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Bruce Boudreau fired ? **UPDATE: It's official, Boudreau Out...Tocchet In


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I may be jumping the gun here, but this is the hot rumor out of Vancouver....
 
 
 
 
In the worst kept secrets category, expect tonight to be the last game for Bruce Boudreau behind the bench in Vancouver.
 
Rick Tocchet who has been rumoured to be his replacement in recent weeks is expected to be in Vancouver this weekend with an official press conference Monday to announce his hiring.
Edited by TropicalFruitGirl26
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If this does come to pass, I wonder how soon before the 'fire sale' starts.

I suppose Vancouver can hang onto their players and see how they do under Tocchet, but I get the feeling if Tocchet is hired, he is being brought on to oversee a rebuild and high dollar veterans could be seeing their way out the door.
Horvat, Miller, Boeser, Pearson, Ekman-Larssen (although good luck to VAN trying to get someone to bite on THAT one) maybe even Demko and Pettersson too?

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2 hours ago, Brewin Flames said:
I may be jumping the gun here, but this is the hot rumor out of Vancouver....
 
 
 
 
In the worst kept secrets category, expect tonight to be the last game for Bruce Boudreau behind the bench in Vancouver.
 
Rick Tocchet who has been rumoured to be his replacement in recent weeks is expected to be in Vancouver this weekend with an official press conference Monday to announce his hiring.

 

He deserves it.  

I never have and never will be a Boudreau fan.   I have always felt--and always will--that the guy is a fraud.   While he was in Washington, I'll always believe they'd have won a Cup with a different coach.  I thought he was terrible at every stop.  Some idiotic GM will fire their GM and go ahead and hire him yet again.  He's terrible.    I honestly don't understand what is wrong with front offices who look at a guy's track record and soberly say "gotta git me summalat."    Those GMs should be fired, too.

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16 minutes ago, ruxpin said:

 

He deserves it.  

I never have and never will be a Boudreau fan.   I have always felt--and always will--that the guy is a fraud.   While he was in Washington, I'll always believe they'd have won a Cup with a different coach.  I thought he was terrible at every stop.  Some idiotic GM will fire their GM and go ahead and hire him yet again.  He's terrible.    I honestly don't understand what is wrong with front offices who look at a guy's track record and soberly say "gotta git me summalat."    Those GMs should be fired, too.

 

You don't care much for the one dollar bill, eh? :ph34r: 

509068759_onedollar.jpg.384f6d010f7b4f15cadaf5cfe6419136.jpg

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17 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

You don't care much for the one dollar bill, eh? :ph34r: 

509068759_onedollar.jpg.384f6d010f7b4f15cadaf5cfe6419136.jpg

I've seen this reference before.  I honestly don't see it.   If the Monopoly guy and Droopy Dog had a kid...

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6 minutes ago, JR Ewing said:

If the Canucks think he should be fired, then they should damned well have fired him, instead of making him do this Dead Man Walking tour he's been on. This is really tasteless stuff.

 

 

In watching some interviews, or rather, when the media manages to catch up with Boudreau, he seems very upbeat and not at all acting like a man who knows his days are numbered and a man who is dealing with the jackal media at this point.

He may be better off doing what he was doing before the Canucks hired him: doing broadcast analyst work.
His knowledge of the game and his personality on air is well suited to that.

I think his shots at another bench boss job are either drying up or done with....plus, does he need the aggravation anymore? I know he'd like to win a Cup as a coach, but still....

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8 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

In watching some interviews, or rather, when the media manages to catch up with Boudreau, he seems very upbeat and not at all acting like a man who knows his days are numbered and a man who is dealing with the jackal media at this point.

He may be better off doing what he was doing before the Canucks hired him: doing broadcast analyst work.
His knowledge of the game and his personality on air is well suited to that.

I think his shots at another bench boss job are either drying up or done with....plus, does he need the aggravation anymore? I know he'd like to win a Cup as a coach, but still....

 

Yesterday, he was nearly in tears, and had to leave early.

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4 hours ago, ruxpin said:

While he was in Washington, I'll always believe they'd have won a Cup with a different coach.


I’ve always wished him well, but you are most likely correct.  Boudreau was coach for the first four Ovie playoff sessions.  All were team disasters against lower seeds with some limited interim successes.

 

’08: game 7 egg-lay vs Flyers after Ovie shines in road game 6 to stay alive

 

’09: series win over 7th seed Rangers but having to overcome 1-3 deficit.  Then game 7 debacle at home vs Pittsburgh.  Who loses 6-2 in game 7, at home, to a so-called rival?  
 

‘10: Presidents Trophy winners blow 3-1 1st round lead vs Montreal, losing games 5 & 7 at home.  Rap on Caps:  can’t play 2-way hockey.

 

’11: President Trophy winners beat Rangers 4-1 only to be swept by 5 seed Lightning.  Astonishingly, LeCavalier and St Louis almost doublehandedly upset two totally different Caps team favorites: ‘03 & ‘11.

 

Boudreau fired before ‘12 playoffs.

 

Sadly not a happy story, one that utterly depressed longtime Caps fans who witnessed Choke-A-Holism in earlier eras.

 

But we still wish Bruce well, the Everyman called up from Hershey in ‘07 to play in the Big Time…

 

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Canucks’ Boudreau emotional amid rumors of imminent firing

 
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Vancouver Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau became emotional on Friday when asked about rumors that he may soon be fired.

 

“I’d be a fool not to say that I don’t know what’s going on,” Boudreau said as tears welled in his eyes. “But … you come to work and you realize, you know how great the game is.”

 

Boudreau’s job security has been in question since the Canucks (18-23-3) got off to an 0-5-2 start. Vancouver was sixth in the Pacific Division, 12 points out of a playoff spot, entering Friday’s home game against Colorado.

 

The 68-year-old Boudreau, who previously coached the Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild, was hired on Dec. 6, 2021 to replace Travis Green. Vancouver began last season 8-15-2 under Green but went 32-15-10 under Boudreau, missing the playoffs by five points.

 

The success has not carried over to this season. The Canucks are allowing 3.96 goals per game and their penalty kill has a league-worst 66.9% success rate.

 

Jim Rutherford, the team’s president of hockey operations, told reporters on Monday that he’s had conversations over the last few months about bringing in a new coach.

 
 

“Bruce is our coach right now,” Rutherford said.

 

Asked Friday what it means to be a head coach in the NHL, Boudreau said, “I’ll talk later,” turning away from reporters.

 

Earlier, Boudreau said he’s been trying to block out the noise.

 

“It’s tough not to feel it,” he said. “But, look – you love it, you want to go do it. So that’s the way I shut it out, just basically realizing how much you care about the game and the players and all that goes on.”

 

 
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Feel very sorry for Boudreau. The greatest coach of any sport ever Scotty Bowman once said about his roster when he was a young coach with the Blues, "The fans and the GM want me to draw to an inside straight with this roster, but it is hard to do when they keep giving me a bunch of twos and threes." 

  That is where it falls apart for Bruce IMHO/ I believe that Rutherford never really wanted him, Boudreau was forced on him and became enormously popular with the fan base when the Canucks turned it around last year and made kind of a mini run after being dead and buried but they ran out of runway and missed the playoffs.  This year, the defense is god awful, Rutherford brought in zero help, Demko was really bad then really hurt, they are playing a bunch of AHL rejects in net who will be quickly forgotten by this time next year when they return to obscurity. Miller signed a long term deal and then Rutherford insisted to Boudreau that he play him on the wing instead of Center where ge woulda balanced the roster. Boeser is miserable, Horvat is counting the days to get away, Pearson is gone for the year, Podkolzin was a horrible grab and is buried in the AHL, Mikheyev is a nice player but is getting about double what he is worth, in short Boudreau is dying of non support from his own GM who screwed the roster up and left the players and team hanging. Now Rutherford is talking about blowing it up and starting over blaming the culture of the organization when in truth over the final two thirds of a year last year they were one of the top five or six teams in the game. They needed defense, he added none. He misspent the cap money on disinterested Russian forwards at more than they were worth, played hardball with the Captain in Horvat to where he is almost certainly gone, simply ruined Boeser who has to be dealt at this point, and now Rutherford is blaming the coach and the players for a mess that didnt need to be a mess because he created it. 

 

  The fans deserved better

  Boudreau deserved better

 

The wrong man is losing his job, but a GM can fire a coach, a coach cannot fire a GM

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30 minutes ago, yave1964 said:

Feel very sorry for Boudreau. The greatest coach of any sport ever Scotty Bowman once said about his roster when he was a young coach with the Blues, "The fans and the GM want me to draw to an inside straight with this roster, but it is hard to do when they keep giving me a bunch of twos and threes." 

  That is where it falls apart for Bruce IMHO/ I believe that Rutherford never really wanted him, Boudreau was forced on him and became enormously popular with the fan base when the Canucks turned it around last year and made kind of a mini run after being dead and buried but they ran out of runway and missed the playoffs.  This year, the defense is god awful, Rutherford brought in zero help, Demko was really bad then really hurt, they are playing a bunch of AHL rejects in net who will be quickly forgotten by this time next year when they return to obscurity. Miller signed a long term deal and then Rutherford insisted to Boudreau that he play him on the wing instead of Center where ge woulda balanced the roster. Boeser is miserable, Horvat is counting the days to get away, Pearson is gone for the year, Podkolzin was a horrible grab and is buried in the AHL, Mikheyev is a nice player but is getting about double what he is worth, in short Boudreau is dying of non support from his own GM who screwed the roster up and left the players and team hanging. Now Rutherford is talking about blowing it up and starting over blaming the culture of the organization when in truth over the final two thirds of a year last year they were one of the top five or six teams in the game. They needed defense, he added none. He misspent the cap money on disinterested Russian forwards at more than they were worth, played hardball with the Captain in Horvat to where he is almost certainly gone, simply ruined Boeser who has to be dealt at this point, and now Rutherford is blaming the coach and the players for a mess that didnt need to be a mess because he created it. 

 

  The fans deserved better

  Boudreau deserved better

 

The wrong man is losing his job, but a GM can fire a coach, a coach cannot fire a GM


You know me long time, so you know my attitude toward  Boudreau (he won't cut down a cherry tree, or something).   But you are entirely accurate in assigning blame here.   I've never actually been a Rutherford fan, either, so I was not at all impressed with any of the "leadership" in Vancouver, but it would have been nice if Boudreau had at least been given something, anything, to work with there.

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It's official...done deal...Boudreau and his cherry trees out.... Tocchet and his gila monsters in...

Boudreau fired as Canucks coach, replaced by Tocchet (nhl.com)

 

According to this article, the players seem to agree they liked playing for him, but the W-L record was what did the team and the coach in.
Brought in to assist Tocchet is Adame Foote as an assistant coach, and Sergei Gonchar as 'defensive development' coach.
I could be wrong, but wasn't Gonchar more of an offensive type player? How is he the defensive development coach?

Adam Foote was as hard nosed as Tocchet, and I can see them trying to instill that in the Canucks...BUT, once again, THEY DON'T SEEM TO HAVE THE RIGHT PERSONNEL to play that style at the moment, outside of two or three guys.

And those two or three guys may not even be there if Vancouver decided to go ahead and turn the roster over while they are turning the coaching wheels over.

This gal here may need a new team to bandwagon if they break up the reasons I started following them about three seasons back.
Buffalo or New Jersey here I come? Or maybe Edmonton....could be. ;) 

But yea.... Boudreau out, Tocchet in.... at 68, this could have been Boudreau's last shot behind the bench.
If he can come to terms with it (maybe after taking some time off), I still say he'd make a great NHL analyst if he wanted to go back to doing that.
Lots of 'dry' analysts out there, he was always pretty entertaining and informative (and didn't seem to follow a script) whenever I've listened to him break down players and teams during segments.

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  • TropicalFruitGirl26 changed the title to Bruce Boudreau fired ? **UPDATE: It's official, Boudreau Out...Tocchet In

 

Bruce Boudreau has been fired as coach of the Vancouver Canucks, who are again on track to miss the playoffs with another underachieving season.

 

The team announced the change Sunday, less than a week after president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said "major surgery" was needed to fix the Canucks, who have made the playoffs only once in the past eight years. Rick Tocchet was hired as Boudreau's replacement for a Vancouver team that has lost 28 of 46 games this season.

 

Assistant coach Trent Cull was also relieved of his duties Sunday. Adam Foote was named as an assistant and Sergei Gonchar a defensive development coach on Tocchet's staff.

 

"We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Bruce and Trent for their contributions to this organization," general manager Patrik Allvin said in a statement Sunday. "We appreciate their dedication and wish them nothing but the best moving forward. This was not an easy decision to make, but one that we felt was necessary for this franchise."

 

Boudreau had waved to the crowd after the Canucks' latest defeat Saturday night, their third in the past four games. Chants of "Bruce, there it is!" to the tune of Tag Team's "Whoomp! (There It Is)" echoed around the arena as a tribute to the well-respected 68-year-old hockey lifer who ranks among the top regular-season coaches in NHL history.

 

He had acknowledged the speculation around his future Friday ahead of a back-to-back against Colorado and Edmonton -- both Vancouver losses.

 

"I'd be a fool to say I don't know what's going on," Boudreau said. "But like I've said before, you come to work, and you realize how great the game is."

 

He was also emotional following the loss to the Oilers and subsequent send-off from fans.

 

"You never know if it's the end," Boudreau told reporters after the game, tears welling in his eyes. "So when you've been in it for almost 50 years -- you know, the majority of your life -- and now if it's the end, I had to stay out there and look at the crowd and just try to say, 'OK, try to remember this moment type of thing.'"

 

Boudreau is the second coach Vancouver has fired in under 14 months. Boudreau took over in December 2021 when previous coach Travis Green and general manager Jim Benning were let go 25 games into the 2021-22 season.

The Canucks have missed the playoffs the past two seasons since reaching the second round in the bubble in 2020.

 

Boudreau was with his fourth NHL team after stints with Washington, Anaheim and Minnesota. He won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year in 2007-08 when he was elevated from the minors to coach the Capitals on Thanksgiving and got them to the playoffs.

 

Teams coached by Boudreau for a full season have made the playoffs nine out of 10 times. His .626 points percentage ranks fourth among coaches with at least 500 games behind the bench, and his 617 wins are tied for 20th in league history with Hall of Famer Jacques Lemaire.

 

But a Canucks team in disarray did not give him much of a chance to keep that success going. Rutherford in a news conference Monday said big changes would be coming in the offseason, citing the need for the team to get younger.

They could happen before that, especially with captain Bo Horvat unsigned beyond this season and attracting attention ahead of the March 3 trade deadline.

 

Tocchet is 178-200-60 as a head coach after leading the Tampa Bay Lightning for parts of two seasons from 2008 to 2010 and the Arizona Coyotes for four years from 2017 to 2021. He won the Stanley Cup as a player with the Pittsburgh Penguins and then twice as an assistant for them.

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Sooooo inquiring minds want to know…

Tocchet has a history of being a defensive minded coach (correct me if I’m wrong) … so if the Nucks struggle defensively now… what exactly makes one think that Vancouver is suddenly going to become defensively responsible??

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3 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

It's official...done deal...Boudreau and his cherry trees out.... Tocchet and his gila monsters in...

Boudreau fired as Canucks coach, replaced by Tocchet (nhl.com)

 

According to this article, the players seem to agree they liked playing for him, but the W-L record was what did the team and the coach in.
Brought in to assist Tocchet is Adame Foote as an assistant coach, and Sergei Gonchar as 'defensive development' coach.
I could be wrong, but wasn't Gonchar more of an offensive type player? How is he the defensive development coach?

Adam Foote was as hard nosed as Tocchet, and I can see them trying to instill that in the Canucks...BUT, once again, THEY DON'T SEEM TO HAVE THE RIGHT PERSONNEL to play that style at the moment, outside of two or three guys.

And those two or three guys may not even be there if Vancouver decided to go ahead and turn the roster over while they are turning the coaching wheels over.

This gal here may need a new team to bandwagon if they break up the reasons I started following them about three seasons back.
Buffalo or New Jersey here I come? Or maybe Edmonton....could be. ;) 

But yea.... Boudreau out, Tocchet in.... at 68, this could have been Boudreau's last shot behind the bench.
If he can come to terms with it (maybe after taking some time off), I still say he'd make a great NHL analyst if he wanted to go back to doing that.
Lots of 'dry' analysts out there, he was always pretty entertaining and informative (and didn't seem to follow a script) whenever I've listened to him break down players and teams during segments.

Lol. Gonchar as defensive coach is a bit like Micheal Hayes as a wrestling agent.

 

As Chris jericho once said "hayes loved suggesting dangerous crazy high spots he would have NEVER done himself in his fabulous freebird wrestling days."

 

Gonchar never knew the defensive end of the ice. Why is he coaching defense? 

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1 hour ago, pilldoc said:

Sooooo inquiring minds want to know…

Tocchet has a history of being a defensive minded coach (correct me if I’m wrong) … so if the Nucks struggle defensively now… what exactly makes one think that Vancouver is suddenly going to become defensively responsible??

 

There likely WON'T be much change in the defensive game until they start swapping out bodies.
The way the team is built now, they are geared towards heavy offense, minimal defense, and worse, some soft coverage to go with the manner in which they DON'T defend...and then rely on the goalie (presumably Demko when he is in there) to clean up mistakes.

Prolbme is, the Vancouver defense is so poor, and make so many mistakes, that having TWO Demkos (or anyone else) in net simply isn't going to cut it.
Not the way the team consistently leaves the goalie to basically fend for himself.

With such a gap in how Tocchet and Boudreau do things, I would think the VAN front office is going to HAVE to provide Tocchet with the kinds of players he needs to play his style.
They didn't do that for Tortorella when he was in VAN, but then, I believe that was a different front office at the time (lead by Burke if I am not mistaken).

Will Rutherford make the same mistakes and tell Tocchet, "Look, this is what you have, do something with it", or clean house (likely), give Tocchet a fresh start with new players, trade off the vets other teams would be willing to pay premium for, and have the team be bad in the short term.
I guess that is what we will see.

The rest of this year will be a sorting out process I think....with maybe the team winning a handful of games at first.
Funny how that works....teams don't win under a given coach, then are embarrassed they cost said coach his job, THEN start winning out of sheer will (where was this will before!!??), then fall back to where they were originally because, well, that is who they were as a group anyways.

But I'd be very surprised if the Vancouver Canucks look anywhere near the same, personnel-wise, next season, as they do this season.

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