Bruce Boudreau Holds Head High as His Canucks’ Tenure Ticks Down
Bruce #Bruce
The Vancouver Canucks fans and players tried to give coach Bruce Boudreau something to remember as the inevitable awaits. Here’s how it played out.
The first “Bruce, there it is” chant of Saturday night echoed through Rogers Arena as the game clock on the jumbotron was stuck at 15:32 remaining in the first period.
The Vancouver Canucks were already down 1-0 to the visiting Edmonton Oilers after Connor McDavid beat Spencer Martin off a blistering breakaway just 1:26 into the game. But maybe if the clock didn’t count down, coach Bruce Boudreau’s seemingly inevitable unhappy ending might not come to pass.
Alas, the other time clocks kept working, and so did the Oilers. By the end of the first intermission, the main scoreboard had come back to full power, and the visitors had built a 2-0 lead – to the delight of their scores of supporters in the house.
Many Northern Albertans have moved west in search of a milder climate over the years, so the Oilers are always well-supported when they visit Vancouver.
During warmups, fans were lined six rows deep around the Edmonton zone, while barely a single row of Canucks fans watched the home team prepare at the other end. Amidst the usual signs requesting sticks and pucks, there were a couple of small signs supporting Vancouver’s beleaguered coach: “We stand with Bruce.”
And while the Oilers rode their early lead to a 4-2 victory and “Let’s go Oilers” was the most popular refrain, Boudreau was also supported early in the second period and after the Canucks’ two goals – Andrei Kuzmenko’s 19th of the year, late in the second period, then a one-timer bomb from the blueline by J.T. Miller early in the third.
The Canucks faithful chanted “Bruce, there it is” with gusto after a successful coach’s challenge for goaltender interference kept the home team within a goal with 5:27 remaining in the third period. And even though Ryan Nugent-Hopkins erased the possibility of a storybook comeback with an empty-netter with 35 seconds left in regulation, the crowd saved the best for last.
“I just wanted to savor looking at the stands, because who knows if I’m ever going to get this chance again,” said a resigned Boudreau after the game. “Keep that in my mind, in the memory – let it burn there forever.”
“Bruce, there it is” never made much sense. But that was part of its charm – an exuberant outpouring born when Boudreau took control of the 8-15-2 Canucks on Dec. 5, 2021, and the team launched into an improbable seven-game winning streak. A dejected fanbase found hope as Boudreau preached chipping away at the standings in one-week increments.
Ultimately, the Canucks came up five points shy of a wild-card berth in the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs. The team and fanbase hoped they could build off the success Boudreau helped bring to the team.
But the president of hockey operations, Jim Rutherford, sounded an early warning bell at the season-ending press conference in May 2022. He criticized the Canucks’ on-ice structure and defensive-zone play and was adamant that he hadn’t seen enough from Boudreau to give him a contract extension.
The Canucks started their new season in spectacularly terrible fashion, surrendering numerous multi-goal leads to open the year with an 0-5-2 record. By late October, Rutherford was publicly distancing himself from Boudreau. In November, he called the club’s training camp “poor” as part of a wide-ranging critique on local radio.
“I thought it was over in November, when those certain things (were) said,” Boudreau said Saturday – a reminder that while the reports of his replacement by Rick Tocchet have heated up over the last week, Boudreau has been hanging on by his fingernails for more than two months.
Though Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek reported on Saturday night that Tocchet would be installed by Monday, the Canucks did not make a formal announcement postgame.
“And by the way, they haven’t fired me yet,” Boudreau shared during his media availability – even as he talked about tearful goodbyes with his players and praised his assistants Mike Yeo, Jason King and Trent Cull for sticking with their hard-working habits while their fates also hang in the balance.
On Saturday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said he’s hearing Sergei Gonchar and Adam Foote are in consideration for assistant coaching or consulting positions. Both were Stanley Cup-winning defensemen. Gonchar, like Tocchet, was previously an assistant coach for Rutherford’s Pittsburgh Penguins. Foote most recently spent two seasons as the coach of the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets.
The uncertainty around Boudreau’s future has also affected the dressing room. NHL players are known for their assertions that they’ll ignore distractions and focus on their games in virtually any situation. But this week, even grizzled veterans like Tyler Myers and Luke Schenn have admitted it’s challenging to process what’s happening around them.
“I don’t know, facts or not facts,” Schenn said. “But did you hear the crowd the entire game? Everyone knows, right?
“We were talking about it before the game, amongst the dressing room, and there’s a handful of us. It just really doesn’t even feel real,” he said. “It’s just a weird, emotional thing to be going through in the middle of a hockey season.”
The Canucks organization has been widely criticized for leaving Boudreau on an island. With a 2008 Jack Adams Trophy win, a .626 points percentage over his 1,087-game NHL coaching career and a reputation for treating his players well, Boudreau’s composure and professionalism while weathering this storm has likely raised the already-considerable esteem he receives in the hockey world to an even higher level.
And at age 68, he has no desire to fade into the background.
“I used to watch every game,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll watch every game and want to get back into it somehow. Whether it’s doing TV again, or – I’ve still got the passion to do this (coaching). I never missed a practice that wasn’t an optional. I love the game and know the game, so hopefully something works out. I hope this isn’t the last hurrah.”
Following Saturday’s games, the Canucks sit 14 points out of a wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Their record is 18-25-3, good for 27th in the league standings.
Nevertheless, if the Canucks’ clock really has ticked down to zero for Boudreau, he has left his successor with an incredibly tough act to follow.