Jesse Pierce

This kid is different.

He's built different.

He's a really special player.

But again, the critics would say he wouldn't take his game to the middle of the rink.

He played far too much to the exterior part of the rink.

That is completely flipped.

He is so much better now

in traffic, on the wall, in the trenches, going to the middle.

That's been Matt Boldy taking his game to another level.

There's been a lot of work off the ice to get him there, and he puts that time in.

He's the most humble, confident, or cocky guy I've ever met because he's a team-first guy.

He refuses to talk about himself.

You saw it play out in that interview after the first intermission yesterday.

He will never take credit.

Lucky play, teammate this, teammate that.

But when you get to know Matt and when you're around him every day like we are and you travel with this guy, he is an extremely confident young man.

That serves him very well.

The hard work and the confidence come together.

And we're seeing a player right now start to realize, and I think it happened last year at the Four Nation where the light bulb went on and Matt Boldy realized that not only can he go out there and survive,

Best on best, with the best players, facing the best players, but I'm one of the best players.