I'm still bitter about the fact that the NHL has forbidden its players from participating in next month's Olympics, but now the situation has an unexpected silver lining.
If we'd had the usual NHL Olympic shutdown this year, that would have meant no All-Star Game. And if there had been no All-Star Game, there would have been no All-Star MVP award for the Vancouver Canucks' golden child, Brock Boeser!
After turning heads with his performance in the shooting accuracy contest at the Skills Competition on Saturday, Boeser scored two goals and added an assist as the Pacific Division captured its second win in the three-year history of the 3-on-3 tournament.
For all the talk of the players' grudging approach to the festivities this year and their ongoing bitterness about being shut out of the Olympics, the mood all weekend was both jovial and competitive.
Now that puck control has become such an important part of 3-on-3 strategies in regular NHL overtimes, we saw the same approach on Sunday in Tampa. There was plenty of hustle and backchecking in games where the scores were inflated by multiple empty-net goals.
Boeser scored what proved to be the game winner on Connor Hellebuyck to make the score 3-2 for the Pacific Division over the Central with 1:42 to play in the second period of their first 20-minute game—once again, neatly picking a corner.
In the final, he scored at 5:05 of the first period to put the Pacific up 2-0, after some soft defending from the Atlantic crew.
Boeser added an assist on Johnny Gaudreau's goal to make it 4-1 Pacific early in the second.
After the first round, I thought hometown boy Nikita Kucherov had the inside track on the MVP Award thanks to his hat-trick performance, but he was held off the scoresheet in the final against the Pacific—defenseman Mike Green scored both Atlantic goals on setups by Brad Marchand, who finished the day with 1-3-4.
Boeser's teammate Rickard Rackell led the scoring in the final, with two goals and an assist. Connor McDavid led the Pacific team overall in points with four assists, but they all came in the first game—and two were on empty-netters.
I'd forgotten that the All-Star MVP is a fan-voted award. On Sunday, our Prince Charming captured the hearts of fans in Amalie Arena and watching on TV and won himself a car—as well as his second $212,500 Schedule A Bonus of the weekend.
Mike Russo of The Athletic caught up with Boeser again as the dust was settling.
This story is behind the Athletic paywall, but it's another good one. If you do decide now's the time to subscribe,
click here for 25 percent off the usual rate—and I'll get at $10 Amazon Gift Card.
As we've seen ever since he joined the Canucks last season, Boeser's not big on showing emotion. He kind of went through the motions with Sportsnet's David Amber when he was announced as MVP but in that case, I'm pretty sure he was also in a state of shock.
“Seriously, how did I win MVP?” he asked Russo after his press conference duties were complete.
I've seen Boeser post pictures of himself hanging out with Troy Stecher's adorable Bernese Mountain Dog, Phoebe, so I can't say I'm surprised to hear that one of the dogs from the Humane Society Event on Saturday caught his eye.
Russo's reporting that this nine week old Shepherd-Husky mix, Cider, captured Brock's heart.
Cider won't get to meet Phoebe the Bernese anytime soon, though—the dog's headed back to Minnesota with Brock's family.
Boeser's the first player in Canucks history to be named All-Star MVP. TV viewers know that former Canucks goaltender and current colour man John Garrett had the inside track on the award back in 1983—until Wayne Gretzky stole his thunder with four third-period goals.
Click here for Iain MacIntyre's walk down memory lane with Garrett from one year ago, in the
Vancouver Sun.
Only one other NHL rookie has ever won All-Star MVP honours:
On top of all his accolades from the weekend, Brock picked up one more on Monday morning:
After being named rookie of the month for November and December, I think he'll get beat out by Mat Barzal for January, but he's the first Canucks player to be named the league's first star of the week since Jannik Hansen earned the honour on November 23, 2014.
Boeser won't be back in Vancouver in time to join his teammates—or meet the media—at Monday's 2 p.m. practice.
After many of the guys fanned out in search of sun during their bye week, most of the group stayed closer to home for the All-Star Break.
A bunch of the guys went up to Whistler:
The Whistler role call I've been able to piece together includes Del Zotto, Chris Tanev, Markus Granlund, Jacob Markstrom and Sam Gagner. Can you pick anybody else out from this photo?
Considering the struggles that the Canucks have had on the ice this season, I like seeing that the guys are choosing to go on adventures together in their downtime. The groups are pretty fluid, too—it doesn't seem like there are distinct cliques.
I haven't forgotten how poorly they played against Buffalo last Thursday but for all of their issues, it seems like this is a pretty solid dressing room.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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