Livescore
The NHL’s worst-kept secret this season has officially come to light.
The Canucks announced that Bruce Boudreau was been relieved of his duties as head coach. Taking over the position is former Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet.
It brings an end to what has been a weird saga in Vancouver. Rumblings of a potential coaching change began months ago and accelerated at the turn of the new year. Boudreau’s termination grew imminent in the past week with reports, and the team made it official on Sunday.
Boudreau was hired about 14 months ago by the Canucks, replacing Travis Green during the 2021-22 season. The team went 32-15-10 under Boudreau last year, improving in almost every statistical category.
However, the magic of last year did not translate over. The Canucks lost seven games in a row at the beginning of the season and floated around .500 ever since.
It got to the point that that president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford admitted during an interview that he was looking at candidates to replace Boudreau, yet Boudreau was still acting as head coach.
MORE: William Nylander, Kyle Connor headline NHL All-Star game snubs in 2023
To make matters worse, Boudreau had to answer questions regarding the rumors about his job status. He was emotional on Friday when he was asked about the potential coaching change, stating that he’d “be a fool not to say that I don’t know what’s going on.”
Bruce Boudreau got emotional this morning when asked what it means for him to coach in the NHL#Canucks pic.twitter.com/c940BthyXV
— Tim and Friends (@timandfriends) January 20, 2023
Boudreau ends his tenure in Vancouver with a record of 50-39-13, which spanned over parts of two seasons.
Why did the Canucks fire Bruce Boudreau?
Whether it would be during the season, or at the end of the year, the writing was on the wall that the 2022-23 season would be Boudreau’s last in Vancouver.
In a way, Boudreau was a victim of the Canucks’ mismanaged organization. In December of 2021, owner Francesco Aquilini fired both head coach Travis Green and general manager Jim Benning. Instead of hiring a new GM so that they could bring in a new coach, Aquilini elected to hire Boudreau before he gave Rutherford the general manager job four days later.
So from the jump, Boudreau was not Rutherford’s choice for the job.
Last offseason, Rutherford elected not to give Boudreau a contract extension, a sign that the coach did not have his stamp of approval to be the coach of the future yet. Instead, the two sides agreed to pick up Boudreau’s option for the 2022-23 season and see how the year went.
Well it didn’t start well. After the Canucks got out to a seven-game losing streak to start the season, Rutherford indirectly criticized Boudreau and his strategies.
In a radio interview with Sportnet 650 in early November, Rutherford said he “didn’t like” the team’s training camp and felt it carried over into the regular season. He also questioned some of the team’s systems and their style of play.
The team’s performance did not improve. While Vancouver went on a 7-3-0 run in December, the club has won just two games since the start of 2023. It led to the coaching replacement rumors ramping up, to the point mentioned above that Rutherford was open about looking for Boudreau’s successor.
For Boudreau’s time in Vancouver to end like this unfortunate. It started with a seven-game winning streak and chants of “Bruce, there it is!” throughout Rogers Arena. It finished with the front office dragging their feet with the decision to move on from Boudreau, resulting in the good-natured coach being put in an awkward position.
While many are questioning Rutherford and Aquilini’s handling of the whole transition, Boudreau could not have been more respectful throughout it. He didn’t complain, he kept moving forward and coaching every night with his same good-natured attitude.
It’s unclear what Boudreau’s future holds. At 68 years old, he was the oldest active NHL coach this season. With 1,000 games underneath his head coaching belt and more than 600 wins, Boudreau has already established as one of the game’s best coaches.
It just did not work out in Vancouver, and now Rutherford and Patrik Allvin are handing the reins over to Tocchet.
Read the full article here
