Bolduc is leaving a lot to be desired right now. He's not doing anything wrong. But he's not giving them a reason to keep him up right now when Saad comes back.
I liked his game tonight in the OZ. I expect him to go down, but we could really use the injection of skill.
We need him figuring out how to find spots at the NHL level, and getting comfortable firing the puck. He did more of that tonight, and made some decent plays off the cycle. He couldn't quite handle the extra pressure once VGK went into the shell, but we can afford to live with insulating 1 forward.
It's not going to hurt him to go down to the AHL for a bit. I don't disagree that he hasn't earned extended time. The roster crunch combined with the prospect of putting him with Dvorsky is a look I'm sure they're excited to see. But he can't stay down there long. He's too close, and we need to raise the offensive ceiling up-front.
I like the tweaks Bannister has made to the top 9 — he's already hit with overloading the top line in spots— but I am a little concerned still about that top line. That's a lot of lifting for Thomas to go against the Eichel line with those wingers and still manufacture offense. The Boldy line won't be much of a reprieve on Tuesday. I'm glad to have gotten the clarity during the broadcast around the whole Buch center thing, but...Kyrou might be an upgrade defensively, at this point. Neighbors is starting to get to the plays more consistently, but he's still learning how to read in the DZ. And Schenn is Schenn. He's better defensively in a track meet than he is playing against a cycle.
Overall, I thought this was our best game, by a good amount.
I won't be surprised if we see Broberg/Faulk get the big minutes on Tuesday. They've been good together — Faulk looks healthy, Broberg is trending toward better than advertised.