The Vancouver Canucks will be without star winger Brock Boeser for Monday鈥檚 decisive Game 7 against the Edmonton Oilers.
The 27-year-old right-winger is being evaluated and won鈥檛 be available for the final game of the second-round Stanley Cup playoff series, head coach Rick Tocchet said Monday morning.
Tocchet declined to speak about the nature of Boeser鈥檚 injury, but reports emerged Sunday that he would miss the game due to a non-life-threatening blood clotting issue.
鈥淥bviously he鈥檚 had a great year for us. Big part of the team, he鈥檚 scored some big goals for us,鈥 the coach said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a tough one. But next man up. That鈥檚 the way you鈥檝e got to approach it, like we have all year.鈥
Boeser has seven goals and five assists in 12 playoff appearances this year, and recorded career highs in goals (40) and points (73) during the regular-season campaign.
Boeser logged 18 minutes 40 seconds in ice time during Vancouver鈥檚 5-1 loss to Edmonton in Game 6 on Saturday, and did not appear to be dealing with any injuries when he spoke with reporters after the game. He did not practice with the team on Sunday.
A native of 亚洲天堂ville, Minn., Boeser was picked 23rd overall by Vancouver in the 2015 draft. He鈥檚 logged 479 regular-season games for the Canucks, putting up 179 goals and 205 points.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a very tough situation. You hate to see it,鈥 said teammate Dakota Joshua. 鈥淗e鈥檚 our longest-tenured Canuck. But it just adds all the more fuel in the fire to get this done for him. No one鈥檚 cheering us on more than him tonight. And you just don鈥檛 want to let him down as well. So we鈥檒l be battling for him out there.鈥
Tocchet said depth forward Vasily Podkolzin will also come out of the lineup Monday after appearing in Games 5 and 6.
Sam Lafferty and Ilya Mikheyev are expected to slot back in for Vancouver.
The winner of Monday鈥檚 game will face the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference final starting Thursday.
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press
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