One of hockey’s favourite adages is to control what you can control.
It is a chaotic game that can be somewhat random, so when things are not going well for you, it is better to focus on the areas of the game that are not subject to that chaos, that randomness.
On Saturday, we got a lesson in how to do that from Montreal Canadiens forward Zack Bolduc.
Following the morning skate Saturday, Bolduc was sitting at his locker, still sweating from the work he had just put in on the ice. As he removed his equipment, we asked him about how he felt his centre, Kirby Dach, was progressing with his game. Not surprisingly, Bolduc was impressed with what he’s seen, because Dach’s game is clearly starting to come together.
“I’m not worried about Dacher getting more and more comfortable,” he said.
How about you, he was then asked.
“Me? It’s going well,” Bolduc began.
But then he caught himself, and almost mocked his own answer immediately.
“Well, it’s going well, I started the season well,” he continued. “I think the last few games it’s been a bit tougher for me. I need to find my base a little bit, find my game. But I’m not worried. It’s a long season, and this is part of the marathon we’re in, having highs and lows. You just have to make sure the lows don’t last too long. I think you always want to produce more for the team, but yeah, as I said, I think I can bring a bit more.”
His coach did not disagree with Bolduc’s own self-assessment.
“I think it’s been up and down a little bit,” Martin St. Louis said Saturday morning. “His good’s really good. We are getting to know the player, he’s coming to a new environment, new concepts, systems, however you want to call it. I don’t think he’s playing instinctively yet, but we’ll get him there. It’s just to figure out how do we get him there? Is it through more conversations, more video? So, we’re learning. But we know it’s there, we like the player, and we’re going to keep at it with him to get a little more detail in his game so the game is easier for him.”
When Bolduc said he felt he could be bringing more, was he talking about production? About goals?
“No, absolutely not,” he replied. “When I’m on my game and playing the right way, I think I’m a guy who skates, who plays physical, who’s good on the forecheck. That’s what I’ve lost and what I’m looking to find again. I think that’s what brings me success.”
That night, in the first period against the Ottawa Senators, Bolduc went out and did exactly what he was talking about. He controlled what he can control.
Bolduc’s hit on Senators star defenceman Jake Sanderson just before the nine-minute mark of the first period sent Sanderson into the Canadiens’ bench and incited Sens tough guy Kurtis MacDermid to go after him, handing the Canadiens a power play.
BOLDUC SENT SANDERSON INTO THE HABS BENCH 🤯 pic.twitter.com/XT3sLnnISO
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) November 1, 2025
The Canadiens extended their lead to 2-0 moments later.
Ils font de la magie noire ou quoi? 🔮
That’s some black magic right there #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/wvvjum7aw1
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) November 1, 2025
That hit on Sanderson was one of five Bolduc had in the first period alone, setting a new career high before the first intermission. He finished his night with zero goals, zero assists, zero points, two shots on goal and those five hits. But Bolduc had an impact on the game. He made a difference by focusing on playing to his strengths and not focusing on the somewhat random, often chaotic nature of scoring.
Of course, in the second period, Bolduc had a golden opportunity to score a goal when Dach made a brilliant pass from his own end, banking a puck off the boards into the neutral zone and hitting Bolduc in stride for a breakaway. Bolduc’s shot went wide, the Senators went back the other way, and 14 seconds after Bolduc missed his breakaway chance, Drake Batherson scored Ottawa’s first goal of the night. Instead of the Canadiens being ahead 3-0, they were ahead 2-1.
Considering how Bolduc felt about the state of his game that morning, we’re going to guess he might have been more focused on that missed breakaway in the second period than his impactful first period.
But that first period was definitely a step in the right direction for him.
An open lab session
Toward the end of Saturday’s morning skate, Mike Matheson and St. Louis were having a conversation. They were standing near the blue line and pointing to different areas of the ice. At one point St. Louis took the puck and demonstrated a pivot near the boards, then demonstrated that same pivot in a different way. There was a back-and-forth between player and coach. It lasted roughly 10 minutes.
When Matheson was asked about it afterward, he laughed. He figured it was normal for us to be asking questions about it because it happened in plain sight of the media, but he said exchanges like this happen all the time.
“It’s almost a daily thing,” he said. “Sometimes it’s me asking a question, sometimes it’s him, and then we have at it.”
Now, if you’re hoping to know what was being discussed out there, too bad.
“No,” St. Louis said when asked if he would share some details of the conversation.
Matheson was slightly more transparent, but only slightly.
“We were talking about a lot of stuff,” he said. “Just kind of PK entries, five-on-five entries, we talked about forechecks, we talked about … there was a little five-on-six. A lot of stuff.”
Matheson refused to get into specifics, but even the general tone of the conversation was somewhat revealing.
“It was more kind of ideologies of what we’re trying to accomplish in those certain situations to force (the opponent) into a next play that favours us,” he said. “A lot of the times when you’re in those situations, whether it’s PK or an entry, you’re not necessarily going to stop the play right there, that only happens every so often. But it’s more so how are you going to make them feel like they’re making the right play, but actually they’re kind of falling into a trap? That’s kind of what we’re trying to accomplish. … And that’s why we have our meetings, because that answer will be different against one team as opposed to another.”
What’s important to retain here is these conversations are not one-sided, and they are not even really debates, necessarily. It is an exchange of ideas, and an effort to come to a conclusion that ultimately helps the team, whether that’s the coach convincing the player or vice versa.
And therefore, it is a window into how this team and particularly this coaching staff operate.
“Why wouldn’t we try to use the brains of our players, who are the ones doing all those reps, and especially those who have the experience that Mike Matheson has?” St. Louis said. “So sometimes you have those conversations, little debates, whatever, but at the end of the day all we’re trying to do is convince ourselves as a group how to manage certain situations on the ice.”
Kapanen’s PK transition
Oliver Kapanen is somewhat the forgotten man among the Canadiens’ rookies. With what Ivan Demidov and Jakub Dobeš have done so far, the fact Kapanen is still a rookie sometimes gets lost in the shuffle.
Kapanen, however, is fifth in rookie scoring with seven points in 12 games. But what is more remarkable is his role on the penalty kill for the Canadiens.
Fraser Minten of the Boston Bruins is the only rookie in the NHL playing more than Kapanen’s 1:46 a game on the penalty kill. They are the only two rookies in the NHL to have played more than 20 minutes on the penalty kill. Only 12 rookies have played more than 10.
So, what Kapanen is doing is somewhat unusual. And it’s not easy.
“It’s pretty hard,” Kapanen said in Seattle on Tuesday morning. “The power plays here are pretty skillful and fast and everybody’s dangerous out there. It’s something new for me, for sure — this style of playing PK here is a little different from Europe, what I’m used to. It’s so dangerous here on the smaller rink, so basically whoever has the puck is a dangerous guy.”
Kapanen entered the season knowing there would be an opportunity for him on the penalty kill with the departures of Joel Armia and Christian Dvorak, and he even got a hint of it last season when he was asked to take part in penalty-killing meetings, much like his current penalty-kill partner Alex Newhook.
“Last season, I was on the door to play on the PK,” he said, “but I didn’t get the chance.”
So far, the bulk of the penalty-kill minutes have gone to Jake Evans and Josh Anderson, but overall, considering how inexperienced they are and how they are learning on the fly, Kapanen and Newhook are not doing too bad, according to Natural Stat Trick’s numbers.
PK1 compared to PK2
TOISA/60HDCA/60GA/60XGA/60
Newhook/Kapanen
18:37
54.79
41.9
9.67
12.03
Evans/Anderson
33:28
46.59
30.46
8.96
8.19
To put those numbers in perspective, the two best penalty-killing teams in the league right now are the Philadelphia Flyers and Buffalo Sabres. Here is how they are doing in each of those same metrics.
Two best PK teams’ metrics
TeamSA/60HDCA/60GA/60XGA/60
50.4
17.88
3.25
7.72
55.43
26.13
3.17
8.4
Kapanen and Newhook are a work in progress on the penalty kill, but considering they are both starting from scratch, there seems to be a basis for a good partnership here.
A dose of perspective
We had a chance to chat with Seattle Kraken rookie Berkly Catton on Tuesday morning.
He is still of junior age, so the Kraken can’t send him to the AHL as a CHL player. Catton played on Seattle’s top line against the Canadiens. But he is still working his way through the transition to the NHL from junior, and it’s a process. There is an adjustment he needs to make from what he is used to in the WHL.
“I like to carry the puck through the neutral zone a lot, and with these neutral-zone coverages, it’s a little tougher,” Catton said. “I think I still have the ability to make plays out here, but I think it’s just the details, how important the details are, in the D-zone being in the right spot, or even offensively being in the right spot to create stuff. Just the little details, how much they matter I think is the biggest thing I’ve noticed.”
One of those details is positioning.
“I think how if you’re even a little bit out of position, how people will make plays is crazy,” he said. “It’s just how sound you have to be on the defensive side of the puck, and then usually when you’re in good spots that way, you can get the puck and go play offence. It’s happened to me a couple of times where even just a little bit out of position, high-end guys, everyone in the league, really, will make plays.”
Later that evening, Catton got a reminder of just how important positioning can be. He was on the ice in overtime, and if he were just a tiny bit more assertive in the neutral zone, he might have knocked this puck away from Cole Caufield and gone off on a breakaway. Instead, he watched Caufield end the game. It was the first goal against the Kraken that Catton was on the ice for this season.
COLE CAUFIELD ÉTABLIT UN NOUVEAU RECORD DE FRANCHISE POUR LE NOMBRE DE BUTS EN PROLONGATION
COLE CAUFIELD, THE MOST OT GOALS IN FRANCHISE HISTORY#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/8cYFKq2suT
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) October 29, 2025
Why are we sharing Catton’s thoughts on how he’s transitioning to the NHL? Because he was selected three picks after Demidov in the 2024 draft. They were born roughly a month apart. And while Demidov had professional experience in the KHL that can’t be discounted, Catton’s perspective of how difficult it is for him — a supremely talented offensive player — to make the transition to the NHL should make what Demidov is doing, particularly defensively, that much more impressive.