ORRFForever
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- Oct 29, 2018
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Sooooo how about Evan Bouchard's defense last night
- Thread starter benfranklin
- Start date
EdmFlyersfan
Registered User
I am glad Nurse was okay and didn't have some career threatening or season-ending injury.
ORRFForever
Registered User
- Oct 29, 2018
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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
Registered User
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
Anita Max Wynn
- Nov 3, 2013
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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.
Someone edit in the controller disconnect
And then reconnecting after the goal is scored
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.
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
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La Bamba
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Bounces R Way
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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.
Commander Clueless
Apathy of the Leaf
- Sep 10, 2008
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Him having a great game is pretty normal. He's a great player offensively and sometimes the best defense is a good offense.
The defensive gaffs, when they happen, are far more shocking.
Ryuji Yamazaki
Do yuu undastahn!?
- Jul 22, 2015
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That second goal I'll assert that the goalie should have that. I don't understand why more modern goalies remain in their nets, but at least in the time period I'm more familiar with, the goalie takes that 11 times out of 10. Mike Smith would never, ever, ever, ever have allowed the Leaf to reach the puck.
The first one's pretty dumb, yeah.
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SeanMoneyHands
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- Apr 18, 2019
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Bouchard is so good that he needs to be carried by a 34 year old Ekholm.
Gaylord Q Tinkledink
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As horrendous as he is defensively he still looks more competent doing it than Mike Green.
Bouchard and Karlsson are pretty much in the same tier defensively..
Bouchard and Karlsson are pretty much in the same tier defensively..
Hoglander
I'm Höglander. I can do whatever I want.
Bouchard 5on5 corsi 63.87%, fenwick 62.28%, xGF 63.05%, HDCF 65.08%, and fantastic drive from defensive zone to the offensive zone.
"Horrendous defensively" somehow has some of the best advanced stats in all of NHL.
Gaylord Q Tinkledink
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Anything "expected" is a f***ing stupid stat and has no relevance in the real world.
When you watch him you see how he easily gets confused and lost.
Mike Green had some pretty nice stats and he was absolute trash in his own end.
Aashir Mallik
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- Apr 19, 2019
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What’s funny is it would’ve been fine had he actually stayed in net
He does this weird 10 feet stop and puts himself in a spot where mcmann can easily skate around him with that speed.
Mcmann is one of our faster players and so even if he got caught off guard, all he had to do was stay a bit more back and play it like a normal breakaway.
This is also why it's ridiculous when people complain that McDavid and Draisaitl's teammates let them down. Well they regularly stack that 5 man unit together which will have a cap hit of over $50 million very soon, of course the other lines are going to struggle. The Oilers strategy for the past decade has been robbing Peter to pay Paul (#97).
kerrabria
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- May 3, 2018
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Bouchard is garbage in his own zone, and Ekholm is the legitimate 1D for that pairing.
