POST-GAME: Bouchard building his arsenal with 10-game point streak

EDMONTON, AB – Bombs away.

When eyeing up a point shot on the power play, you can’t discount the importance of just getting the puck through traffic and on the opponent’s net.

As a potent young offensive blueliner and the quarterback of Edmonton’s game-breaking power play, Evan Bouchard has different ways of delivering the payload to its intended target and he did it in two different but equally powerful ways on Friday night.

“It has to get through. That's the ultimate place,” Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said of Bouchard’s game-winning blast on the power play in the third period.

“I saw that shot was 97 miles an hour. That doesn't hurt. It's definitely a skill where plenty of guys can place a puck in a certain location. There are plenty of guys who have the velocity and can really hammer it like that, but there are a few guys in NHL who can do both.”

There was only one defenceman in franchise history before Evan Bouchard who managed to record a point streak of 10 games or more, and his name Hall of Famer Paul Coffey, who was standing behind the bench as the Oilers assistant coach admiring the young blueliner’s snipe at even strength that beat a future Hall of Famer in Marc-Andre Fleury clean short side over the glove in the first period.

With the game in the balance two periods later, Bouchard picked off an attempted Wild clearance before levelling Leon Draisaitl’s feed past a hapless Fleury  later in the sequence to ultimately seal the victory for the Blue & Orange on a vital power-play opportunity, marking his third goal and 13^th point on the man advantage this season.

Bouchard has four goals and 11 assists during his 10-game point streak is now tied for third in NHL scoring among all defencemen with 27 points (7G, 20A) in 24 games this season. The Oakville, Ont. product is trying to become first Oilers defenceman since Tyson Barrie in the shortened 2020-21 campaign to finish top five in points, and the first in a full season since Paul Coffey did it in 1986-87.

“Elite on both ends there,” Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said of Bouchard’s two goals. “The wrister picks the corner. It's tough to pick the short side against an elite goaltender. Then, we know what he can do off the one-timer and he shoots it with that pace but can pick a spot too. It's impressive.”

"He does have a bomb," Skinner, who faces more Bouchard blasts than anyone in practice, said post-game. "It's pretty incredible how hard he can shoot it."

Bouchard has built up the confidence to let it rip on more of those offensive looks, especially on the power play from his usual spot between the circles at the top of the zone with elite options like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl setting him up for one-timers.

“The more you get to play with them, the more confident they are and I just try to put them in good spots like they do to me,” Bouchard said. “They put me in a position when they put it in the wheelhouse to hit it, and I think they're good with it, too.”

With Edmonton’s red-hot man advantage this season and historical power play from 2022-23 running roughshod on the League, never more has Bouchard’s ability from the quarter-back spot been of greater value as they try to find more ways to earn more scoring opportunities.

At the same time, the ever-increasing awareness for other teams’ penalty kills of Bouchard’s blast makes it hard for their short-handed players to cover all the other areas of the ice that are occupied by the likes of McDavid, Draisaitl, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

“I think when you have a threat from up top, it kind of opens up the seams for the guys and if they give up a little too much room in the seam, they're going to make that pass,” Draisaitl said. “So I think it definitely helps.”

Knoblauch continued: “Every good power play, you need threats. Wherever those threats are, net front, on the flanks or at the point – it does help to have him with his shot. Obviously, other teams pre-scout and every team wants to take away the dangerous areas. When you have enough dangerous guys who make plays and can score goals, then you're vulnerable to something.

“Tonight we capitalized on Bouch's shot, but the last week or maybe two weeks we've seen a lot of goals generated from his shot.”