Bruce Boudreau is a tremendous hockey coach. Nine seasons as an NHL coach and he has eight division titles. He’s been unemployed twice; the first time after being fired by Washington, he was snapped up by Anaheim two days later – a record bounce-back for a fired NHL coach. He’s the fastest coach to 200 wins and has the second-best winning percentage That’s how good a coach he is.
But, and it’s an awfully big but, his playoff experiences have been…lackluster. In his first three years with Washington, he lost a Game 7 at home every year. In all four years he made the playoffs in Anaheim, he lost Game 7 at home, including this year in the first round to Nashville. That’s right: In eight playoff eliminations, seven were at home in a deciding Game 7.
That loss ultimately cost him his job and he was on the market for a week and had two job offers, the second he took on Saturday when the Minnesota Wild hired him.
The situation in Minnesota is going to be far different than his stops in Washington and Anaheim. For starters: Ovechkin, Perry and Getzlaf aren’t walking into the home locker room in St. Paul anytime soon.
Those are just a few of the weapons that Boudreau had at his disposal at his first two coaching stops. There is nothing on the Wild roster or in the pipeline that can match that sort of firepower.
The hope for the Wild has to be that he takes the middling offense that the team has been mired in and turns things around. The Wild had the fewest goals scored of the Western Conference playoff teams this year, and ended the season in a scoring drought as it limped into the playoffs.
Can he help lift what was Minnesota’s best line after Mike Yeo was fired, the third-line trio of Erik Haula, Nino Niederreiter and Jason Pominville? Can he get more out of Zach Parise and help him return to his point-per-game prime from his days in New Jersey?
Can he help any defenseman on the Wild become a more potent offensive threat? Jared Spurgeon and Matt Dumba both hit double-digits in goals this year, but neither would be accused of being Mike Green in his prime for Boudreau in Washington, where he twice was scoring at a point-per-game clip. The defensemen can be more an offensive threat without being a liability in their own zone.
But, and it’s an awfully big but for Wild fans, has been their playoff shortcomings. Yes, the team has made the playoffs four straight years, the best run in it’s short history. But the team has lost to Chicago three of those years (the same Chicago team that Boudreau lost to in Game 7 of the Conference Finals at home in 2015), and a very potent Dallas team this year.
The Wild fans are clamoring for anything resembling success in the post-season from their team. Hiring Boudreau may make their regular seasons more exciting, but it will likely bring more substantial playoff heartache.
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