Canucks: Brock Boeser, Andrei Kuzmenko and the greasy goal

Even when your offence is running red hot, as the Vancouver Canucks’ has this season, there are only so many goals to go around. Compare Andrei Kuzmenko and Brock Boeser this season and last: last year, Boeser struggled to find the net much of the year while everything Kuzmenko touched around the opposition’s net turned to gold.

Kuzmenko led the league in tip goals, getting 14 according to the NHL’s data, and it helped him to a sensational 39 goal year. Boeser, on the other hand, struggled in the early going after breaking his hand and although his game improved later in the season, especially once Rick Tocchet took over as coach, he still scored only 18 times, a career low.

It’s the opposite scenario this year for the Canucks’ scoring duo: Boeser has rediscovered the scoring form that he showed so well in the first few seasons of his career — he has 24 goals, second in the NHL behind Auston Matthews — while Kuzmenko has struggled to find success and has even been a healthy scratch multiple times now.

Boeser is playing quicker, finding space quicker, but to him, it’s mostly down to luck. Some years your shots hit the post more often, or they trickle wide; some years they tick off the post and go in, or hit a foot and go in. It’s about getting to the spaces where goals come from, he said. “I think it just depends on the year.

I think I’ve just got to continue to work hard and really stay focused on those details. And you know, as long as you’re getting chances, they should go in,” he said Saturday. “Just, you know, come to the rink with a good mindset every day and being motivated, motivated to get better and work on your game and just really focus on all those details Rick talks about.” Kuzmenko, on the other hand, admitted he’s in bit of a muddle.

He’s not been getting his stick on as many point shots as he was last year, and he knows this. “I need to work better,” he said. The open spaces to get tip chances are there, and he’s working on improving how he finds those open spaces. “Every player is tougher,” he said of what he’s learned playing in the NHL versus the KHL.

“It’s a very interesting process. I love playing against the best players. It’s a very good challenge. I can’t solve why. It’s a very interesting moment for me.” Tocchet said Boeser’s ability to find space in tight quarters, whether it’s right on top of the crease or further back, in the slot, is impressive.

“He gets to that area quickly and Millsy (J.T. Miller) has actually hit him a bunch of times this year,” Tocchet said. “His awareness of where to go on the ice in that slot. I think he’s one of the better guys in the league at, when the pressure hits in a defensive zone coverage, he can find that non pressure place, but it’s usually only open for about a second or two.

… If you get there slower, it’ll probably close up. I think he gets there really quick.” Boeser’s ability to get goals from those high traffic areas is in line with the team’s overall success in that regard, Tocchet said. The Canucks are one the NHL’s best at scoring off of tips: they’re third in the NHL, scoring on 23.7 per cent of the shots recorded as tips.

Only Minnesota and Columbus have been more successful at tipping the puck into the net. Still, there’s work to be done, the head coach said. “I think we have slipped a bit in our net front, though. I think we have to get back to having more people in front of the net. And I think that’ll translate then into more puck possession time too.” SOUCY ‘SOON’ — Carson Soucy practised with his teammates for the third time this week as he works his way back from a lower leg fracture, suffered Nov.

12 in Montreal. The veteran defenceman was once again all smiles talking to the media after skating on a fourth defensive pairing in practice with Mark Friedman. He even took some turns on the right side, as he will likely swap in for Noah Juulsen when the time comes. Asked if he might play Tuesday versus the Ottawa Senators, Rick Tocchet would only say that the defenceman would be returning “soon.” pjohnston@postmedia.com twitter.com/risingaction.