Evan Bouchard isn’t going anywhere, nor should he. Still, at some point the excuses have to stop. The idea that the Edmonton Oilers should take the good with the bad is fair – but only to a point. Thursday night felt like the moment Evan Bouchard reached the end of the rope he’d been given by fans, teammates and coaches — and then broke it.
“That’s about as bad two bouts as I’ve seen an NHL player play,” ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro said on-air when talking about Bouchard’s night. Ferraro didn’t see things. This was bad and the kind of bad that should make the Oilers stand up and tell him, “Not again…. This was the last time.’
The unfortunate thing about Thursday was that Bouchard’s game against the New York Islanders was not an outlier; it was part of a growing pattern. Bouchard could be one of the best defensemen in the NHL. He has shown how elite he can be. Still, he has a habit, especially early in the regular season each year, of pulling things like this. It’s déjà vu, and it’s not okay.
Bouchard has been in the league long enough to have gotten these warts out of his game. What’s even worse is that he’s now getting paid not to make them.
The $10.5 million defenseman, paid as one of the best defensemen in the NHL and compensated as the cornerstone of the Edmonton Oilers, had another night where his mistakes were impossible to ignore. Risk has always been part of his game, but the balance has tipped too far towards reckless.
This was as bad as Bouchard ever looked for the Oilers
Bouchard didn’t just have a bad night. He was unforgivably terrible. Multiple failures, poor decisions, lack of offense, errors in judgment and overconfidence were just some of the mistakes he made. Maybe he didn’t make them like he did Thursday night, so in that regard this was an outlier. It felt like the kind of night where he knew he was gone, and things got worse because he tried to make things right. He should have been benched if everyone knew he didn’t have it. Frankly, it would have been a coup de grace.
From a giveaway in the neutral zone that led directly to a Mathew Barzal breakaway goal, to a brief blunder on the power play that set up Bo Horvat for another, Bouchard’s mistakes defined the 4-2 defeat. These were not unfortunate jumps. They were mental mistakes, the kind of mistakes that championship teams cannot afford from their most expensive defender.
Coach Kris Knoblauch simply said, “I’ve seen Evan play better.” We asked if he’s willing to take the good with the bad, and Knoblauch replied, “We can’t just accept that. Mistakes can happen, but you have to face the types of mistakes that happen.”
As for the mistakes that occurred, Bouchard took the heat after the game and tried to explain what was going through his mind as he essentially gave the game to the Islanders. The Barzal goal against him was just a bad play. On the Horvat short-handed count, Bouchard explained: “I thought I could keep it in like him [Pageau] clipped it to the wall. He clearly didn’t do that.”
Bouchard’s high-end skillset and offensive vision make him special, but the Oilers can’t keep living with the defensive chaos that too often follows him. His defense partner, Mattias Ekholm, said after the game: “I would be careful about criticizing him because that’s who he is, and obviously he knows he would like it back. But there will be (off) nights. There will be mistakes when that happens. One of Evan’s superpowers is that he forgets quickly, and he just goes out there and plays his game.” Maybe the Oilers won’t let him forget this one. There must be something motivating Bouchard to eliminate this brand of brutal hockey from his repertoire.
At this stage, it’s not about growing pains. It’s about accountability. Bouchard has shown he can dominate in the playoffs, but consistency is what separates elite defensemen and Olympic blueliners from expensive commitments.
If the Oilers really want to take the next step, Bouchard needs to eliminate the nights where he beats them more than the opposition. The Oilers didn’t just play the Islanders on Thursday; they were playing the Islanders and one of their own teammates.
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