Canucks' Brock Boeser is already back skating, just days after surgery

A week after undergoing hand surgery, Brock Boeser was back on the ice today.

Spotted skating following Vancouver Canucks practice at UBC, Boeser was in full gear, as shown below by Jeff Paterson from the Rink Wide Podcast. Not only was Boeser skating, he was gripping a stick — though he is not yet shooting pucks.

Boeser out for a skate after practice pic.twitter.com/XrEY8fup9o

— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) October 3, 2022

While this was the first time Boeser was seen skating since his hand injury suffered at training camp in Whistler, it wasn’t his first time back on the ice according to his head coach.

“He’s been skating with the injured guys for the last four or five days I think now,” Bruce Boudreau told reporters after practice.

“He’s been skating really hard. He’s still not shooting pucks right now. I think he’s got another doctor’s appointment soon. So we’ll see how that goes. They’re putting him through quite a lot of skating, which is going to keep his conditioning up.”

Boeser was expected to miss three to four weeks of action, the Canucks said a week ago.

Might this change that timeline? Vancouver’s regular season opener in Edmonton is just nine days away.

“I don’t have any idea,” Boudreau said in response to a question about when Boeser could return. “Obviously we want him back when he’s ready, and not before. He’s determined. He wants to get back as soon as possible. I’m just crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.”

Boeser sounded as motivated as he’s been in his career prior to getting injured, predicting that he would score 30 goals this season.

“This is the year,” Boeser said. “That’s all I got to say. This is the year.”

“We’re picking up where we left off. We all know that we need to make the playoffs this year. There are no excuses. I think we’re all ready for that task and we’re all excited to get the season going.”

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