Tomas Nosek, please pass the goat horns to Evan Bouchard. Nosek's ill-advised clear resulted in the penalty that gave the Edmonton Oilers their power-play game-winner in overtime of Game 1. And Bouchard's play was instrumental in making Brad Marchand a hero in Game 2. Bouchard gave the Oilers some really good things in Game 2. But they were far outweighed by the bad. He made a host of bad decisions with the puck, took two crosschecking penalties and essentially gave up on two goals, the shorthander by Marchand to put the Panthers ahead 4-3 and the double-overtime winner, again by Marchand, to seal the 5-4 victory. Ken Campbell's video column discusses Evan Bouchard's poor performance in Game 2. This is a guy one radio personality said is the second-best defenseman in the league behind Cale Makar. Uh, no. Bouchard is good, very good at times, but until he rounds out his game and plays on the defensive side with a little more urgency, he's never going to be a top-tier rearguard. And if I'm Canada's braintrust for the 2026 Olympics, what I saw in Game 2 would make me very nervous about choosing him. Meanwhile, the Oilers are a year away from having to decide whether to pay Bouchard in excess of $10 million a year, and he doesn't make the decision an easy one when he plays the way he did in Game 2. Evan Bouchard (Perry Nelson-Imagn Images) [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/0079c718-3911-4fdd-bc24-e159085429a2.jpeg] Evan Bouchard (Perry Nelson-Imagn Images) Watch today's video column for more, and share your thoughts. Get the latest news and trending stories by following The Hockey News on Google News [https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMK-q0gsw7sXpAw?hl=en-CA&gl=CA&ceid=CA%3Aen] and by subscribing to The Hockey News newsletter here [http://eepurl.com/i7OC4I]. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com.
