Thrashers' Boulton a new breed of enforcer

By Chris Vivlamore

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It was a nearly perfect night for Eric Boulton.

In the Thrashers’ season-opening victory Oct. 3, the fourth-line forward made a beautiful pass to set up the team’s second goal for a first period assist. Later, with Atlanta clinging to a one-goal lead, Boulton sparked a rally by making quick work of Tampa Bay’s Todd Fedoruk in a third period fight.

Welcome to the new world of the NHL enforcer.

The days when a team kept a player on the roster strictly for his fighting ability are over. The new breed of enforcer better have some offensive skill, too. It’s the cause and effect of the rule changes and salary cap instituted by the league following the lockout year of 2004-05. An emphasis was placed on speed and skill. Keep up or find another profession.

“The guys that can skate in this league survived,” Boulton said. “The guys that couldn’t get around the ice are the guys that kind of got weeded out.

“A lot of enforcers are better players than they get credit for. … They usually slide in as fourth-line guys and they don’t get the ice time. They are good hockey players or they wouldn’t be in the National Hockey League.”

Make no mistake. Boulton know his role. Just ask. Did he take more pride in the fight or the assist?

“I take a lot more pride in the fight, actually, because I know that’s my job,” said Boulton, who also scored a goal in the Thrashers’ win at St. Louis Thursday. “We’ve got other guys to put up the points. It’s always nice to contribute but the fight is why I’m here. It’s what I’ll do first.”

It’s what helped get Boulton to the NHL.

Boulton said his first fight came at the Tier II Junior A level, a league in the United States and Canada for 16-21 year olds. He was playing for Cold Harbour in Nova Scotia. Boulton doesn’t remember who the fight was against. He just knows he won.

“Everybody looked to me as a guy who could do that, so I just ran with it,” Boulton said.

A career was born.

Boulton was drafted by Oshawa in the Ontario Hockey League. Then it was on to the minor leagues of the ECHL and the IHL and the AHL. He literally fought his way all the way to the NHL, first with Buffalo and now with Atlanta since 2005.

Along the way, Boulton worked on his skating. He has just 20 goals and 37 assists in his ninth NHL season. However, 15 goals and 25 assists have come in the last four-plus years with the Thrashers.

“I’ve always taken pride in working on my skating and making sure I’m not a liability on the ice,” Boulton said. “[Fighting] is my job. That’s how I made the NHL. That’s why I’m still here today.”

According to the Web site hockeyfights.com, Boulton has had 99 fights in the NHL. He won his fight against Fedoruk, garnering 98.7 percent of fan voting on the site.

“You know he’s always got your back,” linemate Jim Slater said. “I’ve had some pretty good front row seats for his bouts over the years. It’s good to see him throw guys around the ice. It’s also good to see him score a goal.”

Fighting never disappeared in the NHL. It did, however, decline dramatically following the lockout. In 2003-04, the year before the lockout, there were 789 fights in the NHL with a fight in 41 percent of games, according to hockeyfight.com. The year following the lockout, those numbers plunged to 466 fights with a fight in 29 percent of games.

The numbers have slowly risen since. Last year the number of fights was nearly the same as before the stoppage – 734 fights or 41 percent of games.

“You need some toughness on your team, but they need to play minutes too,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said. “[Boulton] is more than just a fighter to me. He’s a good player that can help us.”

Boulton said knowing when to fight – and when not to -- is a calculated move.

Win and it can change of the momentum of a game in a positive way, as it did in the season opener. Get your hat handed to you and it can easily backfire on a team.

“He’s willing to drop the gloves whenever he’s asked to,” linemate Chris Thorburn said. “Bolts has been doing it his whole life. He knows more than I do as far as timing and when to do it.”