Is Boudreau the answer?
Struggling Canucks hope their new coach can kick-start dismal NHL season
Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini says he may have been “too patient” in waiting for the struggling National Hockey League team to turn its season around.
His patience ran out Sunday as the team cleaned house, firing general manager Jim Benning, assistant manager Jim Weisbrod, head coach Travis Green and assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner.
“These are difficult decisions. These are not easy. I mean, to fire everybody at the same time, that’s a hard thing to do and maybe I was a little bit too patient,” Aquilini said. “I was hoping for a turnaround. We were losing these games by one goal and maybe I was too optimistic, and so we made the change when we made the change.”
The changes followed a dismal start to the season. Vancouver was last in the Pacific Division with an 8-15-2 record before cleaning house.
Stan Smyl, a former Canucks right-winger who was promoted from senior adviser to interim general manager on Sunday, said the moves send the right message to a locker room that was waiting for something to happen.
“Things weren’t working. Was it the decision on the GM? Was it the decision on a coach? We didn’t have all those answers and the players were looking around for answers, and what happens when you get to this point is you start finger pointing,” he said.
“Bottom line, our performance this season hasn’t been good enough. We do have some talented young players and a good core to build around, but we need to be better.”
The search for new hockey operations leadership is underway, Aquilini said, and “everything is on the table,” including potentially hiring both a GM and a president.
Right now, though, he wants to see his team get back winning consistently.
“I know our fans and the media are frustrated and unhappy. But I assure you that no one is more frustrated and unhappy than me and my family,” Aquilini said. “I’m also disappointed and surprised. In the off-season, we believed we’d have a much better team than what we’ve been seeing, that we’d have a better competitive team this year.”
The Canucks replaced Green with Bruce Boudreau, signing the veteran NHL coach to a deal through the 2022-23 season.
The 66-year-old Toronto native has served as head coach for the Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild. He won the Jack Adams Award as the league’s top coach in 2008 when he took over the floundering Capitals and guided them through a bounce-back season.
In Boudreau’s first game behind the bench Monday night, the Canucks came out fired up and shut out the Los Angeles Kings, 4-0, to move into a tie in the standings with the Seattle Kraken.
Aquilini said Smyl suggested Boudreau as a replacement and after some discussions, Aquilini made the coach an offer. “Bruce is a veteran coach, he’s very experienced, his record speaks for itself. He’s had a lot of success in these situations and we just felt that it was the right time,” Aquilini said.
Fired by the Wild in February 2020, Boudreau said he’s been dying to get back behind an NHL bench. The coach said he wants the Canucks to be an aggressive offensive team, but one that’s responsible in its own zone, too.
He recognizes that Vancouver has areas where it needs to improve, but he sees promise in the team’s young stars — even those who have underperformed so far this season.
“As far as I’m concerned, all of these guys have opportunities right now to start over,” he said. “I’m not going to look at somebody and say ‘Geez, you weren’t very good for the first 15 games so you’re not going to get a chance to play.’ It’s ‘This is what you’re supposed to be. Let’s see what you’ve got.’ ”