The Hockey PDOcast - Film Club on Matt Boldy's Game This Year

Episode Date: November 7, 2024

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Jesse Marshall to get into Matt Boldy's tape from this season, and highlight the reasons he's become such a fun player to watch If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the HockeyPedocast. My name is Demetri Philpovich. Joining me for another edition of our film club here is my good buddy, Jesse Marshall. Jesse, what's going on, man? Good to be back with you, as always, Dimitri. This is going to be fun. Last time we did a deep dive on what we've been seeing on tape so far from Logan Cooley,

just as a reminder of what we do here, and we're going to try to do this every couple weeks, is we're going to pick a subject. We're going to dive into their tape from this season and pick out the good, the bad, the interesting, and break it all down. Now, you can watch along with us on the HockeyPedioCast YouTube channel as well. Whenever we do these, you can see the examples of what we're talking about for yourself.

It's a strong additional resource. And the bonus perk today is, if you are watching us, you can also see my Marty Natchez's haircut, no secret that his secret sauce recently during this nuclear stretch that he's had is dyeing his hair blonde. So I've joined him here and also joining us up front here are my Henrik and Daniel Sidene Bobbleheads. So we've got some good company here today. Our subject is going to be Matt Boldy. Jesse, I'll give you the floor. What are you seeing from him? What impresses you the most? Because I do think that he's obviously been a very productive player

ever since he came in the league, but I feel like through these first whatever 12 games he's played so far, he's really taken his game to a whole new heights in year four in the NHL. Yeah, I think that the comfort level he has, Demetri, with being a zone entry merchant, for lack of a better term, is growing. And that's not to call him like a complimentary secondary player that only fed off the lifeblood of his teammates in the years prior to this. But I think he was a player that was explosive and would try, you know,

to cut through lanes where there were two guys filling a hole or, you know, It was a lot of explosive burst. And I think this year, what shocked me is, and we spent so much time in the last episode, talking about how fast Logan Cooley is, right? And everything's at 150 miles per hour. I think Matt Boldie slowed it down. I think he slowed it down a lot, Dimitri.

And I think that he's much more discerning on these zone entries now than we has the puck possession of the puck through the neutral zone. He'll turn those burners on out of the, out of the defensive end, and he'll get a good head of steam. But then you start to see him controlling this tempo, slowing it down, using his hand-eye coordination and his dangle ability to cut through players individually, right, at a slower pace and a more controlled pace where he is dictating what happens and being less, I think, through a, like trying to run headfirst through a brick wall.

And a lot of the clips that we looked at both you and I independently, he's carrying the puck across the blue line a lot more. That's both giving him increased distribution opportunities and increased shot opportunities. and the way he's gone about it, I think, is to take this slower approach, use his hands, which are elite, by the way. I mean, he's got, you know, as far as dangles are concerned, he's got a lot that he can do in one-on-one individual situations. So I see him gaining ahead of speed.

I see him kind of putting the brakes on a little bit, coasting it down, and then trying to take these players on individually and get a possession that leads him to crossing the blue line with possession of the puck. from there he can dictate what he does next. And that's, again, been a combination of elite distribution. I think you've seen him throw a lot of puck's cross-ice threaded through people's legs and sticks without picking his head up and dictating to the goalie or to other players where he's about to send that puck.

But then there's the release too, right? I think he's got a fantastic release. I think he hides it super well. I think he keeps the puck tucked in an area that allows him to deceptively hide his release in a great fashion. but it's it's the control for me right and again i don't want to make it sound like matt boldie was um you know wasn't getting his with regards to zone entries in the years prior i think the number's gone up exponentially and there's been more of like a patient care to those entries uh where you start

to see him showcase these individual skills that he has in these one-on-one circumstances it's just a lot more controlled it's a lot more deliberate is a word i would use and i think he's sort of found a secret sauce in the sense to make sure that he's sort of understanding that when he can cross the blue line with possession in these sort of controlled instances, he's generating a lot of really good scoring chances off that. That's a great starting point for us. I completely agree that I think when players especially highly skilled ones who have had a lot of success at lower levels come into the NHL, everything is so frantic, right? I think they're kind of surprised by how fast everything is around them. And then so to compensate for that, they speed their own game up. And that's great because we always talk about how we want players to play fast and make quick decisions.

And you have to really to keep up in today's game. But when a young player goes through what Matt Boldy's gone through so far this year, which is what you're seeing on that tape and what you're describing, it reflects to me like a level of comfort and understanding of like, all right, I can play at this level. And then now I'm going to manipulate my surroundings to my own whims as opposed to just trying to fit in, right?

And I think that's exactly what you're seeing. And this is a guy who's, you know, what, he's listed at like 6-2. He looks incredibly lanky when you watch him out there. And yet I feel like there's such a sort of like aesthetically pleasing fluidity to his movement and how just effortlessly he gets around the ice, right? Like it's navigating through traffic. I had written down just his change of speeds and sort of utilization of that 10 and 2 skating technique that I think we have. he had a lot with his teammate Carol Capriza of and we're talking about the dividends being teammates with him as paid for him shortly here. But he's able to sort of like switch gears and it's almost like throw off speed pitches at you as opposed to just exclusively fastballs.

He's switching gears while changing his skating technique and that's freezing defenders, right? And that's why you're able to see him just sort of carve through set defenses with relative ease, whether it's on the power play off the rush, which is really hard to do or even in five on five settings. you can set up a layer of roadblocks in front of them, and he's just going to work his way meticulously through those defenders, and it's not because he's sort of bullrushing like a McKinnon or McDavid does, but it's because he's like taken a bit off the plate, and then it's making defenders uncomfortable, it's maybe freezing them a little bit,

and then he's bursting through that seam, and sort of that detail in his skating, I feel like, has unlocked so many doors from the season. 100% of edgework, right? That subtle ability to shave a couple of MPs, H off, right, and get yourself into a situation. I think what it does, Dimitri, if we think about this from like a defenseman's perspective, right, and you're facing somebody that comes at you with speed, the moment they slow down

and lose that speed, what are you going to do? Press, right? You're going to step up. You're going to try to get your stick on them. You're going to make an attack. That's where he's bread and butter is right now. When you attack Matt Boldie and you come after him as a defenseman, he is going right around you, right?

And we have to talk about how good Matt Boldie is with one hand on his stick. I because that that to me is a driving factor behind a lot of his ability to create separation low shoulder butt sticking out one hand on the stick fighting you off it's really tough to dispossess him that he makes himself a large player in those battle circumstances and he can do it while maintaining possession of the puck that's that's the most impressive part right like that's that's the piece of the puzzle that most people can't put together right and and you mentioned this word like this almost like fluidity to him and this big lanky fluid that's that's what it looks like to me, right? Is this ability to, you know, control the pace while simultaneously taking on and welcoming that physical contact, making yourself large horizontally, right, bending over, getting good posture, having one stick to kind of get that forechecker off you, all while maintaining enough speed to make it really hard for them to keep up. I mean, you watch a lot of these clips of Boldie getting ahead of steam for the neutral zone

before he starts to apply those brakes at the blue line. There are a defense with their tongues hanging out, even forwards with their tongues hanging out trying to keep up with him. But again, I think those those tempo adjustments, Dimitri, they open the door up for the D. They open the door up and it's like welcoming them into your house. And instead of him making the first move, right, and trying to maybe dance around somebody or bank up. This was a big one for Boldie last year. You saw him a lot of plays off the boards, right? He'd pull one off the boards and then try to step around the guy. And, you know, bigger reach defenseman is going to, you know, or a more physical defenseman,

you know, they're going to give you some trouble with that approach, right? Now it's, it's that tempo slow, I'm going to let you make the first move and I'll react based off what you do. That's the hallmark of so many good talented scores in this league, right, is the ability to manipulate the defense. And I love that term that you use manipulate because that's really what it is, right? He's coming at you really fast. He's building ahead of steam. He's slowing up, giving you the chance to close his gap, right?

Which is what he wants. He wants you to step up and get a stick length away from him. Because the moment you get that stick length and you're at that point where you can make contact with him, here comes, here comes the bag of tricks open up, right? And now you're potentially getting caught flat-footed from a guy who's able to change those tempos up. So, yeah, I love that comment that you made. And I also just want to add to it that skating posture, right? That really strong posture where, you know, you kind of use your backside as a weapon, right? When you're lanky like that and you're a longer player, you know, you stick your bend over like that with your shoulder down.

And it's really hard for anybody to get a stick around you and disrupt what you're doing with the puck. And especially when he's so good at it with one hand and just warding off what's going on behind him, it gives him, you know, it's tough for, I think, defense and Demetri because you don't know what's going to happen next. Right. I think with some guys that maybe are just faster pure shooters, you know, they're going to try to take the puck outside or inside on you and maybe throw a shot from the top of the circle. You get used to that, right? You know how to defend it with Boldie. It's like I don't feel like he ever is replicating the same thing twice. And it becomes really hard, I think, for a defenseman to know what to expect when you've got a one-on-one situation with him.

It reminds me a lot of when I fell in love with Troy Terry. I think it was two or three years ago now where he first burst onto the scene and he was doing a lot of these similar concepts as well. I think a bit less strength on the puck that we've already seen from Boldie, but a lot of that stuff in terms of puck protection for a lanky player and manipulating defenders and sort of utilizing space very effectively. and then unfortunately the realities of playing for this Anheim Ducks organization the past couple years has taken its toll and he hasn't really been that player since. But it feels like Boldie is sort of the next level of that now. And I feel like he's in a much better position to keep that going and succeed.

I think the next thing I had on me and you sort of segue neatly to it is his puck possession. And you illustrated a lot of the concepts that he's able to succeed in there. I feel like that through that unpredictability and in particular, sort of his skating and that posture, he's able to protect the puck so well despite not being conventionally, you know, a power forwards frame in terms of like the size and the strength.

And he's so crafty at coming off the walls, right? Whether it is through sort of like planting his leg and using his backside to sort of box in a defender and then spin around and get into open space, or whether it's just leveraging the defender's position, against him, he's routinely able to pick bucks off the wall, similar to what we talk about with the best wingers in the game,

like in the Ketakutra, for example, and immediately makes some sort of a play that improves the ice conditions and sets his team up to attack from there, whether it's himself or whether it's passing into a teammate. And that skill is probably the most important one for

a winger in today's game, and he's already sort of mastered it. And that's what makes him such a useful player and also so exciting to watch the fact that he just with ease can rack together a bunch of these sequences over the course of a game. I mean, the way he sort of can lock a defender on his backside and then make a playoff of it is just really fun to watch. And I love seeing that for my wingers right now. Yeah. And let's talk also about his legs in the sense that they're always moving, right? His, you know, defensive zone systems in the National Hockey League, Dimitri, more often than not,

are going to divide portions of the ice up into responsibilities, right? And we think about like a lot of teams that run a puck side overload, right? Where you split the ice in half. You divide the responsibility up for what you're doing on either half of the ice dependent on where the puck is located, right? So what you end up is with these zones of responsibility for certain players where if you can cross those lines and keep your feet moving, you blur who's responsible for you, right?

And I think what you've seen from Boldie this year is a constant motor running in the offensive zone. We talk about this a lot, a lot of working against the grain, a lot of shifting his placement so that it's unclear who's supposed to be responsible for him, right? And if you wonder, you watch these clips, he always seems to find himself around a loose puck. You always seem to find himself in these situations where he has maybe one or two seconds to get a shot off before somebody closes on him. And you say, man, why is he able to get open that much? What's the secret sauce there? He never stops moving. You know, he's not planning up in one spot of the circle and waiting for an opportunity. He's not lurking the same spot of the ice over and over again.

He's super involved in the process, right? The offensive zone process is something that he's greatly invested in. So you see him heavy work in the cycle coming off the wall with the puck. There's an increased amount of patience, I think, from him when he has the opportunity to work top down, Dimitri, and he's got the puck from a bit of height in the zone and can skate it in. You see this immense patience from him these days where he'll have the puck, he'll have the puck. And the goal he drops right goalies defensemen they're dropping because they're expecting shot and he just waits and he waits and the next thing you know he's got this open space of the net that he can fire at because he's just simply been more patient than you are right um so it's it's it's not just the presence in the offensive

zone and the puck possession to me that's that's the foundation of it i think you nailed it but he's built all these other behaviors off that that make him i think one a transient ghost in the offensive zone it's very difficult to keep track of him and to mark him because if you're a defenseman and you want to follow Matt Boldie around. You're going to end up out of position at one point, right? He's just traversing too much space in the defensive zone. You're going to get drug around. He's going to take you for a walk and he's just going to find somebody that you should have inherited, you know, in the transition. So I, you know, this, this is what for me anyway, the importance of of being patient with young players is, right? Because just like you said earlier, there's a natural tendency

early on to rush everything. And you have less time and you have, excuse me, more time and space than you actually think you do, right? Everything becomes, I got to get, I got to go now. I got to get rid of it now. And you could see Boldy has just mastered that. No, I don't. I don't. I have time. I have space. I can manipulate the situation by holding onto the puck, driving myself closer to the net for a higher quality chance. If no one's going to pressure him and no one's going to step up to his gap, he's fine to wait. I mean, and you've seen this immense amount of, of,

of patience from him, I think through the course of this year where so many of his goals, yeah, he's got a lot of quick strike ones, right, where he's ripping a shot off where he gets open for a one-timer. But a lot of it is him just waiting and out-waiting goalies

and skating into open space and taking the space that's a given to him. And I think that, that has added multiple dimensions to his offensive game that I think people are still playing catch-up with. you know one of the benefits that i that i kind of hinted at earlier of playing with caprisov throughout the entirety of his career now and i think you and i a couple years ago when we first

started this we did a show about kevin fiala as well right and i sort of included that in that conversation where he obviously spent a bunch of uh critical developmental time before he went to l a play with capri zov and i think sort of like incorporating a bunch of the tricks of the trade into his game and having great success doing so. But he's only played 26, 5-1-5 minutes so far this year with Caprizov out of his out of his 171 after having played like nearly 60% of his minutes with him last year. So it's been less direct this year. He's playing more with Eric's Neck and Marcus Johansson because Markleros,

he has sort of stepped up into that top line center role, but still just generally the idea of them sort of practicing together, trading together, sort of picking up all of these different little plays to add to his repertoire and skill set. along the way, I think you see that a lot in his passing. And we've touched on it so far, but I want to get into that directly because I do feel like that patience and sort of his ability to take advantage of the fact that eventually you're going to make a mistake is enabled by the fact that he has so many different passing options in his bag now.

As you watch these clips, you'll see a variety of slip passes on the move, kind of like that caprizov specialty of the hook pass, right? Where he's like looks like he's boxed in and doesn't have space, but sort of creatively gets the puck to his teammate anyways. The cross seam passing, you referenced, indirect stuff off of the boards, no look passes from behind the net. He's pretty much able to do it all right now. And I think in a lot of these instances,

the defender probably gets lulled into a false sense of security where they kind of look at where they're on the ice, where boldie is and where his teammates are and feel like, all right, we're in a pretty good position here. we're safe for the time being. There's nothing he can really do right now that's ultimately going to hurt us. And then he's still able to get the puck exactly where he wants to, in the matter of a couple of a seconds anyways.

And I think just having a lot of those different options makes things so much easier and makes this offense flow, right? I think generally it's like when you talk about the best passers in the game, sort of how they do it and what they do, obviously it's nice to just be able to do like a crisp tape-to-tape pass through a very sort of well-defined window. But oftentimes you don't have that option available to you. And you've got to get creative with how you deliver that puck. And you watch him, he's able to essentially from any position get the puck exactly where he wants to,

even if it looks like initially that option isn't available. Yeah, 100%. Two things, Dimitri, spatial awareness increase, number one, right? I think he's gotten a lot more comfortable making those plays in flight as it's developing, right? And being a little bit more improvisational is the word I'll use and being willing to try some more creative stuff. And then two, it's his vision. You'll go through these clips and he's looking at a 90-degree angle away from where he's sending the puck, right? Like, you just learn how to fool NHL defenders and goalies over time, and you're not telegraphing what you're about to do.

That's, you know, that you can't talk about how important that is. We always hear the phrase puck watching in the National Hockey League, right? Like, you always hear about we're puck watching. Guys, puck-wide, whole team's puck watching. Matthew Boldie seems to have, like, this heightened awareness of when you're doing that to him, right? And he has that sense that there are 10 eyes on him. You know, he's going to stare. You know, I watched a sequence a couple nights ago, Dimitri, where he had the puck on the

near boards. And he's at an awkward angle. And he is staring directly at where he's going to send the puck, right? I mean, you get the sense that he's looking cross-ice. He's going to try to thread a cross-ice pass. And from his backhand, as sort of he's sort of like, you know, just preparing to that. He just lasers this one down to the corner of the net that creates this bang, bang, cross-rreats play for Minnesota. They'll just score on the scoring chance.

And it's just like, that's what I'm talking about. Every single person, he was carrying the puck, he's walking off the wall with a lot of patience. Every single person on the other team is watching where he was looking, right? And they're all sort of like morphing and preparing for this cross ice pass that they think is going to come for this one-time or opportunity. And it's just that little shift of his body with a little a little chuck pass down to the off the backhand down to the goal line on the same side of the ice he was on changed everything and no one was prepared for it because they were all convinced that he was going to throw this pass across ice so you know the spatial awareness is one thing and the willingness to try this stuff and to like step outside of the

box and and throw these type of passes around that's great you love that he developed that but like look the vision is where it's at that's where you make the money to me is the ability to look off these defenders and tell them something that you're about to do that you are not about to do uh you know He has that knowledge almost now when he's saying, look, if you're going to give me this kind of space, or you're going to let me walk around with the puck and you're going to watch me do it, I'm going to give you a false read.

And I think that that's been a lot of fun to watch for me personally as I think as time has gone on this season, like he's really looking people off and is doing a really good job in his passing of, of sort of directing people to put their attention where they think he's going to go, and then he does something complete opposite of that. Yeah, if you're going to be an elite creator,

today's game, I feel like you have to be able to disguise your intentions, right? Like, it's very rare that you're just going to directly be able to just do the point A, kind of like thinking about as a quarterback in terms of like the first read or whatever, right, when you take a couple steps back and you're like, all right, this is my first option. That's generally not available, especially in zone settings in the NHLFI-15. And so you have to be able to disguise it and then kind of go through your progressions and reads. And he does a really good job with that through the passing. but as you mentioned through the vision and just the general understanding of the game.

And I feel like where this manifests itself the most is when we do get to see now, it's mostly on the power play this year. But when he does these instances with Caprizov, I know Caprizov has the chemistry already with Zuccarello and those two do it as well as anyone in the league. But when Boldy gets involved, the ability to kind of like execute these give and goes and stretch you out a position and sort of toy with you almost is so fun to watch. There's been a couple sequences that you'll always.

see throughout these clips. We're at 5-1-5. They're just like, it's almost like a, they're playing pitch and catch between the two of each other. And there's five defenders and three other teammates out there, but there may as well not be because it's just a world with the two of them. And they're just doing whatever they want. And that's hockey being played at the highest level. And I really enjoy watching that. And so just the given goes and just like how he moves around the ice. I described it as a fluidity, but it's so pretty to watch. And I think you see it the most when he gets to just, sort of riff with Caprizaa on those rare instances.

People love, they love Dimitri Chemistry as an adjective to describe this work between two different players. And I think sometimes that phrase gets used very ambiguously, but this to me is what it means, right? Like this is tangibly what it means to have chemistry with somebody is that art of being able to freelance with them and be, like, as you said, you're in your own world. There's only two people on the ice. It's you and the other person.

And you've got, you know what's coming next. before the defense you haven't even gotten to that point the give and go you know the the the the off look passes all these different things right like that that is to me chemistry that can only be developed with you know time spent together right i mean i think that's the only way it grows is with time on the same line and learning about those tendencies but these are players that i really think just think outside the box you know they're non-traditional forwards that that i think are willing to toss a little hope seasoning into the plays that they're making. And that what I mean by that is that I hope, you know, that my,

I trust and hope that my teammates going to get this puck. You make more area passes, right? You make more passes off the boards, make more redirections when you're confident that the guy you're throwing it to has got the first step and could go get it. And I think the natural progression of that relationship has been for it to get riskier, right, in a good way. Riskier in a good way.

It's more creative riskiness, I think. from them that the moment they see those hips turn, Dimitri, right, is when they start giving the puck away, right? The moment that your hips open up as a defenseman and you're shifting and pivoting from one direction to the other, that's when these things start to fire off, right? And it's not just the innate sense they have for where the other person is. It's the innate sense of when, right? It's not just where, it's when. When is the right time to do this? When is the right time to attack this defenseman? And I think that's that's been the most exciting part to watch. And again, I think a lot of what they do is inviting pressure.

It's inviting physicality. It's a want to be hit. And the moment that you commit to that as a defenseman, that's where the dangle comes in, right? That's where the shift comes in. And now you're instantaneously behind your mark and they're heading off the other direction an odd man break. So yeah, I don't know, again, I'm using chemistry. is like a general term here, right?

But there's a level of on-ice awareness, Dimitri, that is tangibly different here than it was last year. Yeah, something Boldie does really well, and you can see that in a lot of these clips as well, and I really wanted to get into that because I think it's an interesting concept to consider that applies not only to him, but to other just offensive sort of game plans around the league,

is utilizing the entire ice surface, especially when you, you know, there's limitations in hockey with, the blue line in the offensive zone, right? Like there's only in theory so far you can go out as a defender. It's kind of easy to keep stuff in front of you as a result. You can't necessarily, you know, go beyond the bounds and maintain the offensive zone possession.

So you have to work within those elements. But what Boldie does really well that I've noticed is stretching out the defensive shell to create pockets to attack in between and within, right? And I think that can be sort of unfairly associated sometimes as like being very perimeter base because you're like, oh, well, I really want this guy who's 6-2 to just be constantly driving to the net and attacking the middle of the ice. But in reality, not everyone can just, you know, it can become very clogged if everyone is just in there. So what you have to do is present some sort of like tantalizing illusion for a defender to be like, ooh, I'm out here,

come grab the puck. And oftentimes defenders do so. Eventually, there's a miscommunication. Someone kind of leaks out to try to get to them along the boards. And as soon as he stretches you out like that this season he's playing with Joel Erick Seneck, right? And Ericsonek certainly isn't as dynamic an offensive player as a guy like Capri's office, Zucarillo would be. But one thing he excels at is sort of sniffing out where those pockets are posting up and making himself available then in the slot to either tip the puck or provide a screen or get a shot off of the high danger chance himself. And so I think why those two have really worked together at 5-1-5 this year is because it's a nice melding of sort of skills and also what they're trying to accomplish,

where boldies willing to sort of initiate on the outside, drag defenders along with them, create that space, and then eventually get the puck through those passing means that we described to Joel Erick, who's then just kind of posting up there and waiting for it to happen. And so I love that idea of sort of acknowledging the limitations of how far you can stretch out on the offensive zone, but also still trying to like space it out in creative ways and stretch out that defensive shell without just becoming too clogged up offensively as a team. 100% and we have to reference the other side of the ice too, Dimitri behind the net, right? You mentioned the chase that the defenseman can go on, right,

where you start get that motor running and somebody just follows you. You know, I can't tell you how many times this season we've seen Matt Boldie use that space behind the Met and have somebody follow him and then immediately he throws the puck to where that person that followed him should be. They've left their spot to follow him. And now there's somebody there, Eric's neck most of the time, who can put a shot on that and get a scoring opportunity. So it's both ways to me. This goes back to what I was saying earlier, right, about the constant movement in the offensive zone, right?

That constant transition or you're floating between areas of responsibility and sort of daring someone to come get you, right? And again, I agree 100%. I think there's a big difference between that and living on the perimeter, right? Like that living on the perimeter means you're not cutting inside. You're not getting to the front of the net. You're not driving at home. There's no center drive in your game. You're living in these areas where you perceive that you're not going to be engaged with physically.

that's not Matt Boldie's situation. He's taking the puck there as a means of toying with people, right, as a means of dragging them out of their natural position and creating chaos. If you want people to get open, you have to be moving. You cannot be stationary. It's just not going to work. These defensive systems are designed to eat up space in all the high quality areas, right? If you're just stagnant, you're just going to have a bunch of people standing around

marking you easily. So I think the ability for him to keep the motor going, you know, to sometimes get it's so high up into the zone that he leaves the zone. He's off, he's off, right? He's in the wrong side of the blue line. But who's following him out there, right? No one. If you want to demark yourself in the National Hockey League,

leave the offensive zone by a couple of feet. Just skate a couple feet across the blue line and regroup. Come back in against the grain. No one's following you out there. You can't, you're not a threat from across the blue line. So it's the reset behind the net for me, and it's the reset at the top of the zone from. I think you're 100% correct.

I think he's become very good at both of those things. And again, for the poor unfortunate defenseman, make the decision to follow him, thinking they have a play on the puck. One, you probably don't because of his posture. And two, you're just abandoning post, right? You're leaving somebody open somewhere else. And we talk about the dynicism between these cross-ice passes and these given goes. They're born out of that movement.

That's the foundation that all this stuff is built on is everyone's feet are moving and they're playing dynamic offensive hockey. Well, you know what? Defending in the NHL, especially for extended periods of time, is really difficult. And the toughest thing about it is maintaining discipline, right? Because I think eventually your legs start getting tired, but I think also most players just get frustrated because they're like, all right, well, I only get a certain number of shifts tonight.

And if I'm going to spend my entire shift here stuck in my own zone, that's a waste of a shift. And so I'm going to go out and make a difference. And so I'm going to go and freelance defensively. I'm going to go try and cause some sort of possession disruption and get us out of this pickle. And so I think just capitalizing on that and taking advantage of that eagerness is a really smart.

strategy offensively generally. Like every year I find there's only a couple teams that are really just able to sort of like consistently defend in a disciplined manner. I thought the Canucks did really well under Rick Tock at their last year. Certainly the Golden Knights two years ago when they won the cup under Bruce Cassidy, they showed a willingness to let you spend a lot of time in the offensive zone with the puck and rack up a high volume of shot attempts. But it was that sort of zone defense where I was like, all right, we're just going to keep

stack in the box here in front of our goalie, and we've got a bunch of big defenders, and you can do whatever you want on the perimeter, but you're not going to get a high danger chance here, and we're going to play the odds that way. And they just did it to continued success. The issue is that from year to year, it's really tough to continue that. Obviously, as you change personnel, that's part of the equation as well. And so I just feel like in most situations against most teams, just betting on the fact that you're going to get players to break out of a defensive structure and make mistakes doing so is a good strategy you're going to win and come out ahead more often than not and that's kind of what i what i see there because like whether it's getting lost

and leaving the zone and then coming back and and sort of being on demand or whether it's just dragging someone out of position his willingness to play that kind of odds or numbers game is working to his advantage right now and i want to see i want to see i like seeing more of that right because it's it's also a reflex of patience we said earlier how the game slowed down for him you can't really get away with that if you're just like frantically trying to make something happen right away. You have to let the game come to you a little bit. And I think this is sort of a meeting of all of those concepts for him and why he's been able to execute that way. 100% agree.

When you can maintain possession in the offensive zone consistently shift after shift, you give people what I call Jesse Marshall syndrome, which is, Dimitri, you start seeing defensemen take pox off their backhand and just trying to throw them up the wall and get rid of them, right? Or you start seeing them throw puck's through high danger areas and clearing attempts, right? And I told you before, there's this constant motion for these Minnesota forwards. So they're poaching these, a lot of these opportunities. You know, you're making a desperation play to try to get the puck out of your zone.

And then out of nowhere comes Matt Boldie and snipes you in the middle and comes in, walks it in for another chance. Now you're back to chasing and around again, right? So they make people tired. I mean, that's what it comes down to. they make people tired and they make people's first interest to be, I have to get rid of this as soon as I possibly can. And when that's the sort of approach, you know, you turn a lot of defense into offense, you know, and change the flow of the game quickly, right? If I'm going from trying to

break it out in my zone and get rid of it and get off, get off for a line change, and I have to immediately shift back to defense mode, that's where people get caught off guard a lot. So that's happening everywhere. And we don't talk, I'm sure we'll probably touch on this a little bit more, Demetri, but his his willingness to participate in between the blue lines and the neutral zone, I think is another really strong part of this. Yeah, that creates a lot of chances for him. It really does. Yeah. Just the final point on that, I think there's like an accumulation. It's why we care ultimately about possession-made metrics. I think there's been a bit of an adjustment in terms of like being able to consistently, if you can,

win the quality battle, especially in the postseason, I think that matters much more than maybe we gave it credit for a couple years ago. But the reason why, especially over a regular season, we care about possession-based metrics is because there's just an accumulation eventually. You're going to wear down the opposition both physically and mentally, and you're going to come out ahead. Let's transition to what you just said there about in between the blue lines, because something I've noticed, and this isn't because he doesn't have, you know, attention to detail defensively because we're going to talk about his defensive game and off puck stuff a little bit more here in a second. But what we're seeing from him, the wild, and really I'd say the Dallas stars last year specifically kind of made this more in vogue around the league.

And I think once you have success doing so, coaches in the offseason spend time going through the tape and then trying to sort of recalibrate and incorporate that into their own tactics is sort of this selective or calculated poaching that happens. where teams are sending wingers now sort of leaking out and sort of obviously in the right situations where if the other team has the puck, you don't want to just be like flying the zone and leaving your four other teammates short-handed. But if you feel confident, especially when he's out there with a guy like Brock Faber or something who can, you know, be trusted and can move the puck efficiently himself, they're spreading you out that way as well. So it doesn't only limit itself to offensive zone spreading, which we just talked about, but also off the rush.

And that's a way this Minnesota wild team, especially with the top two lines, has been able to manufacture some interesting rush opportunities this season because I think generally they're not really regarded as this sort of high flying run and gun transition team. But when those lines are out there this season, they've been able to manufacture some easier opportunities through doing that. And the Dallas Stars did it all the way through the postseason last year,

especially like you'd watch a guy like, again, he'd be to down off when he'd be out there. He'd just be like, at first sight that, Heiskin in or Harley would get the puck, he'd be ready to jet, and it would force the other team to at least either account for it and sort of sag back themselves. And then that makes life easier for your own defenseman to transition out. Or if they didn't, and you complete the past, then you've got a great A opportunity pretty much out of fit air. And I think Boldie's done that really well in terms of you've got to pick your spot certainly, but just kind of creating more outlets and options for the while to get out in transition where they might have previously struggled otherwise. I think is a really interesting thing that we're seeing not only limited to him, but league-wide.

I think Bruce Boudreau opened that door, Dmitri, with the capitals all those years ago. He used to do that with Ovechkin a lot and try to spring him right out of the zone and give him the opportunity to kind of sneak out a little bit. And I think people started to double down on that after a while. But I think I've nailed it. I can't even add to that. I think that it's put him in between the blue lines more, right? And I think that he's given him more opportunity to take situations in 180 them from a flow perspective, right? He's so creative and so good with his, again, with his hands and his dangle skill set is so deep.

And when you could put him in a situation where there's an immediate transition, right? He's transitioning from defense to offense or vice versa or whatever the case it is. He gets a jump on people. It really becomes difficult to get around him. And I think he's super invested in it. And then that's the other thing. And I'm not saying he wasn't before. I think he's always been, but I think his methodology has gotten a little bit more refined and he has to work less hard to accomplish whatever his goal is. That comes from positioning, proactive positioning that lets you skate downhill at people. I think that's a real big thing. It's not coming at everybody head on. It's kind of sweeping at them from the side, having an active stick. We already talked about how lanky is, this kid is. He's got an unbelievable reach on him. So he's constantly finding ways to come. I'm going to get a whack on something and get a whack on a puck that loosens it up, gives him an opportunity to win it, and then immediately flip that game on its head.

That, to me, is the benefit of letting him have, I don't know if we want to use the term a longer leash, Dimitri, right? But more freedom to make those decisions and the trust to do it, right? I mean, that's the big thing, too, from the coaching staff, is they have to be trusting enough of a young player with those kind of tendencies to give them the freedom to be able to make those decisions and not restrict them in that, right? I mean, I think it's been a huge benefit from Minnesota that they've taken the cap off a little bit and are letting some of these young, really aggressive forecheckers get out there and eat in between the blue lines. It's made them a very difficult

team to play against and one that, you know, I don't, I don't consider them, Dimitri, a part of this group of like, and I'll use Florida as an immediate example that load everything up on the forecheck, right? They're coming at you with one or two, three guys up top of the key. trying to stop your breakout at the point of Genesis. I feel like Minnesota's focus is much further back from that, right? It's more towards the red, and their pressure doesn't really start to strike you until you cross the blue line and get into that neutral zone space. They've been really good about attacking there.

And I know the trend in the NHL has been aggressive forecheck, aggressive forecheck. They give you a little bit of a ramp. I don't think it's as quite as tuned up as we see some other teams. But again, they're just so good at taking defense and turning it into offense that it makes sense that they might want to tone that back a little bit and put more bodies in between the blue lines. Well, and it works with Boldie because there's a number of times this year where they'll have an initial possession or whatever and then they'll execute that neutral zone reload so well where they like they let you out of your zone, right? But all of a sudden, then they pounce

on you between the two blue lines. And if Boldie's out there and he's the one who retains possession, he'll quickly get it back in and get that second wave of offense. And I think that's huge. for a team like this, it's time we talk a little bit more than about the defensive work, right? I think a lot of the stuff you've especially mentioned along the way can be kind of coalesces here, but through not kind of stopping moving his feet, through the positioning in the middle of the ice between the neutral zones, I'd say you can see that while he's an awesome winger, I actually think he's sort of like the perfect winger in terms of what I want out of my winger in terms of habits. You can see he's also played center at various levels in the past because of his comfort sort of coming back up as the high man in the offensive zone, sometimes even manning the point being the F3. He can sort of interchange regardless of what his current position is, but then also the stickwork and the one-handed stuff in particular because he's so strong and confident with it.

He's able to just extend more reach. And so a lot of times he disrupts that way in the neutral zone as well, where he can kind of get to pucks where you can tell the other team feels like he can't physically. And then all of a sudden, his stick, just like Inspector Gadget style just reaches out and he gets it and he either pokes it away or steals it outright. And so you're able then to do a lot of the stuff we're talking about in terms of this sort of like cherry picking a little bit or having a bit of a longer leash because he has this recoverability to his game with that reach and that stick work that even if he seems like he's out of position, all of a sudden he can just get the puck right back. I mean, look at what he just did to the lightning there in the neutral zone to seal the game. I mean, it's a nightmare trying to carry the puck around this guy. And so I certainly wanted to highlight that as well because I feel like it could be misconstrued when I said that,

oh, sometimes he's cheating for offense and he's trying to fly the zone. It's by design and he more than compensates for it in other ways as well. Yeah, sometimes I don't know what people are looking for from their wingers defensively. Like, I hear a lot of like demands, but I mean, I don't, I don't. I think for me sometimes it's about being a willing participant, right? I think we can all acknowledge that if the puck's on the strong side and, you know, you're engaged as the winger over there. Your responsibility is just get to the puck, right?

Like it's not really, you know, a weak side wing, you got to watch the slot. You got to cover guys that are in the middle. You know, that can give you a little bit more intense. But I think he's just like you nailed it and he's a super willing participant. I think that he's learned over the course of the last couple years how effective that reach is in dispossessing people from the puck. A lot of quality stick work, man. A lot of lifts, you know, lift and poke, right, just dispossess this person and create a loose

puck race for me where I can go in with my reach and try to beat this guy, right? It's a lot of getting your stick underneath someone else's and just leaning on them for a while and making them incapable of making a play at all, right? and you're not running interference, you're physically engaged with somebody that has the puck. They're not going to call you for that, right? As long as you're not hooking and impeding them. So it's just about, you know, I think just about having the presence and being there. You know, we talked about like that can cause people to see ghosts.

It can cause them to have the hiccups a little bit and cough pucks up. But we're talking about physical engagement here. This isn't like my mere presence is disrupting you. I am making contact. Like, and I, you know, again, these are traits that you expect more out of a defenseman that's trying to drive someone outside of the wall and then rub them out of the play, right? These are like defensive traits, but I think for Boldie, the willingness to be physical. And I'm not talking again about wasteful physicalness, right? He's not hitting people on finishing a check four seconds after they

released the puck, right? And just chocking up empty hit calories, right? Like, that's not what this is. This is like effective dispossession work with the intent of taking the puck with him, right? That to me is the discernible difference. And I think, again, you know, we talk about how effective it could be, Demetri, when you work against the grain in the offensive zone, but it's equally as effective when you're doing it in the defensive zone, right? And again, when you're taking an angle at someone with a long reach and you can sweep across them, right? Sweep across them and make that play. I've just, it's washed, that's, that's been his bread and butter defensively this year, right? It's been his bread and butter defensively

as a stick. And at lankiness and the reach, he's using it like you would expect a defenseman to, but then he's, he's immediately turning those circumstances into offense for himself. self. Yeah, like I said, I think he's the perfect winger for today's game. I guess if I was going to say one sort of nitpick with his game right now and in the grand scheme of things, it's a very minor one. I think he can certainly improve on it. I think he's got the skill set set his show him to do so. It's on the power play where there's certain times where they try to sort of set him up as the one time threat on the flank, right? And it's a bit complicated by the fact that both him and Caprizo, who are their two best offensive weapons. are both left shots. And so in theory, you can't have both guys set up in the one-time position. But I think sometimes he can get himself into trouble and stagnate a little bit because I feel like he's not as comfortable or willing,

actually uncorking that one-timer. Oftentimes, they'll have that cross-ice movement while you get the scene pass. And then he'll sort of like settle the puck, dust it off, and then snap it. Now, his wrist shot is awesome. I love a snapshot. And so it makes sense he'd want to utilize that. but it can also sort of limit, I guess, the advantages you just created with that lateral movement. And so this Minnesota wild power play is 17th in the league right now, I believe, in efficiency.

So it's not like it's a major problem. But when they get in trouble and when they stagnate, I feel like the fact that he's not as willing a participant in that specific area sometimes can sort of like decrease the ceiling a little bit offensively. Now, his wrist shot, as I said, is so good. You talked about the release and how pinpointed it can be. and how effortlessly you can get it off. That's great when you're sort of more free-flowing. But just for those situations, I think there's a bit of an overlap

and a bit of a conundrum they have to solve in terms of getting that power play into top-end status. And this is a team that's going to need to try to manufacture, as we said, goals in creative ways. And so wasting power play opportunity certainly isn't ideal.

I would love to see them get him in like a rope-bay-hintz style role, Dimitri, where like, when I think about rope-a-hens on that Dallas powerplay, he's starting with the puck so high up in the zone that it gives him the ability to walk in, right? And he walks in off the wall down the lane. You've got a direct shot opportunity. You've got somebody in this little slot that you could throw it to for a quick chance in front. You've got a cross-ice passing opportunity

there. The opportunities, I think, or the possibilities, excuse me, and those situations are really endless. So, yeah, I, I know what else is really interesting about your comment is I think Boldie has a really good one-timer. Like, I think when you see him let it go and rip it, like, he gets it a hold of it. It's not awkward looking. It doesn't seem weird, but there is that sort of tendency to have like the perfect chance, right? I want the puck in the perfect position. I want to tee it up. I want to have it. I want to have it right for me. And I think if he just let that go a little bit and just let him rip, that quarter to half second that he's taking to like settle it down and get it sort of situated to his liking is enough time for the goalie to get over more, right? That's,

that's all they need is to sort of eat up a little bit more net as that same amount of time. So I'd love, yeah, I'd positionally would love to see him in a position where he can work from high to low in the zone and walk the puck off the wall, which I think is what his real strength is. And to follow up with what you said, I do, I do think he can one time the puck. I do. I think it's there. And I mean, we've seen it this year, right? I think I think the challenge is to not, to not want that, that perfect selection in those bang, bang opportunities. and there's a tendency to sometimes overthink that or to want it to be perfect. And if you could just get rid of it,

as soon as you get it, that's less time for the goalie to prepare. Oh, it's certainly not for a lack of talent or even technique because we've seen him execute it. I think it's a mentality, similar to Elias Pedersen and sort of some of the struggles he's had in the recent past. Now I think his is more attributable to health

or a lack of confidence and like holding up physically if you're just uncorking one-timers all the time. but I think it's purely in terms of like willingness, it's just like you need to have that sort of killer instinct as a goal score mentality of like, I know there might be a more efficient play if I kind of hold this and wait for a backdoor tap in or another cross-eyes past like a pre-zob,

but sometimes at least to keep the opposing defense honest, you just got to let it, you just got to grip and rip. And so I want to see that a little bit more from him because I certainly think he can do so if he does, if he chooses to do so. All right, man, this was good stuff. I really, this is a player who I really wanted to do because I just love watching his game.

There's so much fun stuff on tape. I don't know if you have any parting shots on him or if you just want to plug stuff on the way out. Let the listeners know what you've been working on, where they can check you out. I'll give you the floor here. Yeah, so two things that are coming down the pike from me. One for the athletic, we're going to celebrate Sydney Crosby's pending 600th goal. We're waiting for it to happen.

With a look back at Crosby, the shooter. I don't think that's something that gets discussed enough, Dimitri. We want to talk about pretty one-timers. I think the Sydney Crosby dropped to one knee shot is one of the most beautiful things in the game of hockey. So we're going to break that down and take a look at how he does it. And then we're going to talk about Nico Hish here soon. I know that's a topic we and I have discussed quite a bit this season. So on McKeans, I'm going to have a full scope breakdown of how he's managed to score so many goals this year and some of the trends that are surrounding his game.

All right. Well, that is a great then collaborative effort for us. Great synergy because next time we do a film club, let's do Nico Hish here. I also want to, I mentioned at the top, Martin Aches and the hair inspiration, he's been playing so well that I want to eventually get to him as well. So I think those are going to be our next two ones. Already looking forward to doing so. Jesse, this was great. Be well. Thanks you for coming on. Looking forward to our next film club. Hopefully everyone enjoyed it.

Thank you for watching along with us and for listening on the radio and on the podcast feed. Appreciate you all. And we'll be back with Jesse in two weeks for another film club. And we'll be back with the rest of the shows on, I believe, either Sunday night or Monday, for our usual weekly rundowns with Thomas Drans here on the Sportsnet Radio Network.