“I would like to thank Bruce for his hard work and dedication to the franchise”, general manager Bob Murray said in a statement.
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In his five seasons in Anaheim, Boudreau went 208-104-40 behind the bench in the regular season.
Boudreau’s last game as Ducks coach was Wednesday when his team was eliminated by Nashville in the first round, losing Game 7 by a 2-1 score.
It was the second straight year the Ducks lost to the eventual Cup champions and questions resurfaced about Boudreau’s ability to prepare his team for the biggest moment and his in-game strategy during matchups against the Kings’ Darryl Sutter and Chicago’s Joel Quenneville. It’s hardly surprising, as the Ducks had faltered out of the gate this year, but Boudreau turned the team around to win their division for the fourth-straight division title.
Nearly to the day last previous year, Anaheim defeated Calgary in Game 5 of their second-round series to send Boudreau to his first-ever conference finals as an National Hockey League coach. Compare that to Anaheim’s top-two behemoths, 31-year-old Ryan Kesler (6-foot-2, 202 pounds) and 30-year-old Ryan Getzlaf (6-foot-4, 221 pounds).
In recent years, when the Colorado Avalanche have failed to make the playoffs, or have exited first round, the Anaheim Ducks are the team I cheer for the most. I think they have a solid roster with great systems, and they can be a lot of fun to watch.
“Boudreau shown himself to be a smart, adaptable coach who can turn talented teams into regular-season juggernauts”, Lambert writes. TJ Oshie, who had just one goal coming into Game 1 of the Penguins series scored a hat-trick including the overtime game victor to give Washington an early advantage in a series that is so much more than Ovechkin versus Crosby.
Here are the five best fits for Bruce Boudreau as he should have a number of suitors.
“And that’s what the problem is”, Murray said of his players. “He’s a good coach”.
It is too bad the coach had to be fired.
There’s no-trade and no-movement clauses in the contracts of those Ducks leaders, but Murray made it clear he wants more from them.
“Regular season success is OK, I’ve told you all many times, for me, making the playoffs is the most important thing and then anything can happen”, he said.
Unlike in 2011 when he immediately tabbed Boudreau to take over for Randy Carlyle, Murray is going to take his time naming a replacement. “He’s a very passionate hockey guy”, Murray said.
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“I just felt for this group it just wasn’t going to work going forward”. Playing those young defensemen more and guys like Stoner less is the reason why Anaheim has become an elite puck-possession team, but Murray might survey the free-agent market and decide the best way to help his forward depth is to deal from his strength.
