After partaking in Hurricanes training camp, Boychuk was one of the last players cut and sent to Charlotte. While this disappointing event could sour a player’s attitude, he is determined to build on it.
“It’s obviously a year where you expect to be in Carolina and you prepare all summer and then you kind of get knocked down,” said Boychuk. “So you can sit in the corner or you can fight back and get back up. That’s what I’m going to do.”
When making cuts during training camp, the head coach will normally hold a meeting with the player to tell them they are being sent down. The meeting with new Hurricanes coach Bill Peters, however, was unlike any he had had before.
The interest and effort that Peters put forward in that meeting has helped ease the disappointment that comes with being sent down.
“It was a lot more encouraging,” said Boychuk. “He wants to see what my career has been like, he’s even wanting to talk to my junior coach. So it’s encouraging that he’s willing to kind of help me through this problem.”
Boychuk is now armed with a blueprint on what he needs to do with his game to make the jump to the next level.
“I think the biggest thing is just rounding out my game,” said Boychuk. “I was trying to figure out what my role was, and maybe I didn’t play intense enough and wasn’t hard enough to play against. So I can bring that down here. Obviously I’m going to be counted upon to score goals, but I have to play both ends and finish checks and be hard to play against and that’ll get me up top.”
The reigning Willie Marshall Award winner is joining what has shaped up to be a young Checkers team, and despite this morning’s practice being his first time skating with the group, he likes what he sees.
“It’s an exciting team,” said Boychuk. “We’ve got a lot of young guys that are going to play some big minutes, so the team is going to be fun to watch. We’ve got some skill and we should be a pretty good contender.”
On a team that is entering the 2014-15 campaign without six of their top 10 goal-scorers from a year ago, Boychuk will be depended upon to lead the offensive charge, something he proved he is capable of by leading the AHL in goals last season. When asked about his career year, he points to self- motivation as a big part of that success, and is looking to build on those numbers even more.
“I think a lot of it was just putting myself back on the map,” said Boychuk. “I think after the year that I had where I went on waivers and went to a couple different teams, I had to take a step back and kind of realize that I really needed to pick up my intensity and put in the work. Last year obviously went really well for me, and hopefully I can continue that this year.”
As he leads the Checkers into the 2014-15 season, Boychuk has a strong understanding of what he needs to work on to ultimately obtain his goal of breaking through to the NHL level.
“I think they know that I have the tools and the ability to play in the NHL, it’s just having that mindset that every shift out there, I need to play like it’s my last shift, or it’s the seventh game of the Stanley Cup final.”
