Canucks: Brock Boeser and Thatcher Demko get their Team USA due

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If you aren’t going to be picked, might you rather not be in consideration at all?

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Thursday’s news that Thatcher Demko and Brock Boeser are both back in consideration for the USA Olympic team is good news. It’s a recognition of performance, of being near the height of the game.

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But there’s also a “what if” lurking in the background, especially for Boeser.

The what if of “What if I don’t make it?”. It is obviously very nice to know that someone out there thinks of you as being possible Olympic-worthy, of being good enough to be part of your country’s greatest team.

Is the inevitable disappointment of not making the team, though, worth it?

Demko and Boeser were both left off the 44-man summertime orientation camp roster. That they are both back in the conversation is nice. They have had strong careers to date and so are deserving of consideration.

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Demko’s omission this summer was surely about health as much as anything. We know that when healthy, he is among the league’s best goaltenders. In 2023-24, he finished just behind Connor Hellebuyck in voting for the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goalie.

The three goalies named this summer — Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman — are all fabulous talents in their own right.

Hellebuyck is clearly the front-runner to be the American starter in net. But after that it’s a crapshoot.

If Demko continues to perform as he has in the first two games of the season, he will be deservedly in the mix. He’s at least as good as Oettinger, and both are better than Swayman.

As for Boeser, he is in a much harder battle. Team USA’s top two right wingers are clearly Matt Boldy and Matthew Tkachuk. After that, it’s some combination of Kyle Connor, Tage Thompson and Matthew Knies.

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Boeser is on the fringe of that group, along with Canucks teammate Conor Garland. Garland was one of the 44 players who were at the August get-together. Garland starred at last spring’s World Championships, helping the Americans win their first world title since 1933.

Garland played on the top line for Team USA, scored five goals and added five assists in 10 games, and was also a crucial penalty killer.

Boeser is one of the better scoring wingers in the NHL — he had 25 goals last year, even as his team slumped out of playoff contention and he himself struggled with trade rumours throughout much of the middle part of the season. He admitted the noise affected his play. Now that he has signed a seven-year deal with the Canucks, that noise won’t be there like it was before, so he is hopeful he can have the kind of season he did in 2023-24, when he scored 40 goals.

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And now he’s being asked to kill penalties, a statement about the hockey smarts he has always possessed.

If he performs well as a penalty killer this season, that will surely help his case. Same too if he gets on a scoring tear, as he did two seasons ago. (Of course, he had J.T. Miller as his centre then, dishing him fantastic passes.)

The truth is, both Boeser and Demko will be happy to be in consideration. It may yet drive them harder this season, and goodness knows the Canucks need all the extra juice they can get from their top players.

If they don’t get picked, yeah, sure, they’ll have a moment or two of disappointment. But the big picture for both is to get the Canucks back to where they should be — in the playoffs.

The final 25-player Olympic squads have to be set by early January. Back in June, Canucks captain Quinn Hughes was one of six players who were required for marketing purposes to be declared as already going, so the other 19 spots remain up for grabs.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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