Game Day 51: Oilers vs Red Wings
The Edmonton Oilers are blessed just now with a team of solid puck-moving defenders, several of them in the elite category — and they may just be adding another.
The news out of the Oilers practice is that free agent signing John Klingberg, 32, makes his debut for the Edmonton Oilers tonight. Klingberg was an elite puck-mover for the Dallas Stars for many years until hip problems took away his mobility. He’s now had new “resurfacing” operations on both his hips and says he’s never felt better as a player.
Mark Spector of Sportsnet reports: “John Klingberg, who is scheduled to play tonight for EDM, just told me that he had double hip surgery at age 18, and again at age 21. He has never played pain free in the NHL — until now, after his latest surgery. ‘I feel like a kid again.’”
It’s extremely good news for the Oilers if Klingberg is able to slot into the right-side spot beside Darnell Nurse, who since early November has been the team’s best defenceman at even strength. It will mean the team doesn’t have to trade for a top d-man at the deadline, which would be a costly proposition.
But just as Klingberg arrives, Edmonton’s most elite puck-mover on the blueline, Evan Bouchard, king of the stretch pass and the bomb point shot, has been struggling with his passing game.
He’s got the yips, it seems, which is odd for a player so calm and co-ordinated as Bouchard. But that’s what the numbers tell us.
I’ll argue that overall this year Bouchard has been Edmonton’s best d-man, not a popular take I know, but he’s still creating a high rate of Grade A shots with his shots and passes, and his defensive play, while slipping from last season, has been OK-ish.
The main issue for Bouchard? When it comes to the most noticeable, impactful passing plays, he hasn’t made enough brilliant ones this year and he’s made too many rancid ones.
Few things raise up a d-man’s reputation higher than if he rips off gorgeous stretch passes to set up his teammates for a Grade A shot, as Darnell Nurse did against Seattle on Monday night, sending in Corey Perry on a breakaway.
But few plays do more to tarnish the reputation of a d-man as making a horrendous own-zone turnover that leads to a goal against, as Bouchard did against the Kraken.
There are few more destructive plays than a d-zone turnover because there’s little or no time for the defence or the goalie to react. Bam, the puck is unexpectedly on an opposition player’s stick, often in the slot, and the defenders are all left to scramble. This particular Sequence of Pain sears into the minds of observers. It’s the main reason why Bouchard is such a divisive player in Oil Country.
If your ratio of such plays heavily favours turnovers over Grade A shots, your reputation is going to take a massive hit — and that’s what has happened to Bouchard this year.
He’s made 15 stretch passes at even strength leading to Grade A shots in the 2024-25 regular season. But he’s made 25 turnovers leading to Grade A shots against this season. That’s a poor ratio, especially for a d-men like Bouchard who has aced this category of play in the past.
Last year, 2023-24, he made 40 stretch passes at even strength for Grade A shots but just 33 turnovers leading to Grade A shots against. That made for an excellent 1.21 ratio of stretch passes-to-turnovers.
In the 2024 playoffs, Bouchard was also strong here, with eight stretch passes, six turnovers, a 1.33 ratio.
But this year his ratio is a poor 0.60. Not good. Compare that to Nurse, with 18 stretch passes and nine turnovers on Grade A shots, a 2.00 ratio.
And speaking of Nurse, through the lens of this stat we can see why fans were so down on him in the 2024 playoffs. He made just one stretch pass but six turnovers on Grade A shots, a 0.17 ratio. His game had collapsed, likely due to injury, and in this most noticeable manner we could see glaring evidence of it.
At the Cult of Hockey
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Staples on politics
