Boudreau explains how he got Canucks players feeling confident again
When Bruce Boudreau stepped onto the ice for the first time as head coach of the Vancouver Canucks on December 6, he inherited a broken team.
There were good pieces in place, but many of them weren’t performing close to the best of their abilities.
Eight games and later and Boudreau has seemingly done the impossible. Forget about “winning the week,” like the simple goal he set for his players, they’ve secured 17 of a possible 18 points.
With eight wins and a shootout loss in nine games, the Canucks have points in nine straight games for the first time in nearly 10 years.
#Canucks have a 9-game point streak (8-0-1) for the first time in nearly 10 years.
They went 10-0-3 from Jan 17 to Feb 19, 2012, when they were a Presidents' Trophy winning team.
— Rob Williams (@RobTheHockeyGuy) January 2, 2022
So how did he do it?
Appearing on today’s episode of The Ray and Dregs Hockey Podcast, from Vancouver media platform GoGoat Sports, Boudreau said he used the “same formula” that he had when he took over the Washington Capitals and the Anaheim Ducks.
When Boudreau took over the Capitals in 2007, Washington was 6-14-1. In Anaheim, the Ducks were 7-13-5 when he stepped behind the bench in 2011.
Vancouver was 8-15-2 when Boudreau took over as Canucks coach.
“I just used the same formula as when I went into Washington and when I went into Anaheim. Both were last place clubs at the time,” Boudreau told hosts Ray Ferraro and Darren Dreger.
“I think the biggest thing they needed was confidence. There’s some really good pieces to the team… [The players] were really low. The first day I came in, I just told them how good I thought they were. And that they were good. And I got the video coaches to go over positive stuff, and positive thinking, to do that. And then you’re lucky enough first game you win (4-0 against the Los Angeles Kings on December 6) and you come in after and say ‘I told you, you’re good, you’re a good team. Keep that up.'”
The Canucks have kept it up, despite a depleted defence. Stellar goaltending from Thatcher Demko has helped, but so has the resurgence of many of the Canucks’ best players.
That describes Brock Boeser more than anyone, as the Canucks sniper has seven points in six games under Boudreau. Boeser’s five goals under Boudreau are more than he scored in 22 games under Travis Green this season.
The Canucks’ top 10 scorers under Boudreau (NHL.com)
While everyone’s still waiting for Elias Pettersson to get back to playing at the level he’s used to, the Swedish star does have four of his seven even strength points under Boudreau.
“Belief, I think, is the biggest form of confidence,” Boudreau added. “If you believe you can do it, you have a chance at being able to do it. If you don’t believe you can do it, you’re never going to do it.”
Despite the incredible streak, there’s still a lot of work left to be done if the Canucks want to make the playoffs this season.
Vancouver has the 13th-best points percentage in the Western Conference, needing to leapfrog four teams to snag the final playoff spot. But they trail the Oilers by just three points for the final wild card spot, with Edmonton holding a game in hand.
Boudreau recognizes that his team’s schedule is about to get a lot more difficult after Saturday’s game against the Ottawa Senators. In a 10-day stretch the Canucks will play Florida (twice), Tampa Bay, Carolina, Washington, Nashville, and Florida. Nashville is the only one of those teams that’s not ranked top six in the NHL in points percentage right now, and the Predators are still 20-11-2.
“The proof will be in the pudding whether we’ve gotten it all back together or not by the end of next week… if we can come out of those eight games with a .500 record or better, I think we’ve got a shot at the playoffs.”
Boudreau’s keeping things in perspective. He knows that tougher days are ahead, particularly under the microscope of a Canadian market.
“It’s been a real good honeymoon, but it’s gonna happen. Those are the days where I gotta… not let [the players] get down to the place that they were a month ago. That’s going to be the difficult thing. You prepare for it, you hope it never happens, but it inevitably happens to every team. So you just gotta ride the winning ways as long as you can.”
Bruce, there it is
Boudreau has repeatedly said he doesn’t like the “Bruce there it is” chant that seems to bring so much joy to everyone else.
Answering a question from Ferraro about the song, he explained why he doesn’t like it.
“It’s fun, I guess, but I don’t like it because it makes it more about the coach, and it’s gotta be about the players. Everything’s gotta be about the players,” Boudreau said.
“I try not to react at all when you hear it. But you know, fans will be fans. I guess as long as they’re doing it, it means that we’re winning. So I mean, I’ll take it. I downplay it again because I don’t want this at all to be about me, it’s all about the guys doing the work.”
Fans have also had fun with Boudreau’s videos on Cameo, where the Canucks head coach will record a personalized message for $64 CAD.
Canucks fans absolutely loved the video that made the rounds on social media on Christmas, when Boudreau said: “Let’s kick some ass in 2022. We’re just starting to get going. 6-0 might be okay but 10-0 is better and the more we win, the quicker we jump up in the standings, and that’s what we want to do.”
Boudreau said he agreed to join Cameo when he was out of work, but now that he’s with the Canucks, he needs to be a little more careful with what message he sends.
“Now when people are asking me, I gotta go ‘okay I can’t swear… I’ve got to be prim and proper’ because I forget that they can just retweet this stuff anywhere. I just pretty much wish them happy birthday, merry Christmas and happy new year… When I look at myself doing this I’m talking like Don Cherry now. I gotta stop that as well.”
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