Sitting in their Burnsville, Minnesota, living room ‘til 11:40 several nights a week, Laurie and Duke Boeser inevitably look at each other and blurt out, “Can you believe this? Can you believe this? Can you honestly believe this?”



Even on this frigid, sub-zero Jan. 14 morning, as the Boesers make the 20-minute drive to St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center to watch their 20-year-old boy take part in the Vancouver Canucks’ morning skate hours before playing the Minnesota Wild, Duke turns to his wife of 23 years and says, “This isn’t real. This just isn’t real. This is not real.”



Inside the arena, as they stare at their son from the lower-bowl seats, they watch in awe and recall how as a teenager, this was the same kid that was forced to mature well beyond his years in a hurry because of what at times felt like an endless amount of excruciating hardship.



But as Brock Boeser snipes shots into the top corner of one of...