Half-Assed GDT: Blues Isles: Hello Bolduc

[shpongle falls]

How is the kid playing. I am at second job cant watch. High level overview. Please and thank you

I thought Bolduc was pretty solid overall, he’s got decent size, skated well and had some poise to his game, didn’t try to do too much and made good simple plays. Didn’t look out of place to me. Had a nice one timer at the end of the game. It was nice to hear he worked really hard in Springfield on the defensive side of the game. I’d like to see if he can utilize his shot on the powerplay.

 

[Snubbed4Vezina]

I thought Bolduc was pretty solid overall, he’s got decent size, skated well and had some poise to his game, didn’t try to do too much and made good simple plays. Didn’t look out of place to me. Had a nice one timer at the end of the game. It was nice to hear he worked really hard in Springfield on the defensive side of the game. I’d like to see if he can utilize his shot on the powerplay.

I haven't seen much of his body of work in Springfield but there was a noticeable difference in his two-way game during preseason action this year. I really hope he can cement himself as a solid middle-6 with a scoring touch. Even better if he can plant himself on the wing on the 2nd PP unit and fire some rockets.

 

[joe galiba]

How has bolduc been so far

I think he may have taken advice from Neighbors and watched lots of Oshie tapes on skating (he randomly hit the ice several times)
other than that, he looked like a typical nongenerational 20 year old player in their first game

 

[ezcreepin]

My phone crapped out midway through the game, but overall from Bolduc I thought he started a very nervous game, overthinking position and trying a bit too hard to make an impression, HOWEVER he played with really nice pace, attempted to be a strong forward for his defense, and was very engaged in puck retrievals. He and Kyrou are nearly identical size, but it felt like Bolduc was able to use his body to get positioning a bit better. Could have been the nerves and wanting to set the tone for his first game, but I thought it was a good showing from him and for a guy who probably shouldn't sniff the NHL at the moment. I think if he stays here long enough to get comfortable, we're going to see an effective 3rd line RW who has a lot of offense to give and will do his best on the defensive side of things. Jury is out on him still but I do see a potential 2nd line winger in there somewhere.

 

[Brian39]

Home openers and pre-game ceremonies aside, that was the most fun I've had at the Enterprise Center since the 2021/22 season.

We've had a lot of games this year where we get outshot, heavily out-score our xG number and the eye test tells me that we were somewhat fortunate to wind up with the number of goals we got. This was not one of them. That 3 goal burst reminded me of the 21/22 team that was selective with their shots, but made up for the low quantity in favor of A++ chances. The first 2 were full cross crease passes where the goalie had to slide post to post. The 3rd was two quick touch passes that pulled the goalie from one side, to the middle, to the other side quickly. All three plays saw the puck cross that 'magic road' up the middle and all 3 were one-time released that were elevated to avoid letting the goalie make a save with his legs. The first two go in essentially every time the pass/shot get executed that way and the third goes in more often than not. This was one of those nights where the .69 xG in the 2nd period didn't remotely capture the quality of our chances.

Binner was outstanding and the 1st star was deserved. But I don't think that we were simply fortunate to win that game. Looking at corsi and xG, that game was evenly played up to the point where we scored our 3 goal burst and all 3 of those goals were well deserved. We went into a shell after that, but that's not remotely uncommon when you take a 3 goal lead 5 minutes into the 2nd period.

Bolduc's first game, a Buch hatty, a shutout, the fastest 3 goals in franchise history, and an awesome moment where the ref chides the home crowd. What a night. This one was a season-long highlight and a regular season game worth remembering. The crowd was great for a bubble team hosting a weeknight matchup against a non-Conference opponent without a superstar worth the price of admission.

We talk a lot on this forum about tanking, and prospects, and long term plans. Last night was a pretty good example of the value to your fanbase in putting a watchable product on the ice even when the team isn't a contender. That shouldn't change any plans from the front office for the rest of this season, but man it was a fun night.

 

[Blueston]

Home openers and pre-game ceremonies aside, that was the most fun I've had at the Enterprise Center since the 2021/22 season.

We've had a lot of games this year where we get outshot, heavily out-score our xG number and the eye test tells me that we were somewhat fortunate to wind up with the number of goals we got. This was not one of them. That 3 goal burst reminded me of the 21/22 team that was selective with their shots, but made up for the low quantity in favor of A++ chances. The first 2 were full cross crease passes where the goalie had to slide post to post. The 3rd was two quick touch passes that pulled the goalie from one side, to the middle, to the other side quickly. All three plays saw the puck cross that 'magic road' up the middle and all 3 were one-time released that were elevated to avoid letting the goalie make a save with his legs. The first two go in essentially every time the pass/shot get executed that way and the third goes in more often than not. This was one of those nights where the .69 xG in the 2nd period didn't remotely capture the quality of our chances.

Binner was outstanding and the 1st star was deserved. But I don't think that we were simply fortunate to win that game. Looking at corsi and xG, that game was evenly played up to the point where we scored our 3 goal burst and all 3 of those goals were well deserved. We went into a shell after that, but that's not remotely uncommon when you take a 3 goal lead 5 minutes into the 2nd period.

Bolduc's first game, a Buch hatty, a shutout, the fastest 3 goals in franchise history, and an awesome moment where the ref chides the home crowd. What a night. This one was a season-long highlight and a regular season game worth remembering. The crowd was great for a bubble team hosting a weeknight matchup against a non-Conference opponent without a superstar worth the price of admission.

We talk a lot on this forum about tanking, and prospects, and long term plans. Last night was a pretty good example of the value to your fanbase in putting a watchable product on the ice even when the team isn't a contender. That shouldn't change any plans from the front office for the rest of this season, but man it was a fun night.

This. As much as we want high picks, we need to remember that we are a midsize market that isn’t intrinsically a desirable location for players. We have become one because our organization has fostered the alumni to remain part of team and given fans reason to show up. we talk about not wanting to be Buffalo and miss playoffs for a decade, but part of why that could be so devastating is we would risk becoming place guys don’t want to play. Where guys ask to be traded or won’t sign. so we are walking line on rebuilding and still being competitive. this is why I think we want to deal buchy if he can bring a haul, but we aren’t going to strip it all down. It’s just too risky here.

 

[Majorityof1]

Home openers and pre-game ceremonies aside, that was the most fun I've had at the Enterprise Center since the 2021/22 season.

We've had a lot of games this year where we get outshot, heavily out-score our xG number and the eye test tells me that we were somewhat fortunate to wind up with the number of goals we got. This was not one of them. That 3 goal burst reminded me of the 21/22 team that was selective with their shots, but made up for the low quantity in favor of A++ chances. The first 2 were full cross crease passes where the goalie had to slide post to post. The 3rd was two quick touch passes that pulled the goalie from one side, to the middle, to the other side quickly. All three plays saw the puck cross that 'magic road' up the middle and all 3 were one-time released that were elevated to avoid letting the goalie make a save with his legs. The first two go in essentially every time the pass/shot get executed that way and the third goes in more often than not. This was one of those nights where the .69 xG in the 2nd period didn't remotely capture the quality of our chances.

Binner was outstanding and the 1st star was deserved. But I don't think that we were simply fortunate to win that game. Looking at corsi and xG, that game was evenly played up to the point where we scored our 3 goal burst and all 3 of those goals were well deserved. We went into a shell after that, but that's not remotely uncommon when you take a 3 goal lead 5 minutes into the 2nd period.

Bolduc's first game, a Buch hatty, a shutout, the fastest 3 goals in franchise history, and an awesome moment where the ref chides the home crowd. What a night. This one was a season-long highlight and a regular season game worth remembering. The crowd was great for a bubble team hosting a weeknight matchup against a non-Conference opponent without a superstar worth the price of admission.

We talk a lot on this forum about tanking, and prospects, and long term plans. Last night was a pretty good example of the value to your fanbase in putting a watchable product on the ice even when the team isn't a contender. That shouldn't change any plans from the front office for the rest of this season, but man it was a fun night.

Great post, just one quibble. We are already pretty clse to a tanking team, just are getting better than we should results. Army did nothing to improve this team. He may have tried, but he did nothing. This is a middling team who is playing above expectations and had a rare really good night.

You said it yourself, it was fun because 1) we didn't suck at possession, and 2) we played a rookie cause the rest of our forwards suck. That can happen with a top 10 pick team too. Nobody wants us to trade Thomas and Parayko and really tank. We just wish 4-5 of those one goal games we won, went the other way. A dozen or so bounces going the other way this year would be a huge improvement in draft position.

 

[Xerloris]

Great post, just one quibble. We are already pretty clse to a tanking team, just are getting better than we should results. Army did nothing to improve this team. He may have tried, but he did nothing. This is a middling team who is playing above expectations and had a rare really good night.

You said it yourself, it was fun because 1) we didn't suck at possession, and 2) we played a rookie cause the rest of our forwards suck. That can happen with a top 10 pick team too. Nobody wants us to trade Thomas and Parayko and really tank. We just wish 4-5 of those one goal games we won, went the other way. A dozen or so bounces going the other way this year would be a huge improvement in draft position.

I view tanking as an intentional thing. We just have a bad team but are actively trying to win. That's not tanking at all IMO.

 

[Brian39]

Great post, just one quibble. We are already pretty clse to a tanking team, just are getting better than we should results. Army did nothing to improve this team. He may have tried, but he did nothing. This is a middling team who is playing above expectations and had a rare really good night.

You said it yourself, it was fun because 1) we didn't suck at possession, and 2) we played a rookie cause the rest of our forwards suck. That can happen with a top 10 pick team too. Nobody wants us to trade Thomas and Parayko and really tank. We just wish 4-5 of those one goal games we won, went the other way. A dozen or so bounces going the other way this year would be a huge improvement in draft position.

We just aren't. We are 29 points up on the Hawks and 27 points up on the Sharks in the standings. We already have more points through 56 games than the bottom 4 teams in the league got last year during their tank for Bedard.

There are absolutely people around here who have advocated for or are currently still advocating for more of a real tank than just this identical team losing a few extra 1 goal games. There are absolutely people who have talked about trading everyone on the roster not named Thomas because we should tank so hard that our window reopening is 5+ years out and guys like Parayko will be too old by then. There are absolutely people who have been saying that Binner will be too old to contribute when the window reopens and that we should trade him so he stops stealing points.

 

[Majorityof1]

We just aren't. We are 29 points up on the Hawks and 27 points up on the Sharks in the standings. We already have more points through 56 games than the bottom 4 teams in the league got last year during their tank for Bedard.

There are absolutely people around here who have advocated for or are currently still advocating for more of a real tank than just this identical team losing a few extra 1 goal games. There are absolutely people who have talked about trading everyone on the roster not named Thomas because we should tank so hard that our window reopening is 5+ years out and guys like Parayko will be too old by then. There are absolutely people who have been saying that Binner will be too old to contribute when the window reopens and that we should trade him so he stops stealing points.

My bad. If there are people advocating a down to the studs rebuild, I must have them on ignore. I don't think that makes any sense.

I do agree with trading Binner though. Not for the tank though, just to get rid of him specifically.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

Watched some of the 3rd. Good game.