Mavrik Bourque versus the Minnesota Wild, a great performance, and the future of the top six
The slow start is behind us.
One reason why following prospects is not just fun, but essential to understanding hockey is that you get to see in real time what makes a player successful or not. If a player was a great shooter in juniors, why did it translate? If not, why did it fail? It’s a questionnaire you can play with every trait: passing, physicality, hockey sense, pace, etc.
This place has stanned for Bourque since jump street. Three years ago, when he and Logan Stankoven were tearing the AHL apart like two infinity stones, there was an unmistakable quality to Bourque’s game that prevented him from merely being a Stankoven merchant. A year later, Bourque’s identity was able to develop with the AHL pace, creating an oddly specific forward: that of a forechecking playmaker. The end result was enough for me to — foolishly — wonder out loud if Bourque had some Calder juice.
He didn’t, of course, because the NHL is full of elite talent. But being mistaken is not the same as being wrong. Bourque is not a phenom. He’s not some 80-point winger in waiting. But while Bourque’s game has been slow to develop, that doesn’t mean his development has been bad. One thing Glen Gulutzan deserves credit for this year amidst some tactical criticisms was his willingness to work with the young players and show faith. Most coaches would have kicked him off the top line when he struggled to produce. There was a minute where it looked like he might not be the answer to compliment players like Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz. A late-season splurge in production, tallying nine points in the final 10 games, helped him hit 20 goals and 41 points; just three shy of his former partner in crime, Stankoven.
The Minnesota series probably feels like a low point in the franchise, less for what happened and more for what it represents. A lot of cheap and easy talking points have surrounded it, much to this writer’s chagrin. Watching Montreal get 15 goals out of their bottom six, the speed with which the final four teams play with, and the way the remaining squads operate on the forecheck and on the rush should dominate the discussions on why Dallas failed. These, after all, are all tangible things we can look at and discuss as opposed to speculating on the psychological qualities of leadership and toughness. But since we’re all a little tired, I figured I’d focus on a positive puck story: the story of Bourque in the Minnesota series.
He is everything you could ask for in a top six forward with room to grow. Here’s a fun fact: did you know that Bourque had the highest expected goal share of any player in the playoffs with at least 100 minutes? It’s true! 71.65 percent was the highest mark. Second highest? An old buddy: Stankoven. How did it do it, and what does it tell us about his future?
