Brock Boeser breaks down in tears at end of season press conference.

This was a though one to watch.

As the 2021-2022 National Hockey League regular season winds down for a number of teams across the league we have seen a number of end of season press conferences over the course of the last few days. On Sunday, the Vancouver Canucks held theirs and while it was a fairly typical event as you would expect in these situations, there was one moment in particular that will stick in the hearts and the minds of all us who watched it take place.

One of the big challenges that has been faced by Vancouver Canucks forward Brock Boeser since his arrival in Vancouver has been the consistently deteriorating health of his father, Duke Boeser. Duke has been dealing with a number of illnesses over the course of the past several years including Parkinson's and cancer, but on Sunday Boeser would admit that this year has been particularly difficult for him and his family. Boeser would reveal that his father is dealing with onset dementia, adding that it has progressed quite badly over the course of the past year, and eventually broke down in tears as he was unable to contain his emotions when discussing the health of his dad.

"Yeah, to say the least it was really hard," said Boeser when asked if it had made the season more challenging.

"He's not doing well," added Boeser through tears when asked if his dad was doing ok, "He has pretty bad dementia right now, it's onset. It's gotten pretty bad this year and it's really hit me hard."

As powerful as the words from Boeser were themselves, it was the young man's body language that sent the real message. Boeser was quite literally wracked with grief when attempting to get the words out and you could tell immediately that this is something that has taken an immense toll on him both mentally and likely physically as well.

My thoughts go out to Brock and the rest of the Boeser family as they continue to battle through Duke's health issues.