This in today, almost the entirety of Edmonton Oilers country abuzz about the poor player of Edmonton’s star players in Thursday night’s 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers, with Evan Bouchard, the favourite whipping boy of a large faction of fans, taking most of the heat.
Wherever people are talking Oilers today, they’re talking about the overtime goal in the game, where New York Rangers forward J.T. Miller waltzed up the ice past Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard to score.
One of the most considered conversations was on the Got Yer Back podcast, which I most wanted to hear because former NHL d-man Jason Strudwick isn’t on the “I hate Evan” train, but knows what it’s like to play against tough NHL forwards, and makes reasonable assessments of the plays and misplays of top flight d-men.
In this case, Strudwick said Bouchard was at fault on three of the goals against and it’s time to send him a message.
“JT Miller was shocked to find he had a direct line to the net,” Strudwick said. “That was the end result and he beat Skinner. I think that’s a saveable puck. Now let’s back up. Miller gets the puck and he’s coming to neutral zone and Leon takes a poor angle at him and just swings by. So Miller, if he’s coming up the ice from his zone, he kind of angle or goes towards his right and Leon swings by him towards his left and then takes kind of a long turn then he starts coming back. And that leaves Evan Bouchard and Leon unsure of whose man he is. From what I can tell, there’s not much communication. Evan doesn’t go at him, nor does Leon push Evan to go get him. And that allows Miller a direct line to the net when two Oilers are standing beside him. What should have happened in that moment is that Leon could have pivoted and kind of just started going straight back so he created a bit of a wedge…. you can kind of wedge (Miller) to one side or the other. And he could have called immediately for Bouchard to go to him.mAnd Evan would have been the wedge to kind of push him against the wall. And then Leon would have back filled and looked for any opportunities for a back door tap. So you know, a couple of misplays in there. But the end result is JT Miller was shocked. I guarantee it when he’s scared, he’s like, ‘Holy hell, is this going to happen? Am I going to drive a break away here?’ And that’s essentially what it was.”
Strudwick added: “My concern is the lack of communication. Like no one’s talking to each other about where he should go.”
Struckwick said Bouchard made three “massive glaring errors” in the game. “Three. And there’s only four goals again. So that’s 75%…. I suppose you could have benched him. There’s got to be something deeper than this. Is there something wrong?… I don’t know. There’s something, because this is so dramatic So many bad things, choices he’s making.”
Show host Ryan Rishaug said of Bouchard, “Evan Bouchard was terrible. And he hurt the team again with the same kinds of mistakes he’s been making all year long.”
Knoblauch failed to drop the hammer
Rishaug noted Bouchard’s two turnovers that led to goals against in the first and third period. Rishaug said he’d previously called for Bouchard to be benched and felt that should have happened in the New York game after the first turnover. Oilers coach benched Darnell Nurse the previous game after two turnovers led to goals against and the same should have happened to Nurse, Rishaug said. “He should have done it to Bouchard tonight. After that first mistake, enough has to be enough. This is such a good player. He has so many skills. He’s so talented. They have got to get his head on straight and make him understand the severity of it. It’s way too far gone. He’s let it go too long. And to me, this is partly on him (Knoblauch) for not dropping the hammer fast enough to get the sense of urgency up.”
Former NHL forward Rob Brown called for action from the action from the coach. “There has to be accountability. Because if there’s not accountability, then it’s hard really holding anyone else accountable. Because we’re seeing it, the team is seeing it, someone has to stand up and say, ‘Enough is enough’ Because when your best players are this off, like Bouchard is, it’s really tough to be a good hockey club.I still disagree because at that point it’s bigger than that.”
Strudwick said you can’t bench Bouchard to start a game where he hasn’t made a mistake, but the Oilers could take him off the top power play unit to make a point.
“I’d actually come out at a different way, guys… I put (d-man Jake) Walman on the power play. Change it up…. Now, the problem is you’re punishing the other four guys on that on that power play because Evan’s been a big part of it. But just to him know that there are something that happens when it doesn’t go well. You lose privileges. Take them off the power play, play someone else.
Said Brown: “That’s a really good point, Struds. I really do like that… Put Wallman out there and they send a message that to get on the power play, you have to play well five on five. So that I really like that. I’m 100 per cent behind you.”
My take
1. First off, great convo between Rishaug, Brown and Strudwick, and I highly recommend their podcast.
2. Second, I hated McDavid and Draisaitl’s backcheck on the OT goal. Where was the effort? Where was the hard change back? If Draisaitl had kept his feet moving he could have driven Miller wide. Did Draisaitl yell at Bouchard to cover Miller, to switch over to him? We don’t know. But I wonder about the communication on the Oilers. How well are these players talking to each other on the ice.
On that play, Bouchard was guarding against a pass across, which is the most dangerous plays on a 2-on-1. He failed to cut off Miller, but Draisaitl failed to backcheck and may well have failed to yell at Bouchard to cover Miller once Drai lost him.
dmen
3. Whoever was at fault on that particular play, though, the fact is that this season Draisaitl and especially McDavid have been playing solid defence so far this year but Bouchard hasn’t, so of course he’s going to be under the gun, especially in a game where’s he’s already made two goal-causing mistakes. So far this year in just 12 games Bouchard has made 11 goal-causing mistakes. McDavid has made just two, Draisaitl just three.
Last year — in what far from a stellar regular season on defence, Bouchard made 56 such mistakes in 82 games. But this year he’s leaking even more goals against and he’s not the only star Oilers d-man struggling right now, with Mattias Ekholm and Darnell Nurse also struggling.
4. Every single regular Oilers d-men except for Ty Emberson is leaking Grade A shots at even strength at a higher rate than they did last season. Bouchard, Ekholm and Nurse are also leaking goals against at a higher rate, with Bouchard and Nurse at much higher rates of carnage so far this year.
5. I love Strudwick’s idea of taking Bouchard off the top power play for now. I thought it could well have happened after Bouchard’s weak third period power play and his third period goal-causing turnover. The Oil had a 4-on-3 power play in OT and I would have liked to have seen Walman on it mainly because Walman is a more direct player, more likely to hammer a shot, and his shot is also a killer, just like Bouch’s bomb.
Taking Bouchard off the power play now is the right move because a) Walman is an excellent fill-in and b) it tells Bouchard and everyone else that power play time has to be earned.
Of course, Walman also made a bad pinch and weak backcheck that led to a third period goal against verus the Rangers, and he’s also making more mistakes on Grade A shots against than last year, so there’s that.
The power play change up is an imperfect suggestion then, but it’s the best one I’ve heard to get Bouchard and the team going.