NEW YORK (AP) — Evan Bouchard had arguably one of the worst games of his NHL career in the Edmonton Oilers’ loss at the New York Islanders on Thursday night.
Mistakes he made led directly to two goals against, and he had several more giveaways and blunders that led to quality scoring chances.
“I'm going to have to improve on that," Bouchard said. “You learn from it — obviously a lot of learning. Yeah, part of the game is forget good and bad, so move on, be ready next game.”
Bouchard is the fourth-highest paid defenseman in the NHL and tied for 14th among all players at a salary cap hit of $10.5 million, and he's well worth that price when he's creating more offense for his team than opponents. His 72 points over past three playoffs are 40 more than the next-closest player at the position.
“I know people can be hard on him for the mistakes, but you’ve also got to look at the upside of what he brings,” defense partner Mattias Ekholm said. “I’m sure he knows that he could’ve made some other decisions tonight, but I know that there’s other games and you saw the other night when he’s just pulling through their forward and just makes everybody look silly and things that I wouldn’t even think of. I’d be careful criticizing him because that’s who he is.”
Bouchard had the puck on his stick in the neutral zone late in the first period under little pressure and inexplicably had it stolen away by Mat Barzal, who broke in on Stuart Skinner to score his first goal since January.
“Just a bad play on my end," Bouchard said.
Late in the second with Edmonton on the power play, Bouchard was in no-man's land when Bo Horvat got behind him and scored short-handed.
“I thought I’d be able to keep it in if (Islanders penalty-killer Jean-Gabriel Pageau) chipped it up the wall," Bouchard said. "Obviously, he didn’t do that.”
On the ESPN+ broadcast of the game, color analyst Ray Ferraro, a longtime forward in the league with over 1,300 games of experience, from between the benches called it “about as bad a two periods I've seen an NHL player play.”
After the game, a 4-2 loss that was New York's first victory of the season, Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch deadpanned, “I've seen Evan play better.”
“We cannot just accept that,” Knoblauch said. "Mistakes happen, but you have to address what types of mistakes are happening. Evan’s a fantastic player, one of the best in the league, certainly one of the best defensemen in the NHL. Tonight was not his night, but I’ve always seen him respond and play much better after games like this.”
It also did not come at a great time, with Tampa Bay general manager Julien BriseBois — a member of Hockey Canada's management staff — watching in person. Bouchard figures to be an extreme long shot to make the Olympic team, especially because of his tendency to turn the puck over.
Ekholm, who is usually the safety valve to make up for errors Bouchard commits, said one of the soon-to-be 26-year-old's super powers is his ability to forget quickly. His coach has noticed that over consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final and plenty of other times.
“I usually see him bounce back immediately after a bad shift, maybe a turnover, and it doesn’t faze him, and he makes the next play the next time," Knoblauch said. "But we’re going to move on from it. We can’t dwell on it too much. We’ve got to learn from things that happened. Evan’s one of our best players, and we’ve got to have him playing as one of our best.”
Bouchard said teammates consistently tell him during games like this to “keep making plays.” Ekholm is confident those plays will come Saturday at the New Jersey Devils.
“I’m pretty sure we’ll see a different Bouchard,” Ekholm said. “I’m sure he’ll be back with force and vengeance.”
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
New York Rangers' Vladislav Gavrikov (44) defends Edmonton Oilers' Evan Bouchard (2) during the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
President Donald Trump posted Wednesday on social media that anything less than U.S. control of Greenland is “unacceptable,” hours before Vice President JD Vance was to host Danish and Greenlandic officials for talks.
“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote.
On Iran, Trump's threat to impose a 25% tax on imports from countries doing business with the Islamic Republic could raise prices for U.S. consumers and further inflame tensions in a country where inflation is running above 40%.
And as Senate Republicans face intense pressure from Trump to vote down a war powers resolution Wednesday aimed at limiting him from carrying out more military action against Venezuela, an AP-NORC poll conducted after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s Jan. 3 capture found that 56% of U.S. adults think Trump has overstepped on military interventions abroad, while majorities disapprove of how he's handling foreign policy.
The Latest:
China’s trade surplus surged to a record of almost $1.2 trillion in 2025, the government said Wednesday, as exports to other countries made up for slowing shipments to the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s onslaught of higher tariffs.
China’s exports rose 5.5% for the whole of last year to $3.77 trillion, customs data showed, as Chinese automakers and other manufacturers expanded into markets across the globe. Imports flatlined at $2.58 trillion. The 2024 trade surplus was over $992 billion.
In December, China’s exports climbed 6.6% from the year before in dollar terms, better than economists’ estimates and higher than November’s 5.9% year-on-year increase. Imports in December were up 5.7% year-on-year, compared to November’s 1.9%.
▶ Read more about how economists expect exports to impact China’s economy
Although he doesn’t always follow through, Trump seems intent on doubling and tripling down whenever possible.
“Right now I’m feeling pretty good,” Trump said Tuesday in Detroit. His speech was ostensibly arranged to refocus attention on the economy, which the president claimed is surging despite lingering concerns about higher prices.
Trump has repeatedly insisted he’s only doing what voters elected him to do, and his allies in Washington remain overwhelmingly united behind him.
Republican National Committee spokesperson Kiersten Pels predicted that voters will reward the party this year.
“Voters elected President Trump to put American lives first — and that’s exactly what he’s doing,” she said. “President Trump is making our country safer, and the American people will remember it in November.”
It’s only two weeks into the new year, and Trump has already claimed control of Venezuela, escalated threats to seize Greenland and flooded American streets with masked immigration agents. That’s not even counting an unprecedented criminal investigation at the Federal Reserve, a cornerstone of the national economy that Trump wants to bend to his will.
Even for a president who thrives on chaos, Trump is generating a stunning level of turmoil as voters prepare to deliver their verdict on his leadership in midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
Each decision carries tremendous risks, from the possibility of an overseas quagmire to undermining the country’s financial system, but Trump has barreled forward with a ferocity rattling even some of his Republican allies.
“The presidency has gone rogue,” said historian Joanne B. Freeman, a Yale University professor.
▶ Read more about the turmoil Trump is creating ahead of this year’s votes
Nearly half of Americans — 45% — want the U.S. to take a “less active” role in solving the world’s problems, the new AP-NORC poll found.
About one-third say its current role is “about right,” and only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults say they want the country to be more involved globally.
Democrats and independents are driving the desire for the U.S. to take a “less active” role. At least half of them now want the U.S. to do less, a sharp shift from a few months ago.
Republicans, meanwhile, have grown more likely to indicate that Trump’s level of involvement is right. About 6 in 10 Republicans — 64% — say the country’s current role in world affairs is “about right,” which is up slightly from 55% from September.
About half of Americans believe the U.S. intervening in Venezuela will be “mostly a good thing” for halting the flow of illegal drugs into the country, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
And 44% believe the U.S. actions will do more to benefit than harm the Venezuelan people. But U.S. adults are divided on whether intervention will be good or bad for U.S. economic and national security interests, or if it simply won’t have an impact.
Republicans are more likely than Democrats and independents to see benefits to the U.S. action, particularly its effects on drug trafficking. About 8 in 10 Republicans say America’s intervention will be “mostly a good thing” for stopping the flow of illegal drugs into the country.
▶ Read more about the poll’s findings
Most U.S. adults — 56% — say President Trump has “gone too far” in using the U.S. military to intervene in other countries, according to a new AP-NORC poll conducted from Jan. 8-11, after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s capture.
Democrats and independents are driving the belief that Trump has overstepped. About 9 in 10 Democrats and roughly 6 in 10 independents say Trump has “gone too far” on military intervention, compared with about 2 in 10 Republicans.
The vast majority of Republicans — 71% — say Trump’s actions have been “about right,” and only about 1 in 10 want to see him go further.
▶ Read more about the poll’s findings
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington, as Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio listen. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Trump said in a social media post on Monday that he would impose a 25% tax on imports to the United States from countries that do business with Iran. The sanctions could hurt the Islamic Republic by reducing its access to foreign goods and driving up prices, which would likely inflame tensions in a country where inflation is running above 40%.
But the tariffs could create blowback for the United States, too, potentially raising the prices Americans pay for imports from Iranian trade partners such as Turkish textiles and Indian gemstones and threatening an uneasy trade truce Trump reached last year with China.
The Trump administration has offered scant details since announcing the new tariffs targeting Iran. It’s also unclear what legal authority the president is relying on to impose the import taxes. He invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to justify his most sweeping tariffs last year. But businesses and several states have gone to court arguing that Trump overstepped his authority in doing so.
▶ Read more about Trump’s threat of new tariffs
The Smithsonian Institution gave the White House new documents on its planned exhibits Tuesday in response to a demand to share precise details of what its museums and other programs are doing for America’s 250th birthday.
For months, Trump has been pressing the Smithsonian to back off “divisive narratives” and tell an upbeat story on the country’s history and culture, with the threat of holding back federal money if it doesn’t.
By Tuesday, the Smithsonian was supposed to provide lists of all displays, objects, wall text and other material dedicated to this year’s anniversary and other purposes. Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III told staff, in an email obtained by The New York Times and The Washington Post, that “we transmitted more information in response to that request.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment, leaving it unclear whether it was satisfied with the material it received.
▶ Read more about the Smithsonian
Trump said Wednesday that anything less than U.S. control of Greenland is “unacceptable,” hours before Vice President JD Vance was to host Danish and Greenlandic officials for talks.
In a post on his social media site, Trump reiterated his argument that the U.S. “needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security.” He added that “NATO should be leading the way for us to get it” and that otherwise Russia or China would.
“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote. “Anything less than that is unacceptable.”
Greenland is at the center of a geopolitical storm as Trump is insisting he wants to own the island, and the residents of its capital, Nuuk, say it is not for sale. The White House has not ruled out taking the Arctic island by force.
▶ Read more about Trump’s comments
President Donald Trump walks down the stairs of Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
