This past year was the first time Bouma impressed me. Might not be fair but I think he has reached his upside.
Why in gods name would you think a 24 year old that just completed his first NHL season? You are really selling him short. Bouma also has a reputation of having the type of intangibles that are not easily replaced.
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Alberta_Beef For This Useful Post:
According to Steve Ewen of The Province, Bouma's been training in Tsawwassen this offseason and has already began focusing on his offensive game:
Quote:
Lance Bouma went to scorer’s school this summer.
The Calgary Flames winger returned to his Vancouver Giants roots again this off-season, working out in the Tsawwassen area. Besides off-ice sessions under the guidance of longtime Giants strength and conditioning coach Ian Gallagher, Bouma hit the rink with a handful of other players for some workouts with skills coach Tim Turk.
According to his LinkedIn profile page, the Toronto-based Turk has been coaching NHL-level players since 2001. Bouma’s former Giants teammate Brendan Gallagher knew Turk from his time working with the Montreal Canadiens and set up the sessions.
Quote:
“There were times last year that I felt I wasn’t getting the bounces,” said Bouma, who had five goals and 15 points in 78 regular season games with the Flames in 2013-14, “but now I have more confidence and I feel better around the net. I had a good summer. I should be able to score more than I did last season.”
The fact that he recognizes he is deficient in the scoring area and is trying to improve is great to see. So many players get set in their ways once they make the show. You can always learn new tricks and improve well into your 30's
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to 442scotty For This Useful Post:
Bouma gets a lot of comparisons to Yelle, which is awesome. However Yelle played Centre and was a top faceoff guy in the league, and even he never made decent coin playing for us. For forwards if you have no history of scoring 40 points per season you're in tough to even make a million/year
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by JobHopper
The thing is, my posts, thoughts and insights may be my opinions but they're also quite factual.
Bouma gets a lot of comparisons to Yelle, which is awesome. However Yelle played Centre and was a top faceoff guy in the league, and even he never made decent coin playing for us. For forwards if you have no history of scoring 40 points per season you're in tough to even make a million/year
Comparisons? Maybe the shot blocking but that's where it ends. Yelle was a 100 point player in junior and was considerably more talented of a player than Bouma.
I agree Bouma should not be compared to Yelle as they are simply different players. Both are the type of players 30 teams in the league can't have enough of. He's tough, physical and stands up for his team. Not to mention he made some pretty sweet offensive plays last season even though they were few and far between.
Bouma is gritty enough for the 4th line and talented enough for the 3rd line. He's still young and will only get better in both of these roles. I would like to see Bouma on the Flames for the next 10 years due to the number of intangibles he brings.
Bouma brings his game day in day out, I compare him to Prust minus maybe the fighting, but heart and soul left on the ice every shift. Calgary needs a player like this, his work ethic on the ice will help the younger guys going forward. These kids coming up now and the coming years see a guy give her all out there and it pumps them up and makes them want to work harder, can't have a team without someone like that imo. And this coming from a guy who didn't think he would ever become an NHLer.
I agree with people on here saying how good his work ethic is and how every team needs guys like this but I also agree with others because we can really only have so many third or fourth line guys.... Making a case for a guy who's all defense and may get the occasional point is the same as making a case for the guy who's all offense and may have an occasional defensive moment. The defense side of things may pump up the team and the home crowd at times but offense does the same and more people go to games to see amazing offensive displays then they do to see anything defensive.
Bouma is good and brings a lot but he's a certain kind of player and you can have too many of a certain kind of player.
__________________
Fan of the Flames, where being OK has become OK.
hmm, interesting that he's looking more to develop his offensive game. I thought he had chances to score a lot last year, but didn't have the finish, though sounds like he feels it's more a luck/bounce issue, which may be fair.
I think i'd be more excited to hear him working on his fighting. If bouma is playing his game well, i would expect him to be getting into scrums after the whistle following some of his hits so think it would benefit him to be more confident/willing to drop the gloves. i thought that was one area of his game he could improve on. Being a bit nastier to play against other than the hits alone.
I would have no problem, considering the cap situation and what they gave Engelland, with the Flames paying a soldier like Bouma heavy in the next few years if it levels out a bit once we need to start paying everyone.
Pay the guy some money, he lays it all out for us.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by MisterJoji
Johnny eats garbage and isn’t 100% committed.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to nik- For This Useful Post:
Man, how dangerous would Lance be if he could only time a check?
I think he's hurt himself more crashing into the boards trying to hit someone than he has been by blocking shots this year.
