On the heels of a disappointing performance against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Montreal Canadiens were back on home ice for a Thursday night tilt with the Chicago Blackhawks. With the visitors missing their best player in Connor Bedard, the Habs found themselves with an excellent opportunity to get a win in their own building, which hasn’t been the easiest place for them to do that. Beating Chicago with the exact score they lost by two nights prior, they got a much-needed boost of confidence in front of their fans.
Nobody needed that more than Zachary Bolduc, who had perhaps his best game of the season, and finally put the puck in the net at home.
Cole Caufield sets up Zachary Bolduc in the high slot, and he one-times it home to tie the game for the #Habs pic.twitter.com/E0Jkr861n9
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) December 19, 2025
In the offensive zone, he was physically imposing, regularly winning puck battles and helping the top line establish their attack. Board battles he won led to possession, and he’d immediately read the play and put himself in a position to score. When Martin St-Louis put him on that line, this is likely what he envisioned from the young forward – get the puck on the sticks of Nick Suzuki or Cole Caufield, and then set yourself up to use your shot.
The result, statistically speaking, was a very strong night for that line.
NHL GameScore Impact Card for Montreal Canadiens on 2025-12-18: pic.twitter.com/1jyNGW2R6j
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) December 19, 2025
Lane Hutson was on another planet in this game, it is important to at least note that here, but Bolduc’s performance was perhaps more important to the overall direction of this team. With Juraj Slafkovsky helping out on the kid line with Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen, Bolduc has to help get the top line back to their scoring ways at five-on-five.
The caveat to this game of course is the absence of Bedard. This was about as much of a must-win as games can be in December, and anything but two points in the standings would have been a significant disappointment. Still, seeing the top line dominate and Bolduc being a big part of that is something to build on. If he can keep this going, the top line has a little more punch at even strength, and that will open up a lot of opportunities for the rest of the lineup while opposing teams try to handle that.
It hasn’t been easy for Bolduc taking on a big role in his home province, but he finally had a signature moment at home. Let’s hope this is a sign that the floodgates are open.
Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be back on Saturday night for the start of the home-and-home with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
