Brock Boeser burst onto the NHL scene with four goals and five points late in the 2016-17 season. And while the summer brought plenty of discussion about whether or not he should start his first full professional season in Vancouver, the right winger made sure to prove he belongs.

First, Boeser dominated in the preseason, leading the Canucks in scoring with four goals and seven assists in just five games. “That’s just preseason,” you say? Well, despite being scratched in the first two games of the 2017-18 campaign, he’s continued with two goals and six points in seven regular-season contests.

Now here comes the good part: there is no reason to believe he will stop.

Boeser, selected 23rd overall in the 2015 draft, is an elite goal scorer and should only get better. Here’s what makes him almost unstoppable.

Deception and a quick set of hands

If there is one thing the much-hyped Boeser is occasionally criticised for, it’s a lack of straight-line speed. But that neither means he’s a poor skater overall nor has it hurt his ability to get past defenders and into prime scoring areas.

Let’s take a look at a goal Boeser scored against the Calgary Flames.

In the clip above, Boeser enters the offensive zone with control and faces the decision to either drive down the outside lane or cut to the middle. As he enters the zone, he has ex-Canuck Matt Bartkowski (#44) in front of him and a forward backchecking behind him.

Like anyone watching this sequence and Boeser himself, Bartkowski also knows Boeser’s options. Yet, Boeser manages to separate himself and get into the home plate area for a prime scoring chance (and Bartkowski being the defender is only part of the reason why).

What Boeser does like few others is cutting into the middle without losing speed, and selling to the defender that he’ll cut to the outside.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

After entering the zone, Boeser stops moving his feet for a brief moment. Then, as Bartkowski closes the gap, Boeser pulls the puck to the outside and lifts his inside foot to indicate a crossover to the outside.

His little fake is enough to lure Bartkowski to the outside – at least for a split second. But instead of going there, Boeser quickly cuts into the middle and suddenly finds himself all alone in front of the net.

Lightning-like release

With his supposed weakness out of the way, it’s time to get to his most obvious strength: a lightning-like release.

Advertisement - Continue Commenting Below

He skates, he skates, he skates – and the puck is in the net.

To see how he does it, we should look at the goal from a different angle.

Again, Boeser stops moving his feet rather early, indicating he is about to shoot, which gives the goaltender time to prepare. So why does Vegas Golden Knights goalie Dylan Ferguson have no chance to react?

That’s because Boeser has the rare skill of getting NHL-level shots off without doing what players are taught to do.

A textbook wrist shot can be divided into five basic steps: Pulling the puck back, pushing the hands away from the body and the puck forward, weight transfer, flexing the stick, and releasing the puck. As you can see in the clip above, Boeser does few of these things.

In fact, he uses only his arms. He doesn’t pull the puck back; he doesn’t transfer his weight; he hardly flexes his stick. It’s a quick push-and-pull motion of his top hand, a push from his bottom hand with a slight shoulder drop to give the shot a little extra power, and a flick of the wrist. Nothing more.

Now, if you were hoping I could explain how you can shoot like Boeser, I’m sorry – that release is a gift he’s lucky enough to have.

Quickness and power

If you are a hockey player (no matter the level), you’ll probably know that you sometimes have to settle on either quickness or power. When you are far out from the net, you might need a heavy shot rather than a quick one. When you are in close or pressured by defenders, you might have to get your shot off as quickly as possible, sacrificing power in the process.

In the NHL, this can obviously be a much greater struggle. The game is faster, and the goaltenders are quicker, so an immediate release is essential to surprise the goalie, but players can’t afford to sacrifice power either.

As a result, players have no time for a full wind-up on their wrist shots. Instead, they use their hands to generate power, all without sacrificing their quick release – and Brock Boeser has mastered the art.

Take this goal against Calgary as an example.

A bad line change by the Flames, a flat-footed defender near the red line, and Boeser’s hockey sense allow him to move into the offensive zone and toward goalie Mike Smith all alone.

Like in all previous clips, Boeser stops moving his feet the second before he wants to shoot. Then, without pulling the puck back, he rips a shot past Smith, who doesn’t even get down into the butterfly before the puck is in the net.

Watch how Boeser manages to get that much power into the shot.

Boeser pulls into the middle to improve the angle of his shot, but when the Flames’ defender flies in with a diving poke check, he has to let the shot go quickly. He pulls the puck in toward his body and drops his shoulder onto the stick to flex it as much as possible – this would not have been possible with wooden sticks from the ’80s.

Hidden release

A final great way to beat an NHL goaltender is to pretend you’re doing something else. In other words, hiding the release for as long as you possibly can. Boeser knows precisely how to do this as well.

In the clip above, Boeser scores another goal against the Golden Knights, this time on a 5-on-3 power play. The shot isn’t overly hard, nor accurate. But, it’s incredibly well hidden.

Standing very close to the goal line, a shot does not appear to be an option for Boeser. The other two forwards near the net are well covered, so his only option seems to be a pass back to one of the defenders.

Boeser suggests he will take that one and only option, as he turns both the stick and his body toward the blue line. From there, he suddenly lets a shot go in absolutely no time.

Like the previous goals, this can be attributed to Boeser’s incredible release and hockey sense.

Getting even better

Now, what if I told you Boeser hasn’t reached his goal-scoring ceiling yet?

Watching the clips above, you might have noticed that none of the goals were scored in stride. This is a big issue for many junior hockey players, and something coaches put a lot of emphasis on. At the highest level, goaltenders and skaters are all able to read and react to the tiniest moves that could give away what their opponent is about to do. Hence, switching from full stride into a glide generally gives the puck-carrier a disadvantage.

Boeser has proven he can be effective even when the opposition is well prepared for his shots. But working on his footwork in scoring chances would give him another edge in surprising goaltenders, and make him more versatile in scoring chances as well.

Until then: Keep ’em coming, Brock.





