Sooooo how about Evan Bouchard's defense last night

[ijuka]

he is what he is.

A premier offensive defenseman who is prone to making bone head mistakes.

The good far outweighs the bad.

A premier defensive defenseman as well.

Bouchard actually ranks #3 out of all defensemen in the entire NHL for fewest shot attempts against per 60 minutes of ice time.

The two defensemen ahead of him are Shayne Gosthisbehere and Sean Walker, and both are on Carolina Hurricanes that are the absolute corsi dominators of the league.

Bouchard had a rough start last year as well. I am 100% confident that he will get back to his dominant self in short order, if he’s not there already.

At his best he is an offensive force who is at least adequate in his own end. But for some reason he seems to always start the season slow.

top 5 in the league in advanced stats both offensively and defensively = "rough start"?


It's just this typical confirmation bias. Ignore 99% of the body of work, highlight a couple of bad plays, and think that those plays define him as a player. This last night's game? He was fantastic, but I assume no one will mention or think much of that. Then in a couple of games when he has a bad individual play? People will again come out like vultures.

So stupid.

 

[phrenssoa]

A premier defensive defenseman as well.

Bouchard actually ranks #3 out of all defensemen in the entire NHL for fewest shot attempts against per 60 minutes of ice time.

The two defensemen ahead of him are Shayne Gosthisbehere and Sean Walker, and both are on Carolina Hurricanes that are the absolute corsi dominators of the league.


top 5 in the league in advanced stats both offensively and defensively = "rough start"?


It's just this typical confirmation bias. Ignore 99% of the body of work, highlight a couple of bad plays, and think that those plays define him as a player. This last night's game? He was fantastic, but I assume no one will mention or think much of that. Then in a couple of games when he has a bad individual play? People will again come out like vultures.

So stupid.

I don’t know. I watch every Oilers game and so far this year (as was the case early on last year), Bouchard has been prone to making some egregious decisions that lead to prime scoring chances against. Not all scoring chances are equal and some of his mistakes are of the highlight reel variety. I agree that he is better defensively than he gets credit for, as long as he minimizes those mistakes.

He did play a beautiful game last night though. Hopefully that continues the rest of the year.