Zack Bolduc’s ability to adapt creates important domino effect for Canadiens

MONTREAL — It was about an hour before Zack Bolduc’s 19th game at the Bell Centre in a Montreal Canadiens uniform when he turned to his fellow Québécois teammate, defenceman Alexandre Carrier, and said they would each score a goal that night.

Bolduc had scored all seven of his goals this season on the road. Scoring at the Bell Centre was a feeling he had yet to experience and, for a kid who grew up a couple of hours downriver cheering for the Canadiens, was one he’s been looking forward to ever since the July 1 trade with the St. Louis Blues that brought him to Montreal.

He had never made this pregame prediction before Thursday night. For some reason, on this night, Bolduc got bold.

And at 14:23 of the first period, his prediction came true. Well, except for the part where Carrier also scored.

“I said, ‘Tonight, Carrsy, I think we’re getting one each.’ So we were just missing Carrsy,” Bolduc said. “I got a few chances lately, so I felt like it was coming.”

That goal, however, was more important than Bolduc simply getting a monkey off his back. He scored again 20 seconds into the third period to put the Canadiens up 2-1 on the Chicago Blackhawks, the winner in a 4-1 victory for Montreal.

Both goals came as a result of learning how to play on the Canadiens’ top line with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, something that first happened just over a month earlier, on Nov. 17 in Columbus.

It didn’t go well at first. Plugging Bolduc in on that line felt like plugging a square peg into a round hole. He was unable to provide the Canadiens’ two offensive leaders with what Juraj Slafkovský provided them, and Bolduc wound up on the fourth line for his first game against the Blues as a result.

His first goal Thursday — when he found space in the slot, took a pass from Caufield from below the goal line and one-timed it past Spencer Knight — showed how far he has come since that initial audition.

BOLDUC AU CENTRE BELL#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/OJDK4w95p0

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 19, 2025

“Our guys, when we’re in space below the goal line, that’s got to be the first look, and we should have a guy there,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “And if we don’t have a guy there, we talk about that.

“To me, it’s all about the balance on the ice, and he found the balance pretty quick, and he was patient in that area.”

But it is also about balance in the lineup.

Moving off the top line has created a new version of Slafkovský playing with Oliver Kapanen and Ivan Demidov, one who carries the puck more often and looks to hang on to it for an extra second to make a play as opposed to deferring to Caufield and Suzuki all the time. And that, in turn, pushes Alexandre Texier off the Kapanen line to a line with Jake Evans and Josh Anderson, a duo that has struggled this season to create the momentum St. Louis seeks from them. It’s also a duo, however, that has gotten a jolt from the combination of speed and skill and, as it turns out, smarts that Texier provides.

So, while that first goal showed how Bolduc is adapting to playing with Suzuki and Caufield, it also showed how important it is that Bolduc provides St. Louis with this option when the team is trying to deal with injuries to Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook and Patrik Laine up front.

“It’s gotten better over time, adapting to playing with me and Cole,” Suzuki said. “Me and Cole like going to certain areas and making plays and getting open for shots, and he has to try to balance that out. It’s the same thing for me and Cole, reading off him and finding him in good spots, and Cole was able to do that tonight.”

Bolduc, for instance, is not a player who naturally plays much below the goal line. But that’s what Suzuki and Caufield need from him, and he’s been doing it more of late, and effectively. He’s winning battles down there, extending offensive-zone possessions, on top of creating more offensive possessions by being a strong F1 on the forecheck, something he was doing less effectively during his first audition on the top line.

“It’s something I want to bring,” Bolduc said. “Those are two guys who are excellent with the puck, so I want to bring a bit of forechecking, winning one-on-one battles, getting involved physically. Those are things I want to bring, and the vast majority of that stuff happens around the net and below the goal line. So that’s where I want to hang around and be disruptive for the other team, and I think that’s what I’m doing better.”

Il y prend goût

Tip drill ft. Boldy#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/ao7rJ0Ei6B

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 19, 2025

The domino effect Bolduc’s adaptability creates is almost more important further down the lineup. The way Texier has played in Montreal makes it perplexing as to why things fell apart for him with the Blues, to the point of a contract termination and Texier kissing more than $1 million goodbye just to get an opportunity elsewhere. He played well with Kapanen and Demidov, and now he is playing well with Evans and Anderson.

“I think Tex plays with a lot of predictability, I think he’s a very smart player,” St. Louis said. “I always knew he had lots of skill, I’m just learning about his level of IQ right now. I feel it’s pretty high, and usually those guys are very predictable and if they get stuck in unpredictable moments, a one-on-one situation, he’s really good at protecting the puck or using his skill to advance it. Right now, his line has given us some offence and it’s actually been pretty reliable.”

That doesn’t happen without Bolduc being self-aware enough to realize it is on him to make the most of his opportunity on the top line by showing an ability to adapt, which in turn allows Slafkovský to drop down to the Kapanen line and take advantage of softer matchups, and in turn allows Texier to play with Evans and Anderson and be smart and reliable.

St. Louis noted how keeping Slafkovský off the top line allows him to spread the matchups a little bit, and that is further helped by Texier making the Evans line more effective.

“I think it just gives us more depth while we’re going through the injuries that we’ve had,” he said.

On that front, Kirby Dach is trending toward a return to the lineup. It is unlikely to happen in the three games that remain on the Canadiens’ schedule before Christmas, but it shouldn’t be too long after that.

If Bolduc were not working out on the top line, it might be tempting for St. Louis to give Dach a run there when he returns as a way to maintain the depth having Slafkovský on the second line provides. But if Bolduc makes that unnecessary, the depth will only improve further down the lineup if you slot Dach in somewhere else.

That said, Bolduc is not yet a fixture on the top line. He needs to maintain an ability to complement the Canadiens’ offensive engine, to continue to learn what he needs to do to make sure Suzuki and Caufield have success, and he has success with them.

But perhaps the clearest sign that Bolduc was making progress on that front before the game began was not only that he predicted to Carrier they would both score that night. It was the fact he wasn’t the only one to make that prediction.

As Suzuki was preparing to leave the dressing room after the game, he was asked if he knew about Bolduc calling his own shot, that he predicted he would score. Suzuki seemed to misunderstand what he was told.

“Yeah,” Suzuki said as he walked away, “I told him he was going to score tonight.”

Predictability. It’s a word St. Louis uses a lot to describe how a player is playing. It’s a word he described Thursday night to praise Texier’s play.

The fact Bolduc’s predictability heading into the game made it so that both he and his captain had a feeling he would score bodes well for what’s coming. And that is true up and down the Canadiens’ lineup.