
Sam Lafferty and Ilya Mikheyev are expected to slot back in for Vancouver.
The winner of Monday’s game will face the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference final starting Thursday.
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press
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