Making The Grade – Boyd Gordon

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Next up in the Making the Grade series is the man with the best last name on the Oilers, none other than third line Center Boyd Gordon. Now before I get going I’d like to remind you that all of these grades are done by each writer individually with no consensus from the other writers here at the Oilers Rig. So what we are seeing is a varying degree of grading, no one sees things the same way all the time and while I might give a player an A+ (I won’t) someone else may have given the same player a D or even an F.

Boyd Gordon was brought in to play center on the third line, take the bulk of the defensive zone face offs and kill penalties. That’s his role and that is what I will be basing my grades upon today.

Offense – B+

I really was contemplating giving Gordon an A here, he currently sits 7^th on team scoring with 5 goals and 6 assists for 11 points. If we are to call this the quarter point of the season and the production from Boyd continues it will mean he should easily beat his career best of 29 points in the 06-07 season.

Now most of Gordon’s production came early in the season when he was filling a top 6 role necessitated by injuries. His production has tapered off as of late but I see no reason that, at the very least, that he won’t a little more than double his point totals by the end of the year.

We should never expect Gordon to be an offensive dynamo and at the beginning of the season I said and offensively successful season would be around the 30 point mark. That’s a very likely total for him now. For a third line center that’s supposed to be a defensive and face off specialist that’s pretty damned good.

Defence – C

It’s nearly impossible for me to give anyone a decent grade for defensive play on this team, one that allows 3.52 goals against per game. So in essence C is a decent grade. Gordon has been on the ice for 210 shots toward the opposition net and 273 shots against (Corsi) and is -7 (traditional stat).

Boyd gets the majority of his zone starts in his own end so isn’t really set up for success, mind you like I said earlier that is his role on this team. I believe that the poor defensive play, not just by Gordon, is a product of learning a new and seemingly difficult system and that Gordon is one of if not the best defensive forwards on this team.

Team Play – B

Team play is the grade that is most well defined by how an individual (me) see’s his performance in all areas of the ice and how the player follows the system and makes the players around him better, or worse for that matter.

Gordon has bought in to Eakins swarm defensive system and like others has experienced some hiccups in following it, but he’s very obviously doing his best. To go along with that his play on both sides of the puck has been decent and he’s also spent time on the power play along with a lot of minutes on the PK.

Gordon has shown a willingness to sacrifice, he blocks shots at will and will even sacrifice his body to stop a puck when the team is down 4 or 5 goals in a game. The example he sets for the younger players is one that should have an effect on those guys in the future.

He’s a work horse. To go along with winning a faceoff’s at a ridiculously high percentage (58.1%) Gordon plays against the toughest competition night in and night out. Since being paired with David Perron and Ryan Smyth that third line is seen as the go to line to play against the opposition’s top line.

Final Grade – B-

Like I mentioned above it is tough to give anyone a good mark on defense that that is what has given him a B- for an overall mark, if this team had been at all successful then I think that Gordon may be one of the nicest surprises on this Oilers team. I laud Craig Mactavish for the signing, glad we will have a player like him until the end of the 15-16 season. He’s a hell of a lot better of an option than the player he was brought in to replace, I won’t mention his name at the risk of jinxing Mr. Gordon, but you remember him, an arrogant French man that has a three sided shape named after him.

Thanks for Reading.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wpVH2ckwTY]