Sooooo how about Evan Bouchard's defense last night

[ORRFForever]

While I am somewhat concerned about Bouchard's brain dead lazy plays, I am more concerned that we are in year 3 of the Stuart Skinner experiment with no apparent plans to change course.

Yup.

Having said that, he was the reason for the loss and that cannot happen.

 

[EdmFlyersfan]

Worst defensive performance since.... Nurse.

I am glad Nurse was okay and didn't have some career threatening or season-ending injury.

 

[ORRFForever]

I am glad Nurse was okay and didn't have some career threatening or season-ending injury.

Oilers pull Nurse aside and say, "Pretend you are REALLY hurt so we can pay you to go away and find someone MUCH better".

 

[ScottyMascotty]

Durrr my calculator say he's good!

I mean, my post was a double irony. If my offensive defenseman is producing enough points AND ensuring opponents would not have lot of time with the puck, he needs to make many more such failures without the puck for me to reconsider opinion on him.

Granted, my team doesn't have such offensive defenseman currently...

 

[Old Boys Club]

Something something Bouchard can't play defense.

Definitely has some bad moments that's for sure. On aggregate, he still is a huge positive. Play is consistently in the other end and heavily favors the Oilers when he's on the ice.

 

[Osprey]

Someone edit in the controller disconnect

And then reconnecting after the goal is scored

 

[Cup or Bust]

Bouchard's defensive skillset is not very good. He Skates slow, moves the puck slow, isn't physical at all, plays with zero aggression or intensity, has bad positioning a lot of the time. For the most part this gets exposed in more intense times in a game when the other team is coming hard. I would never play Bouchard in the last 2 or 3 minutes of a game with a 1 goal lead. Basically every element in a skillset a defenseman can possess to be good defensively, he does not do well. His advanced stats are good because he plays with Ekholm and gets lots of 5 on 5 ice time with the best player in the world that domnates most shifts. It has nothing to do with Bouchard's skill at playing defense. He makes lots of careless errors.

The thing with Bouchard is you have to balance the good with the bad. He is elite offensively and typically does much more good then bad, last season he was great for the type of player he is. This season though, for the minutes he plays he isn't doing enough offensively to make up for his lack of defensive ability. For the amount of minutes he plays he needs to do more offensively or he becomes a liability. I like Bouchard and get just as excited as any other Oilers fan when he rifles a shot into the net but even with his offensive totals he isn't a Cale Makar or a Quinn Hughes, those guys have way more responsibilities for their teams on both sides of the puck then Bouchard. Bouchard is still a valuable player and a weapon when used correctly and playing his best. I expect his play to improve as the season goes on. Last night was a really awful defensive effort by him though. I would have benched him after Toronto's tying goal. No excuse to make such a careless, dumb pass in your own zone late in a game with a one goal lead.

 

[Sol]

This is far worse than the Ovechkin one. Much much much worse.

 

[La Bamba]

I hope this backlash will lower his cap hit next year

 

[Czechboy]

I think we should also open a thread everytime Bouch has a great game... there'd be a lot more of those. It is funny though.. whenever he f***s up (and he does).. every mistake is posted online.lol

 

[Bounces R Way]

Definitely has some bad moments that's for sure. On aggregate, he still is a huge positive. Play is consistently in the other end and heavily favors the Oilers when he's on the ice.

I wonder why

He definitely contributes positively in the OZ, but this idea that he's 'limiting' scoring chances or something with great defense I see some Oiler fans trumpet on Twitter I have a hard time buying. He plays almost exclusively with McDavid or Draisaitl, and those guys have the puck a lot. I understand why the Oil are deploying that 5 man unit that way, it's a very strong group, but it's the context people miss sometimes. He is starting his shifts in the OZ 72% of the time this season.