[Report] Canucks fire Bruce Boudreau, Trent Cull; name Rick Tocchet as head coach, Adam Foote as assistant coach, Sergei Gonchar as defensive development coach

[King Heffy]

1 minute ago, Pickly said:

You said you’d banish yourself to the Ukraine and WJHC threads and were leaving Canucks talk. 

So what you're saying is that you have a problem with someone saying something and then drawing out the process?

[TheRussianRocket1994]

47 minutes ago, -Vintage Canuck- said:

This is behind a paywall, but I will share the article with you guys since it's a good read:

 

  Hide contents

Spoiler

Bruce Boudreau has been around long enough to know what was coming.

 

When the outside noise was that loud, when insiders were basically announcing that Rick Tocchet was going to be the incoming Canucks coach, when they were even naming Tocchet’s starting date before the outgoing coach had been fired, Boudreau knew it was more than likely true.

 

That’s why Boudreau coached Saturday’s Canucks game against the Oilers like it would be his last. That’s why he welled up after the morning skate the day before. That’s why he looked so beaten down in the third period and so stressed on that coach’s challenge that ultimately overturned an Oilers goal. That’s why he stayed on the bench after the final horn and looked around Rogers Arena with tears in his eyes, saluting the fans who were saluting him.

 

And that’s why he booked a flight home for Monday night with his wife of 28 years, Crystal, a week and a half ago.

 

As part of his contract with the Canucks, Boudreau and his family members receive 10 free plane tickets to and from their home in Hershey, Pa. As the rumblings grew, the Boudreaus booked one-way tickets home. After packing up every morsel of their downtown Vancouver condo the past few days, Bruce and Crystal will board a red-eye for Seattle with a connection to Harrisburg, Pa., through Atlanta.

 

“Better be safe than sorry, I guess,” Boudreau, chuckling, said Monday in an exclusive 45-minute interview with The Athletic on Monday. “We figured we could always change it. Unfortunately, we won’t have to. It’ll be a long day and night of flying, but we’ll be home at noon (Tuesday).”

 

Boudreau did have one pretty big condition for speaking on the record Monday: He wanted to take the high road. He didn’t want to pile on the mountain of criticism the Canucks have received for how this played out.

 

There would be no ripping of Jim Rutherford or Patrik Allvin, no pissing and moaning that he was victimized or humiliated.

 

He made that clear when asked even about the timing of his firing. Instead of just dismissing him after Saturday’s game, Boudreau was left to languish during one more sleepless night and simply told Saturday night to report with the rest of the coaching staff to a meeting with the Canucks’ brass at 9:30 Sunday morning.

 

“I enjoyed my time in Vancouver and am sad to see it end, but there’s no use rehashing everything,” Boudreau said. “I’ll just say it’s been difficult. It was difficult not knowing and thinking you’re gonna get let go and nobody telling you anything. Nobody really had to tell me, but with just the speculation and the noise outside and the reporters asking every day and reading articles about being a lame duck coach and that it was just a matter of time, those were the things that were difficult.

 

“But, I mean, no one had to come right out and say, ‘You’re gonna lose your job,’ or that this was the time you’re going to lose it. I think I’m smart enough to look around me and see what was going on. And so that was the hard part.”

 

But, as Canucks veteran defenseman Luke Schenn said over the weekend, Boudreau did his best to walk into the locker room every day with the same energy and the same upbeat style that has made him so beloved with so many players, media members and fans in all his coaching stops.

 

“The thing that kept driving me was that you’ve got to go to work, do your job, do it the same way and with the same passion every day,” Boudreau said. “And since I’ve always been a dreamer and a believer, I believed that, ‘OK, if we could just sneak it out, something good can happen.’ And so even though in the back of my mind you knew that something was imminent, you never wanted to believe it fully. So you just worked harder and the whole coaching staff worked so hard in trying to maybe figure out that if we could maybe have won four or five in a row or something like that, then maybe the noise would slow down a little bit. But it never happened.”

 

That’s why Boudreau was so proud of his players during that final game Saturday night. They emptied the tank for him in that third period. The Canucks had been successful this season in overtime and shootouts (7-3), so he thought the stars were lining up when the Oilers missed an open net and he was successful during the coach’s challenge to keep the deficit at one. And the Canucks came close to forcing overtime before Edmonton’s empty-netter sealed the deal.

 

“All these things were adding up that I felt this is gonna be a storybook ending. But I guess we ripped out the last few pages,” Boudreau said.

 

Asked about the stress on his face during the third, Boudreau said, “I was pretty sure that it was my last period. Nobody had said anything, but in my heart, I was pretty sure. And then I started thinking that ‘OK, if it’s my last period, is this my last time I’m going to be behind the bench of somewhere that I just love being? Is this the last time I’m going to be in front of 18,000 people trying to win with a group?

 

“It was sort of catching up to me a little bit. This was my 48th year of professional hockey. Sometimes you start to reflect on what are you doing? What’s gonna happen next? And then you’ve still got to stay in the moment because we were only down 3-2. And we were really playing hard in the third period. And I thought we were going to tie it up for sure. So to keep those thoughts away from the other thoughts was a little bit difficult sometimes. Yeah, it was a hard game to coach.”

 

In 103 games, Boudreau’s .549 points percentage (50-40-13) ranks fourth in Canucks history. For coaches with 500 or more regular-season games, his .626 points percentage ranks fourth in NHL history.

 

He felt the Canucks became a “really, really good team” and got the “crowd base into it” by the end of last season. This season was a chore, but he felt the Canucks were making strides until a team that was one win above .500 on Dec. 27 lost 10 of their next 12 games.

 

He’ll never forget the way his tenure came to an end, but he’s looking at the bright side.

 

“Very rarely do coaches in any sport get a chance to say goodbye to their players,” Boudreau said. “I mean, usually you get fired, it’s on a day off or it’s after the game and the players have gone home by then. So for me to be able to walk in there and thank them for what they did for me and the effort they gave was quite an experience to have. And then to see the emotion, I’ve never seen anything like it. All of us, almost all the players and me, were crying in the room. It was crazy. Like, I mean, you’d have to see it to believe it because it’s hard to believe it just saying it.”

 

One high-profile player came into Boudreau’s office and was crying uncontrollably and audibly as he hugged him in front of assistants. On Sunday, Boudreau got a slew of texts from his players, including “the most beautiful text” from sometimes-maligned J.T. Miller.

 

Before his meeting Sunday morning, Boudreau called three of his four children. His son Andy, 33, flew to Vancouver from Calgary to spend the weekend with him. He called 40-year-old Kasey, 36-year-old Ben and 23-year-old Brady just to let them know that it would finally be official soon.

 

“I wanted them to know before everyone else knew,” Boudreau said. “They’ve all been around long enough, whether it’s Crystal or the kids, that they always think when I’m fired that, ‘Dad’s gonna just go somewhere else.’ They hate it when it happens because they’re in my corner all the time, but I’d been warning them.

 

“Like me, they hoped something miraculous would happen to change it.”

 

When Boudreau was fired on Valentine’s Day 2020 by the Wild, he told The Athletic how he was blindsided. He was in the last year of his deal, but when he survived early-season rumors, his radar was down. Then, too, he didn’t know if he’d get another chance to coach again.

 

As it turned out, Boudreau got that chance to coach his 11th hockey team and fourth in the NHL since 1990-91. But now he’s three years older at 68. So while he hopes this isn’t it, he knows it very well could be.

 

“That was one of the reasons behind the bench that I was getting emotional,” Boudreau said. “Like, if you asked me, I’m in better condition to coach now than I was three years ago. That was before I had two replacements of the knees and my body was falling apart. Now I’m fine. And I feel reinvigorated. I had the energy to go out every day, and we were at the office every day between 6 and 6:30, every morning, and would stay to all hours. I don’t want to sit back on the couch and just relax.

 

“I love this. This is what gives you meaning when you get a chance to go to work every day and coach in the National Hockey League. The biggest thing probably is I thought I could communicate well enough with the young player still. I’ve always gotten along well with the players. But the communication, I thought, was really good. With all that being said, if it was ever offered to me again, I would jump at the chance. I’ve been doing it for almost 30 years, and I would do it forever.”

 

In the meantime, Boudreau expects to return to the television screen soon.

 

He’s already been offered an interview on Sportsnet’s “Hockey Night in Canada” this Saturday. He’s already been offered a chance to be on the panel for “TSN TradeCentre” on March 3. He’s already talked to NHL Network about returning to his previous post as a studio analyst. And he’s already done a SiriusXM interview with Gord Stellick and Scott Laughlin and hopes to return to the show once a week soon.

 

Mostly, he wanted to thank the fans in Vancouver who fell for the loveable character and treated him so kindly the past 13 ½ months.

 

“The one thing about coaching in Canada, more than any other place — and this includes Minnesota, as much as I love Minnesota and the people there who watch the game and know the game there, it is like a religion up here,” Boudreau said. “I’ve never experienced anything like it. And I loved it. I loved the fact that everybody knew what you were doing. You either fear it or you embrace it. And I embraced it.

 

“I just loved talking on the street. You go to a restaurant, anything, and people would come up to you and talk hockey. And when you lost, they were displeased and maybe throw the jersey on the ice. But when you won, they were the biggest fans going. If this is the last time, what a great experience.

 

“All coaches should get the opportunity to visit the threshold of being under the microscope of coaching in Canada.”

 

Boudreau said Tocchet, who previously coached in Tampa Bay and Arizona, will learn that quickly.

 

And by the way, Boudreau holds no ill will for Tocchet and wishes him well.

 

Boudreau gets it. Whenever a coach is fired, usually the next coach is waiting in the wings. Heck, when Boudreau took over the Ducks, he was in Anaheim while Randy Carlyle unknowingly was coaching his final game.

 

This is the way it works in pro sports.

 

It’s just not usually as public and as rumored as Tocchet’s arrival was.

 

“Unless it’s an interim taking over, I think anybody that gets fired — anybody — the guy that’s replacing him knows well beforehand because they’ve had to negotiate, they’ve had to do all of these things,” Boudreau said. “With Anaheim, when I got the call, and they flew me out, I mean, the Ducks were playing that night, and (Bob Murray) had to go in and fire Randy after the game. I didn’t feel comfortable with that because Randy is a friend of mine and I played with him. But that’s the business. And whether it was Rick or whether it would have been (Boudreau’s best friend) John Anderson taking my job, it doesn’t really matter. It’s always the same.

 

“So I’m not mad at Rick Tocchet at all. At all. And I hope nobody holds this against him. This is the way it’s done. I mean, this is a great opportunity for him. I think he’ll do great. I mean, this is a hockey town. They just want to win. And he’s got a bunch of passionate players to coach with big, big hearts.”

 

Boudreau certainly learned that during those emotional moments behind closed doors after what actually did turn out to be his last game Saturday night.

 

This man has a beautiful soul!! He’ll be missed and hopefully we see him continuing to do what he loves! 

Edited January 23, 2023 by IRR

[Ghostsof1915]

1 minute ago, chon derry said:

Wait your the one complaining , but the timing of bringing them out does seem a little on the PR side like they’re finally listening to the fanbase. Another marketing scheme. 

At the end of The Hockey Guy's video he was saying the skate would be a regular third jersey next year because they are using the same font. 

I just view it as a cash grab. 

[Pickly]

Just now, King Heffy said:

So what you're saying is that you have a problem with someone saying something and then drawing out the process?

Just holding you to it, that’s all. 

[Ghostsof1915]

1 minute ago, Bure_Pavel said:

I think you have the wrong forum, Seattle forum is a different site. 

They have a site?

[BPA]

1 minute ago, Smashian Kassian said:

 

Horvat/Kuzmenko/Schenn decisions will all be made. Likely 2 of the 3 being gone, thinking Horvat & Schenn.

 

We'll see if anything else comes but I agree the rest of this year is going to be an evaluation period then hopefully they will have more flexibility in the offseason to make changes.

They better make some upgrades to D.  Pretty sure all posters here were saying that all last summer and nothing happened.

[Western Red]

4 minutes ago, King Heffy said:

You seen one post indicating I'm still a fan of this team?  Looking forward to Wednesday.

Oh. My. God. 

 

Heffy, WELCOME TO IGNORE!!

 

[DeNiro]

Just now, BPA said:

They better make some upgrades to D.  Pretty sure all posters here were saying that all last summer and nothing happened.

It was Bruce’s fault didn’t you know?

[Odd.]

Leave Heffy alone, guy is upset like many of us are. I’m sure deep down he’s still a Canuck like many of us but he probably just wants nothing to do with Canucks at the moment

 

Think of it like going through a divorce except now your screwing your ex wife’s sister 

[shiznak]

7 minutes ago, RUPERTKBD said:

I think we all know Horvat is gone for sure....maybe Boeser as well. I think we're stuck with Miller and OEL, but you can't have everything.

 

Petey and Hughes are untouchable for me. For the rest of the team, JR should put out a sign that says "Everything Must Go!"

 

This is only the second time I can remember advocating for a tank. The last time was back in 2015, when this kid from the Erie Otters was the consensus 1st overall pick. Instead, we picked up Ryan Miller and Radim Vrbata in the offseason....

If there was a time to tank. It would have been the lockout year (2012). Another first round exit, AV loss the room, Kesler was injured early in the season, and Luongo was not happy being here.

 

Imagine, drafting MacKinnon and then making the Schneider-Horvat trade. Now that is what I call a retool on the fly.

[chon derry]

1 minute ago, Ghostsof1915 said:

At the end of The Hockey Guy's video he was saying the skate would be a regular third jersey next year because they are using the same font. 

I just view it as a cash grab. 

There’s no doubt about it. The timing an attempt to appease whilst capitalizing at the same time. 

[BPA]

1 minute ago, DeNiro said:

It was Bruce’s fault didn’t you know?

Lol.

 

Reminds me of Casey Printers quote: “They wanted me to make Chicken Salad out of chicken sh!t”.  

 

 

[Googlie]

2 hours ago, EddieVedder said:

 

And, Dries should not be anywhere near the top 6,

If Hoagie and Podz put up even 1/2 of Dries' AHL points from last season we'd be thrilled.  35 goals and 27 assists in 54 games

[RUPERTKBD]

8 minutes ago, shiznak said:

If there was a time to tank. It would have been the lockout year (2012). Another first round exit, AV loss the room, Kesler was injured early in the season, and Luongo was not happy being here.

 

Imagine, drafting MacKinnon and then making the Schneider-Horvat trade. Now that is what I call a retool on the fly.

Funny thing was, I wasn't even advocating selling the farm back then. I just didn't want to spend on Free Agents.

 

Eddie Lack wasn't a #1, but I thought would a solid backup (I suggested Al Montoya) he could have 50 or so starts and it wouldn't be a disaster if he had a so-so season. IMO, the addition of Miller (and to a lesser extent Vrbata) made us just good enough to make the playoffs and get embarrassed by the Flames in the first round.

 

Watching Edmonton get McDavid only made it more painful.

[Dr. Crossbar]

1 hour ago, -Vintage Canuck- said:

This is behind a paywall, but I will share the article with you guys since it's a good read:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Spoiler

Bruce Boudreau has been around long enough to know what was coming.

 

When the outside noise was that loud, when insiders were basically announcing that Rick Tocchet was going to be the incoming Canucks coach, when they were even naming Tocchet’s starting date before the outgoing coach had been fired, Boudreau knew it was more than likely true.

 

That’s why Boudreau coached Saturday’s Canucks game against the Oilers like it would be his last. That’s why he welled up after the morning skate the day before. That’s why he looked so beaten down in the third period and so stressed on that coach’s challenge that ultimately overturned an Oilers goal. That’s why he stayed on the bench after the final horn and looked around Rogers Arena with tears in his eyes, saluting the fans who were saluting him.

 

And that’s why he booked a flight home for Monday night with his wife of 28 years, Crystal, a week and a half ago.

 

As part of his contract with the Canucks, Boudreau and his family members receive 10 free plane tickets to and from their home in Hershey, Pa. As the rumblings grew, the Boudreaus booked one-way tickets home. After packing up every morsel of their downtown Vancouver condo the past few days, Bruce and Crystal will board a red-eye for Seattle with a connection to Harrisburg, Pa., through Atlanta.

 

“Better be safe than sorry, I guess,” Boudreau, chuckling, said Monday in an exclusive 45-minute interview with The Athletic on Monday. “We figured we could always change it. Unfortunately, we won’t have to. It’ll be a long day and night of flying, but we’ll be home at noon (Tuesday).”

 

Boudreau did have one pretty big condition for speaking on the record Monday: He wanted to take the high road. He didn’t want to pile on the mountain of criticism the Canucks have received for how this played out.

 

There would be no ripping of Jim Rutherford or Patrik Allvin, no pissing and moaning that he was victimized or humiliated.

 

He made that clear when asked even about the timing of his firing. Instead of just dismissing him after Saturday’s game, Boudreau was left to languish during one more sleepless night and simply told Saturday night to report with the rest of the coaching staff to a meeting with the Canucks’ brass at 9:30 Sunday morning.

 

“I enjoyed my time in Vancouver and am sad to see it end, but there’s no use rehashing everything,” Boudreau said. “I’ll just say it’s been difficult. It was difficult not knowing and thinking you’re gonna get let go and nobody telling you anything. Nobody really had to tell me, but with just the speculation and the noise outside and the reporters asking every day and reading articles about being a lame duck coach and that it was just a matter of time, those were the things that were difficult.

 

“But, I mean, no one had to come right out and say, ‘You’re gonna lose your job,’ or that this was the time you’re going to lose it. I think I’m smart enough to look around me and see what was going on. And so that was the hard part.”

 

But, as Canucks veteran defenseman Luke Schenn said over the weekend, Boudreau did his best to walk into the locker room every day with the same energy and the same upbeat style that has made him so beloved with so many players, media members and fans in all his coaching stops.

 

“The thing that kept driving me was that you’ve got to go to work, do your job, do it the same way and with the same passion every day,” Boudreau said. “And since I’ve always been a dreamer and a believer, I believed that, ‘OK, if we could just sneak it out, something good can happen.’ And so even though in the back of my mind you knew that something was imminent, you never wanted to believe it fully. So you just worked harder and the whole coaching staff worked so hard in trying to maybe figure out that if we could maybe have won four or five in a row or something like that, then maybe the noise would slow down a little bit. But it never happened.”

 

That’s why Boudreau was so proud of his players during that final game Saturday night. They emptied the tank for him in that third period. The Canucks had been successful this season in overtime and shootouts (7-3), so he thought the stars were lining up when the Oilers missed an open net and he was successful during the coach’s challenge to keep the deficit at one. And the Canucks came close to forcing overtime before Edmonton’s empty-netter sealed the deal.

 

“All these things were adding up that I felt this is gonna be a storybook ending. But I guess we ripped out the last few pages,” Boudreau said.

 

Asked about the stress on his face during the third, Boudreau said, “I was pretty sure that it was my last period. Nobody had said anything, but in my heart, I was pretty sure. And then I started thinking that ‘OK, if it’s my last period, is this my last time I’m going to be behind the bench of somewhere that I just love being? Is this the last time I’m going to be in front of 18,000 people trying to win with a group?

 

“It was sort of catching up to me a little bit. This was my 48th year of professional hockey. Sometimes you start to reflect on what are you doing? What’s gonna happen next? And then you’ve still got to stay in the moment because we were only down 3-2. And we were really playing hard in the third period. And I thought we were going to tie it up for sure. So to keep those thoughts away from the other thoughts was a little bit difficult sometimes. Yeah, it was a hard game to coach.”

 

In 103 games, Boudreau’s .549 points percentage (50-40-13) ranks fourth in Canucks history. For coaches with 500 or more regular-season games, his .626 points percentage ranks fourth in NHL history.

 

He felt the Canucks became a “really, really good team” and got the “crowd base into it” by the end of last season. This season was a chore, but he felt the Canucks were making strides until a team that was one win above .500 on Dec. 27 lost 10 of their next 12 games.

 

He’ll never forget the way his tenure came to an end, but he’s looking at the bright side.

 

“Very rarely do coaches in any sport get a chance to say goodbye to their players,” Boudreau said. “I mean, usually you get fired, it’s on a day off or it’s after the game and the players have gone home by then. So for me to be able to walk in there and thank them for what they did for me and the effort they gave was quite an experience to have. And then to see the emotion, I’ve never seen anything like it. All of us, almost all the players and me, were crying in the room. It was crazy. Like, I mean, you’d have to see it to believe it because it’s hard to believe it just saying it.”

 

One high-profile player came into Boudreau’s office and was crying uncontrollably and audibly as he hugged him in front of assistants. On Sunday, Boudreau got a slew of texts from his players, including “the most beautiful text” from sometimes-maligned J.T. Miller.

 

Before his meeting Sunday morning, Boudreau called three of his four children. His son Andy, 33, flew to Vancouver from Calgary to spend the weekend with him. He called 40-year-old Kasey, 36-year-old Ben and 23-year-old Brady just to let them know that it would finally be official soon.

 

“I wanted them to know before everyone else knew,” Boudreau said. “They’ve all been around long enough, whether it’s Crystal or the kids, that they always think when I’m fired that, ‘Dad’s gonna just go somewhere else.’ They hate it when it happens because they’re in my corner all the time, but I’d been warning them.

 

“Like me, they hoped something miraculous would happen to change it.”

 

When Boudreau was fired on Valentine’s Day 2020 by the Wild, he told The Athletic how he was blindsided. He was in the last year of his deal, but when he survived early-season rumors, his radar was down. Then, too, he didn’t know if he’d get another chance to coach again.

 

As it turned out, Boudreau got that chance to coach his 11th hockey team and fourth in the NHL since 1990-91. But now he’s three years older at 68. So while he hopes this isn’t it, he knows it very well could be.

 

“That was one of the reasons behind the bench that I was getting emotional,” Boudreau said. “Like, if you asked me, I’m in better condition to coach now than I was three years ago. That was before I had two replacements of the knees and my body was falling apart. Now I’m fine. And I feel reinvigorated. I had the energy to go out every day, and we were at the office every day between 6 and 6:30, every morning, and would stay to all hours. I don’t want to sit back on the couch and just relax.

 

“I love this. This is what gives you meaning when you get a chance to go to work every day and coach in the National Hockey League. The biggest thing probably is I thought I could communicate well enough with the young player still. I’ve always gotten along well with the players. But the communication, I thought, was really good. With all that being said, if it was ever offered to me again, I would jump at the chance. I’ve been doing it for almost 30 years, and I would do it forever.”

 

In the meantime, Boudreau expects to return to the television screen soon.

 

He’s already been offered an interview on Sportsnet’s “Hockey Night in Canada” this Saturday. He’s already been offered a chance to be on the panel for “TSN TradeCentre” on March 3. He’s already talked to NHL Network about returning to his previous post as a studio analyst. And he’s already done a SiriusXM interview with Gord Stellick and Scott Laughlin and hopes to return to the show once a week soon.

 

Mostly, he wanted to thank the fans in Vancouver who fell for the loveable character and treated him so kindly the past 13 ½ months.

 

“The one thing about coaching in Canada, more than any other place — and this includes Minnesota, as much as I love Minnesota and the people there who watch the game and know the game there, it is like a religion up here,” Boudreau said. “I’ve never experienced anything like it. And I loved it. I loved the fact that everybody knew what you were doing. You either fear it or you embrace it. And I embraced it.

 

“I just loved talking on the street. You go to a restaurant, anything, and people would come up to you and talk hockey. And when you lost, they were displeased and maybe throw the jersey on the ice. But when you won, they were the biggest fans going. If this is the last time, what a great experience.

 

“All coaches should get the opportunity to visit the threshold of being under the microscope of coaching in Canada.”

 

Boudreau said Tocchet, who previously coached in Tampa Bay and Arizona, will learn that quickly.

 

And by the way, Boudreau holds no ill will for Tocchet and wishes him well.

 

Boudreau gets it. Whenever a coach is fired, usually the next coach is waiting in the wings. Heck, when Boudreau took over the Ducks, he was in Anaheim while Randy Carlyle unknowingly was coaching his final game.

 

This is the way it works in pro sports.

 

It’s just not usually as public and as rumored as Tocchet’s arrival was.

 

“Unless it’s an interim taking over, I think anybody that gets fired — anybody — the guy that’s replacing him knows well beforehand because they’ve had to negotiate, they’ve had to do all of these things,” Boudreau said. “With Anaheim, when I got the call, and they flew me out, I mean, the Ducks were playing that night, and (Bob Murray) had to go in and fire Randy after the game. I didn’t feel comfortable with that because Randy is a friend of mine and I played with him. But that’s the business. And whether it was Rick or whether it would have been (Boudreau’s best friend) John Anderson taking my job, it doesn’t really matter. It’s always the same.

 

“So I’m not mad at Rick Tocchet at all. At all. And I hope nobody holds this against him. This is the way it’s done. I mean, this is a great opportunity for him. I think he’ll do great. I mean, this is a hockey town. They just want to win. And he’s got a bunch of passionate players to coach with big, big hearts.”

 

Boudreau certainly learned that during those emotional moments behind closed doors after what actually did turn out to be his last game Saturday night.

 

Damn, that was a great read! Thank you! 

[-Vintage Canuck-]

 

[grandmaster]

[Roberts]

3 minutes ago, -Vintage Canuck- said:

 

The intensity of this practice is insane.

[wai_lai416]

35 minutes ago, Harold Drunken said:

Yeah I know, just felt like disagreeing with you lol. You're not wrong, pretty much everything is broken,,,but for a decent period of time the PP was pretty good. 

i think the PP is decent offensively but they are being too cute with the puck at times and not really defending when it's going the other way.. not just miller but everyone on the ice, and comparing our PP to edmontons.. boy the puck movement is so quick ours look like a bunch of 70-80 year old on ice passing the puck around even if it works haha

[Dazzle]

2 hours ago, CanuckRookieFan said:

Another thing people need to be conscious about is how smart businessmen like Aqua handle finances. As such Aqua didnt want to fire BB too early in the season as every month that passes costs $200k/month in salary. By waiting a few months Aqua saved $400-$600k easily, I am sorry but that is significant money. 

 

The same can be said about buy outs, Aqua wont ever approve buy outs over $1 mill/year. Why? Because a buyout that costs $2-$3/mill per season X years is simply unacceptable to the bottom line of a business, for Canucks where income runs anywhere from $25-$30 mill a year to have 10% of your entire income shaved off on 1 player isnt worth it. Doesnt matter how much that helps the team, there is no way 10% margin cut is ever going to be approved by an organization, no one throws money around like that especially not Aqua. Amazed how little fans care about personal finances or business profits, I would ask that you treat these decisions as a NHL 2023 Team Manager.

CDC thinks 6M dollars (cost of three coaches) is a lot, but buying out 20-30 M is no big deal because he's "rich"