MONTREAL — An hour before the game, Zachary Bolduc predicted he’d score.
Four hours later, after he scored twice, after he was named first star in the 4-1 Montreal Canadiens win over the Chicago Blackhawks, and after the fans serenaded him as he stood near centre ice waiting to be interviewed by RDS colour commentator Marc Denis, Bolduc said he was elated to finally hear his name announced by Bell Centre P.A. extraordinaire Michel Lacroix for the very first time.
It didn’t happen over the first 71 days of the season.
But what’s another 71 days in a life that’s spanned nearly 23 years?
“It’s special,” said Bolduc. “I grew up (in Quebec), it’ll always be special for me to play here. Having grown up here, hearing my name was super fun.”
Not hearing it for so long had to have at least played some role in Bolduc’s slow ascent in his first season with the Canadiens; in his challenge to, as coach Martin St. Louis would put it, “play his game inside the game.”
As a local kid traded to the team he grew up cheering for, a kid who arrived with major hype around him after a 19-goal rookie campaign with the St. Louis Blues followed up a promising first 75 games in the pros and 105 goals scored over his last 126 games in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, there was plenty of distraction for Bolduc to deal with.
And then there was pressure.
Everyone is under it in Montreal, but it’s on another level for un gars de chez nous.
This kind of pressure can be suffocating, and it can certainly blur a player’s focus on all the little things he must do to give himself the chance at the big moments he craves so badly.
But Bolduc has been finding it of late, and it should be through clear eyes that he sees what enabled him to score the tying and winning goals in Thursday’s game.
It was Bolduc’s simple and smart play with the puck on the zone entries, the work he did to get his touches off the cycle, and his understanding of where he’d need to put himself to properly balance Montreal’s offensive-zone structure before the puck arrived on his stick to do what he does best with it.
Bolduc first ripped it into the net from the high slot and let out a primal scream that could be heard all the way back in his hometown of Trois-Rivieres, Que. He then tipped it for his second goal to cap a sequence that further showcase he’s reached a new point of his upward trajectory with the Canadiens.
A play Bolduc made in the first period — backtracking hard to his own zone, only to blow by his check and open a two-on-one opportunity for the Blackhawks — also reinforced that his climb towards the pinnacle with them remains steep.
But hey, it’s supposed to be.
It should be noted Bolduc, who was drafted 17th overall in 2021, came to the Canadiens with just 106 games of NHL experience (counting last year’s playoffs), with very little of it spent as a top-six forward. It should also be taken into consideration that after starting on Montreal’s third line and doing a stint on their fourth, he’s spent less than one-third of his five-on-five ice time on the top line with Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki.
Not to mention all the circumstances Bolduc would have to adapt to following his trade for defenceman Logan Mailloux.
“He’s coming from a different team, different teammates,” said St. Louis. “You come in, try to get acclimated, kind of not sure of what chair you’re going to sit in, different system… I just feel like he knows his strength, and he knows his weaknesses too. We’ve been attacking that to get him playing the game, not just (doing) the stuff he’s good at.”
Bolduc noted that process is the same one nearly every player on the NHL’s youngest team is going through.
Surely he knows the Canadiens need everyone to navigate it as smoothly and quickly as possible, and he’s aware his ability to do so would help give the Canadiens the balance they’ve been lacking since Patrik Laine, Alex Newhook and Kirby Dach were all lost to long-term injury.
“I think it gives us a little more depth with Suzy, Cole and Boldy,” said St. Louis. “Suzy usually plays against top guys, and I feel the way Boldy has evolved the last month, I feel it’s allowing us to play inside of that.”
The coach knows it allowed him to make a more mature Juraj Slafkovsky the driving force of a line with rookies Oliver Kapanen and Ivan Demidov, and he noted Alexandre Texier recently joining Jake Evans and Josh Anderson has given him another line he can trust to alleviate some of the burden Suzuki’s line takes in the matchup game.
None of that would be possible with Bolduc failing to earn a bit more of the rope his play has extended him over the last few weeks.
The player added a lot of slack to that rope over the three games that preceded Thursday’s win, helping Suzuki and Caufield earn a 66.6 per cent share of the expected goals.
Still, they scored just one goal as a line over those three games before Bolduc potted two against the Blackhawks.
The hope is that they’re gaining momentum, and that he’s finding consistency after stalling following a three-goal, four-point debut through the first three road games.
Bolduc scored just one goal and two assists over his next 18 games and then sporadically found the scoresheet over the next over the next 13.
Bolduc’s play was relatively down through the start of that run, but it trended up towards the end of it. Now it’s in a place that makes him more of a fit with Suzuki and Caufield.
“I’ve seen a lot of growth since the beginning of the season, obviously coming into a new organization and a new system,” said Suzuki. “There’s a lot learning curves and ups and downs and he’s bounced around with different linemates, and that’s always challenging. But we’ve been able to find some chemistry together…”
Bolduc had to have been feeling it to have told teammate Alex Carrier before the game that the puck would be going in off his stick.
He said he hadn’t made any such predictions before other home games this season, but the way he’s playing now should give him confidence to make more moving forward.
It isn’t perfect, and there’s still plenty of room for growth. But Thursday’s game showed to what extent Bolduc has taken important steps with the Canadiens.
