Quote:
Originally Posted by topfiverecords
Just finished watching the game and honestly didn’t notice Bouchard except for his controller disconnected glide on the backcheck during Phillips OT goal. Guess that’s why they like him. He looks like a true Oiler already.
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I'm just watching it now, and have an eye on Bouchard due to the praise being heaped on him.
In the 2nd period alone, there were 3 plays I noticed:
1) he made a
brutal read on the offensive blueline, as the Flames got the puck on the boards (not his side), and carried it into the neutral zone. As the backside D, he has to be back, but no, he stays on the blueline for some reason. The Flames move out 2 on 1 and send Gawdin in on a breakaway (should have been Bouchard's man)
2) on the Flames' PP, where they had about 5 shots, guess who was the D man in front of the net, never covering a soul, and just waiting for a chance to grab the puck? It was about a minute in the defensive zone, and he just floated around, really having no idea what he should be doing. If Pospisil doesn't fumble with the open net, Bouchard's man makes it 1-0 unchecked.
3) later in the period, Dube carries the puck to the Oiler blueline on a routine 3 on 2. Dube moves towards Bouchard, then cuts to the middle. Bouchard completely bites and chases Dube into the midle, so Dube slides it over to Phillips on the vacated side, who goes in all alone on the goalie.
Three shifts, 3 horrible shifts defensively. Terrible. Of course, the commentators never mentioned it.
Then there is a shift that the Flames have the puck in the offensive zone. Bouchard covers no one, and is stuck in no man's land. The Flames' forward on the wall tries to pass it down low to the forward in deep (and wide open behind Bouchard). Bouchard intercepts the pass. Stauffer says 'wow!' and the play by play guy gushes about about how easily Bouchard made the play. In reality, he was totally out of position and extremely fortunate.
The guy was an absolute disaster defensively. But, as the commentators said, he was very poised with the puck. The problem is that he will not be able to play like that in the NHL. He probably will on the Oilers though.