Brock Boeser hasn’t been scoring for the Canucks, what’s wrong?

Last season, Brock Boeser led the Vancouver Canucks in goals and points. He scored 23 times and notched 49 points in 56 games. Boeser has been dealing with injuries throughout his career and he did not get injured even once last season. It looked like things were heading up for the Canucks 2015 first-round pick.

Boeser started the season with four goals and four assists in the first ten games of the season. Since the tenth game of the season, (November 9 against the Anaheim Ducks where he got two assists.) he has managed only one assist. That assist came on November 28 against the Boston Bruins and it was on Tanner Pearson’s power play goal in the first period in a 3-2 loss.

Boeser’s last goal was November 7 against the Dallas Stars and that was an empty netter. That is 12 games and counting without a goal for him. The last goalie he scored on was Jusse Saros of the Nashville Predators on November 5. So that’s 13 games without a goal on a goaltender.

He’s basically turned into Caspar the Friendly Ghost if he had a nice flow.

The 24-year-old has four goals and five assists in 21 games this season. Boeser missed the first three games of the season with an upper-body injury so assuming he remains healthy and plays 79 games this season, he is on pace for 15 goals and 18 assists for 33 points. Those would be career-low numbers.

Boeser’s offensive drought

Let’s take a look at Boeser’s offence and shooting courtesy of statistics from  NaturalStatTrick and MoneyPuck.

Boeser is third in Corsi for on the Canucks with 54.60%. That is good. However, he is 19th in shots for with 47.81 %, 21st in goals for with 25%, 12th in expected goals for with 47.87%, and 17th in high danger Corsi for with 42.72%. (All at five on five.)

His HDCF, GF, and SF this season are the lowest of his career so far.

Boeser’s shooting percentage is at 4.8% at all strengths and 1.8% at even strength. That is quite the drop from 11.8% at all strengths and 9.6% at five-on-five.

Boeser has also had a tough time getting shots on net this season. 65.1% of his shots have hit the net this season at all strengths. Last season it was 72.3%.

With his shot, he was supposed to be a big part of the Canucks power play but has been disappointing.

Boeser’s shooting percentage on the power play is 0%. 64.3 % of his shots have hit the net. Boeser has scored one power play goal this season but that was on a five-on-three against the Blackhawks on October 21. Moneypuck only calculates five-on-four power play goals. Last season his shooting percentage on the power play was 14.8% and 75.9% of his shots were on target.

Boeser’s shot hasn’t been the same. He’s been either missing the net or letting the goalie make an easy save. He looks like a different player from last season.

What is wrong with Boeser?

Just like with Elias Pettersson, the play of Boeser this season has been concerning.

Is he possibly battling an injury? It’s possible. Boeser did miss the start of the season with an upper-body injury as stated above. It could be possible that he is still lingering with the effects of that injury.

Brendan Batchelor, the Canucks play-by-play voice on Sportsnet 650 gave his thoughts on Boeser and says he wouldn’t be surprised if Boeser was playing through an injury.

What about the quality of his linemates? It is also possible. Boeser had Pettersson, J.T. Miller, Nils Höglander, and Jason Dickinson on his line this season according to Dobber’s Frozen Tools.

Pettersson has also struggled to create offence this season and Dickinson is not an offensive player. Miller is the Canucks points leader with 23 on the season. However, the Lotto Line hasn’t been on the money this season and haven’t been together for a while. As a result, Miller has found more success with other linemates. Höglander is also having a good sophomore season and put up 10 points in 24 games.

It also feels like Boeser hasn’t been involved with the offence as much this season. Last season, he was trying to make plays not just score goals.

He also doesn’t look confident with the shot. A confident Boeser lets his shots go quickly but this version of Boeser waits a bit too long before taking them.

Here is what Boeser at his best looks like in case you forgot.

Whatever is troubling Boeser, it is concerning that he isn’t producing and you have to wonder when he’ll get back to form. The answer should be sooner rather than later.