Bouchard’s ‘heavy’ slap shot huge weapon for Oilers in Stanley Cup Final 

It wouldn’t be surprising if someone with Bouchard’s ability to shoot the puck were particular about his stick. For some, the flex has to be just right, the curve perfect, the length spot on.

Bouchard is the opposite. He doesn’t even know the type of stick he uses beyond brand (CCM) and flex (105).

“I’m not too sure on the curve or anything else,” he said.

Bouchard said he was never picky about sticks growing up. He would get a new one and use it. That was that.

“The only time I really ever switched is when I went to junior (with London of the Ontario Hockey League),” Bouchard said. “Dale (Hunter, his coach) and all the coaches there gave me a (Drew) Doughty stick and said, ‘Try this one out.’ I’ve used it ever since.”

He didn’t realize his shot could be the weapon it is now until he got to the NHL and teammates saw him rifle pucks and began encouraging him to shoot more.

Ironically, Bouchard’s first NHL goal was a half-slapper from the point through traffic on the power play against the Washington Capitals on Oct. 25, 2018. He didn’t wind up. He just got the puck and quickly shot it. It was heavy enough to get through, but it wasn’t a “Bouch Bomb.”

“I was still working on it,” Bouchard said.

He still works on it, focusing most now on accuracy over velocity. He has that part down.

According to NHL EDGE playoff stats, Bouchard is in the 99th percentile of the League for top shot speed at 99.62 miles per hour in the playoffs and for the most shots between 90-100 miles per hour (17) and between 80-90 miles per hour (25).

During the regular season, he was in the 94th percentile for top shot speed (98.83 mph), the 98th for average speed (76.27 mph), and the 99th for both most shots between 90-100 mph (74) and most between 80-90 mph (139).

“Heavy,” Edmonton goalie Calvin Pickard said describing Bouchard’s shot. “I feel like I don’t get the full experience in practice because he’s not going to completely rip it, but he’s accurate, too. He’s had some big goals from the point where he has to place it on sifters in a portion of the net. But he also gets shots blocked because he’s sometimes just going to wire it and guys are good at blocking shots. It’s just heavy and it can beat a guy. It can surprise a goalie.”

Bouchard said he works on accuracy more than anything else.

“Guys are doing such a good job of getting in shooting lanes and also changing the angle,” he said. “Guys are paid to block shots so changing the angle is huge.”

He tries to hit the puck on the sweet spot of the blade every time, but he knows that’s not possible, so he practices shooting off different spots on the blade.

“There’s so many times in a game where you don’t have a chance to get it there, so you’ve got to work on really all aspects of it,” Bouchard said.

He said his “eyes light up” when he gets the puck in space with an open lane in front of him. That’s when he knows he has the goalie vulnerable. But he also works on his release because getting the shot off is as much a factor of getting it through as anything else.

“You have to be thinking, ‘Get it there ASAP’ because you know guys are going to get in the way of it really quickly,” Bouchard said.

That happens, though.

Bouchard leads the playoffs with 47 shot attempts blocked, including five so far against Florida. He had 219 blocked during the regular season, second in the NHL behind Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar’s 231.

His 565 shot attempts blocked in the regular season since 2021-22 is the fourth most in the League in that span.

“He’s going to get it there or it’s going to hurt if somebody blocks it or it hits somebody,” Oilers forward Adam Henrique said. “One way or another he’s going to make a play to get it to the net.”

Corey Perry felt the wrath of a “Bouch Bomb” in Game 3 of the second round against the Vegas Golden Knights. The Edmonton forward said it got him flush on the left leg and even through some padding, left a mark.

“I’ve been hit with it and it doesn’t feel good,” Perry said.

It’s Perry’s job to stand in front of the net on the power play when Bouchard is bombing away from the point. He knows what’s coming and he also knows he has to stand in the slot to shield the goalie’s eyes and maybe get a tip or deflection.

It takes guts.

“A lot of times you see us on the power play, we’re eye to eye,” Perry said. “Like, I can see him and he can see me. If it’s a one-timer, look out. It’s not about getting out of the way because you’ve got to do your job in front of the goalie, but, yeah, just hope it doesn’t hit you.”

Pickard said Bouchard’s underrated skill is his deception at the point. He pointed to his game-tying goal at 19:31 of the third period in Game 4 of the first round against the Los Angeles Kings.

Bouchard got the puck at the point and Kings center Anze Kopitar closed on him, cutting off the shooting lane. Instead of shooting right away, risking Kopitar blocking it, Bouchard moved the puck to center Leon Draisaitl in the right circle. Draisaitl is obviously dangerous from there too, but he quickly passed the puck back to Bouchard, who now had an opening for the one-timer because Kopitar was moving away from the shooting lane.

He wired it into the top left corner of the net.

“You have to find a way to be deceptive and get it by that first guy that’s trying to block it,” Pickard said. “You get it by him and then you’ve got to beat the goalie too, but he’s so good at it.

“Glad he’s on our side.”